What’s Holding You Back?

It’s not a new question. It’s been asked thousands of times throughout history, but probably never as much as now in our success-driven culture. And most of us agree on the answer: we are our own worst enemy. We all know we should put more effort into what we are doing.  Push ourselves just a bit more.

So, what stops us? The list is endless. Many valid reasons exist with regards as to why we aren’t fulfilling our dreams. Daily life requires effort—a lot of effort! Sometimes we feel as though we have nothing else to give. Circumstances beyond our control prevent us from achieving our goals at times. I don’t want to make light of anyone’s difficulties. Life on planet Earth is hard and at times seemingly impossible.

I’m not a preacher of “name it and claim it.”

However, let’s not let our “explanations become excuses” (thanks, Mom, for that bit of wisdom).

Sometimes fear causes us to pause. Pausing is good. We should consider our actions first. However, fear can paralyze us into inaction which causes us to lose valuable time.

The late Susan Jeffers, Ph. D. encourages us in her  classic book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway to take action in spite of fear.

What we often need is courage. In  The 5 Second Rule: The Fastest Way to Change Your Life Mel Robbins simply defines courage as “the ability to do things that feel difficult, scary, or uncertain.” She further clarifies that courage is inside all of us waiting to be discovered.  The book motivates and inspires with accounts of individuals who learned to use the 5 second rule to push past fear and walk in courage to change their lives.

Often, we look at our big goals and give up before we even get started. The mountain seems too tall to climb. Author Sam Parker points out in his book, 212 the Extra Degree, there is only one degree difference between hot water and boiling water, but that difference creates steam, and steam powers massive machines. With one extra degree of heat, you can accomplish so much! In the Olympics, it is often a fraction of a second that separates those on the podium from the rest.

So, what if?

What if today I got up 15 minutes earlier?

What if I walked around the block once?

What if I invested 10 minutes to read a book?

What if I made that scary call?

Don’t be stuck asking that question.

Take advice from Nike: Just Do It!

This article was first published on https://xtremestaffinginc.solutions/