Are You Working Against Yourself?

There are many things that can interfere with your ability to give your best to whatever you are going.  Sometimes we are tired, sometimes we just have too many other activities getting in the way, and sometimes we just get lazy. These distractions come and go. The one persistent problem that can get in your way is thinking.

Now, I don’t mean critical thinking where you truly assess what you are doing, how you are doing it, and make adjustments accordingly. I am talking about what is sometimes called “stinking thinking.” Stinking thinking is the idea that you are thinking too much about the bad and not concentrating enough on the good. All of us fall prey to stinking thinking as some point, no matter what career or activities we pursue. However, when stinking thinking invades our thoughts several times a day, we are working against ourselves.

Many of us were raised by parents who spent a lot of time worrying. They worried about everything: money, their spouse, their kids, even what they were going to have for dinner tonight. They spent so much time worry that they sometimes forgot to look at what was going well. Unfortunately, many of us picked up our parents bad habits.

How do you combat stinking thinking? Probably the most important thing is to have a plan. If you have trouble coming up with a plan yourself, work with someone, a mentor or a friend, to come up with a plan. Second, stick to the plan. If you have a goal in mind and way to get there, you are much less likely to get off track and start falling prey to self-doubt.

Don’t forget to look at what is going well. If you have gotten off track a little or things are going exactly as you planned, you are undoubtedly doing something right. As long as you are still working toward the goal and moving forward, then you are heading in the right direction. If you start worrying excessively about the fact that things have not gone exactly as planned, you can actually cause things to go even more off track. Again, don’t work against yourself. If you feel discouraged, go back to the person you worked with on the plan. Talk out what is going on and how you might change things. You might be surprised to find that you are doing everything right it is just taking more time than originally planned. Or you may find that you need to adjust something a little bit.

The ability to stay on track and stay positive takes discipline and practice. The effort is well worth it when your business thrives and you achieve success.