Most of us, at some time or another, impose mental obstacles and limitations upon ourselves. We often unwittingly build mental obstacles and then find them too difficult to push past in order to achieve our goals or realise our dreams. We let fear, self-doubt and emotion take over and unless we learn to work through them or around them they become impassable and we become stuck. Sometimes not trying becomes comfortable and the easy option, but if we don’t try to push through we leave dreams unrealised and our lives unfulfilled.
There are no easy shortcuts but here are three quick tips that might work for you in pushing past these past mental obstacles to achieve your success.
1. Answer this one question – what’s the worst that can happen?
Often a mental obstacle is a fear – a fear of failure or a fear of what someone else might think or say – but you magnify the loss in your own mind when in fact the loss or outcome is not that bad after all, especially with the perspective of time. What will the outcome be in a week or a month or a year? Almost always the worst that can happen doesn’t anywhere near justify having the mental obstacle in place to stop you trying to do what you want to do.
2. Adopt a mantra and get started
To push through mental obstacles you need willpower and you need to start somewhere. This ‘somewhere’ could be a mantra which is a word or a phrase that inspires you and makes you passionate about what you’re seeking to do or be. In this case its an inspirational message that can help you push past your limitations and obstacles. It’s a call to action and gets you started. This mantra could be “I can do it” or “I play to win” or “It’s my time now” or even some motivating music. It’s your choice and it’s your cue for courage and a massive mental effort.
3. Visualise pushing through and achieving your goal
Visualisation is a powerful technique to use to reach your next goal. By imagining achieving your goal, what it would feel like and working through the process of getting there including confronting and beating your mental obstacle will give you confidence and belief that you can. This visualisation removes the unknown and joins the dots from here and now to where you want to go – you also imagine removing the obstacle from your mind like a piece of furniture from your house. If you visualise the process without the obstacle, often enough it will melt away.
I recently read a poem by Egyptian writer Yosr El Dakhs that included the following:
“It’s better to cross the line and suffer the consequences than to just stare at the line for the rest of your life”
which I thought was inspiring and quite possibly tip number 4.
These tips don’t work for everyone but they might work for you.
Original Post from Mental Toughness Partners
