When we begin to get interested in making a change in our lives why does it seem like we never make any progress?

Starting any new behavior or habit has its challenges; but when we begin to think about the new habit as too big of a challenge we defeat ourselves before we get started.

Constantly thinking about the process or the steps necessary to make the change causes us to make up excuses as to why we will not complete the task or challenge.

The late Dr. Wayne Dyer phrased it this way:

You create your thoughts,

Your thoughts create your intentions; and

Your intentions create your reality

Are You Interested or Committed?

When we are interested we do what is convenient or easy.  The thing we are interested in is not a priority to us.  However, when we are committed we will do whatever it takes to bring about change – there is an urgency.

An urgency, for example, is receiving a prediabetes diagnosis with the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes unless you change your eating habits.

Some of the things we say to ourselves when we are interested are:

“There is no time to go to the gym”

“I eat fast food because it is convenient and close to my job”

“Because of my past experiences I’m afraid to commit to any relationship.”

Convincing ourselves we will fail because someone else attempted to take the same action and failed is a major indication that we are only interested in a thing.

Never taking action or remaining stagnated is a byproduct of only being interested and not committed.

The truth is, fear is a leech and actively sucks our dreams and ambitions away causing us to never experience the good that the future has in store for us.

As we adapt to our environments we become comfortable going through life on auto-pilot knowing what our outcomes will be or knowing our destinations – this is safe and feels familiar.

How To Make Progress

We will make progress when we deactivate the auto-pilot feature that we have encoded in our mind and actively direct our lives onto the new path.

Forgetting past failures or identifying those failures to make sure we don’t repeat them, is a prerequisite for taking on new habits or making any change for the better.

Evaluating where we are at the moment and keeping our thoughts in check will help us tailor our plans for growth and success.

Blocking out outside noise and negativity, all the while encouraging ourselves will help to propel us forward.

Venturing into the unknown is no easy task and so we must be patient with ourselves.

Similar to our muscles which require resistance to grow, the resistance we experience when beginning any new thing will only make us bigger and stronger.

The more we enter into the unknown the easier it will become to take control of our destiny.