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Is Your Strategy on Hold?

May 17, 2012 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

More people get hung up on implementing their strategy than at any other stage in changing directions. It’s the moment of truth, the point at which we move past talking and planning into actually doing.  We should be able to move ahead when we have a clear direction, but sometimes our progress gets blocked.

Common Blocks to Change

Here are the top most common blocks to change: 

  • Fear – can you commit with confidence to making the changes you want?
  • Money – do you have the financial resources to support yourself while you make changes?
  • Being overwhelmed – can you organize, coordinate and manage the many elements of your daily life along with changes in your life?
  • Self- Doubt – do you believe you can maintain a confident, positive attitude?
  • Time –do you have the time to devote to the activities you need to undertake to effect change?
  • Energy – do you have the energy to carry on and institute the changes you want make?
  • Confusion – do you have a clear vision as to where you want to go next?
  • Discounting – are you able to remove negative and harmful elements from your life that take you off track?
  • Support – do you have the support of family, friends and colleagues?

These blocks plague us all from time to time and can usually be overcome. But for some they become major blocks to action.

Procrastination

Often procrastination is one of the underlying causes that turn common problems into major roadblocks. We put off taking action on what we know we want do, but usually we don’t know why we keep procrastinating. To get past our inaction, we have to track down the cause. Here are some typical reasons people procrastinate:

  • Fear – whether it’s fear of success, failure, or change, when we’re afraid to act, we procrastinate. Determining if the fear is realistic, and how we could handle things if our worst fears came true, can free us to take action.
  • Perfectionism – if our standards are unrealistic, we are likely to put off what we doubt can be accomplished. Think performance, not perfection and set reasonable standards.
  • Overwhelming Tasks – we need to break our goals down into shorter milestones that we can carry out successfully.
  • Unpleasant Tasks – change takes effort and sometimes that effort involves doing things we don’t enjoy.  We have to focus on the outcome and how good we’re going to feel once we’ve made the changes that we’re seeking.
  • Creating Pressure to Perform – some people are motivated by crisis and pressure and procrastinate until the last minute. Motivating ourselves to meet mini-deadlines at a reasonable pace is far less stressful than doing it all in one last-ditch effort.
  • Waiting for the right moment – usually there is no “right moment.” If we tell ourselves we can’t get started until something else has happened, it probably won’t happen. Now is not only the right moment, it’s the only moment. Tomorrow has a way of never coming, so we must start today.
  • A Red Flag – sometimes procrastination is a signal that what we thought we wanted to do is not the right thing to do after all. We may need to reassess our plans.

Is procrastination holding you back?  If you are avoiding important tasks, identify what you’re doing instead, and cut off your escape routes so you can discover why you’re stuck and get your show on the road.

If you think we can help, we offer counseling.

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Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.

Filed Under: Counseling Tagged With: being overwhelmed, blocks to change, change, discounting, fear, lack of support, money, Pressure to Perform, procrastination, self- doubt, strategy, time energy confusion

Mad Max Revisited

August 14, 2011 by Paul Edwards 2 Comments

Two years ago we wrote about our take on a future that would resemble the world of Mad Max. For those of you unfamiliar with the movie on which this scenario is based, it’s a fantasized snapshot of a future characterized by violence, fear, and brutality. In such a world, the three priorities in life will be food, guns, and ammo.

At the time, this was not our view of how we need to think about or plan for the future. Our reasons were:

We said: You can’t build a wall high enough or have a gun big enough to withstand the kind of weaponry too readily available today. If we want a secure future, our best bet is being part of a sustainable community of people who work together to support each another in providing for our basic needs and well-being, including physical security.

Update: We still hold this view and have working in Let’s Live Local to achieve it.

We said: In a Mad Max world, to defend against nations and terrorists who bear grievances or perceive gains by vanquishing America … it is doubtful the population could produce enough wealth and resources to support such a military.

Update: The current concern about the size of the U.S. debt. A recent article in the Economist portrays debt in many nations of the world.

We said: Do we want to risk the emergence of a Mad Max world?

Update: Events indicate it is happening:

Flash Mob Robberies
Stealing copper piping
Foraging for food in public parks
Dumpster Diving
Rioting in London

Finally we asked “shall we begin now to build resilient local communities based on renewable energies that will enable us to adapt to a declining amount of cheap fossil fuel? For myself, the latter is my choice. In part, because surviving in the social order or disorder of a Mad Max world would not allow me to be the kind of person I am willing to be.

Update: We still hold this view.

Comments on the substance of the blogs are welcome. If you have other questions, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.

Filed Under: The Future Tagged With: brutality, dumpster diving, fear, Flash Mob Robberies, flash mobs, foraging for food, Let;s Live Local, Mad Max, Mad Max future, resilient community, rioting, sustainable community, U.S. debt, violence

About Me

Paul with his wife, Sarah Edwards, are award-winning authors of 17 books with over 2,000,000 books in print.

Paul provides local marketing consulting through the Small Business Development Center. He is co-founder of a new website: DigitalDocumentPros.com.

Prior to becoming an author, I practiced law, served as CEO of a non-profit, and operated a public affairs consulting practice. [Read more...]

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