Do what you don’t want to do

I learned a trick in life, and that is to do what you don’t want to do. Picture this: you wake up one morning and its time to go to the gym. You look outside and saw that it is raining hard. The air is cool and you want to go back to sleep. Finally you decide that you don’t feel like going out right now and you will just go tomorrow. Sounds familiar?

What you don’t want to do

We all experience times when we plan to do something but a minor inconvenience happens and we suddenly feel like no longer doing it. Oftentimes not doing the things we plan does not affect our life significantly. But it may influence how we view obstacles in the future.

As we discussed in the Consistency Beats Intensity philosophy, success is not a random event or just “luck”. Instead it is the result of small, deliberate actions that compound over time. These small, deliberate actions are what we experience every day. Our decision on how we deal with these events will determine our future no matter how insignificant they may seem today.

Excuse as the default

I believe that if you don’t feel like doing a task, that is just what your default mind tells you. Have you thought that the same feeling might the universe’s signal that it needs to be done and it is important?

It is natural for us to be lazy and want to exert the least amount of effort to go through the day. However, if we always follow that natural instinct, then we will also reap the default rewards for our actions. If we want to be successful (no matter what your definition is), you need to fight that natural urge to procrastinate and instead push forward in the task.

Dealing with excuses

One habit that I do is to try to catch myself once I start having these thoughts.

• “I don’t feel like going to the gym today because of X excuse (weather is gloomy, my back is aching a bit, I have a little bit of a headache).”  – I spend extra effort to make sure I go to they gym even if its later than usual.
• “Tomorrow will be the day that I write. Today I have a writer’s block and I can’t think of any ideas!” – Opening up my editor and trying to write a single sentence, whatever is floating on my mind, helps a lot. I often find that this single sentence is the catalyst to get me to write several paragraphs in one sitting!
• “How can I love this person when he/she did something bad to me?” – I try to gather up forgiveness in my heart and focus on the good things about the person rather than the bad ones.

The more you feel fear, apathy, or if you hesitate to do something, more likely than not it is something that is worth doing. The more you think up of excuses not to do something, the more you should be wary and doubt yourself why you are having these thoughts. Then you think of ways to do it by action instead of focusing on the excuses.

Obstacles are to be expected. The beauty of life happens when we overcome (or try to overcome) these obstacles.

Photo by Anastasia Yılmaz on Unsplash