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Stop sabotaging yourself

Stop sabotaging yourself

Yeah, that’s a message to me.

When it comes to income-producing things, I have a tendency to sabotage myself. I get all caught up on things and have plenty of time to work on our startup business, and what do I do instead? I go watch a movie or read a book. Pretty much anything except work on the business so that I can potentially increase my income.

In fact, I generally continue doing those kinds of things until I fall behind with even normal, every day things (like writing articles for this site or dealing with the stack of papers that magically accumulates on my desk).

The next stage is for me to spend another day or two feeling slightly guilty about being behind, but not actually doing anything about that feeling. In fact I seem to settle into a state of malaise. I just don’t feel like doing anything, so I don’t.

Then I suddenly wake up with the realization that I can’t put the every day things off any longer, so I really buckle down and get all caught up again. Rinse, repeat.

It’s easy to slip into a state like this if you’re afraid of facing something. Maybe you don’t want to know how much you’ve spent on Christmas. Maybe you dread opening a bill. Maybe you’re afraid (like me) of, gasp, actually DOING the thing you say you want to do.

Self-sabotage can be costly. I’m going to be reminding myself that it doesn’t MATTER whether I feel like doing it or not. I don’t have to feel like doing it; I just have to do it. Even if it’s just for 5 minutes a day. Five minutes a day will eventually get the job done. (And probably once I actually get started each day, I’ll spend more than 5 minutes on the project anyway.)

It just goes to show that personal finance can really be an emotional thing. Do you have any tricks for avoiding self-sabotage or procrastination?

View Comments (3)
  • I thought I was the master of self-sabotage, but I’m glad I’m not alone. I find part of my problem is that I’m afraid of being successful – successful in weight loss, successful in my financial goals. Not of achieving my goals, but what happens when I get there? Then what? I can’t seem to find the answer, and it scares me because I don’t know what to expect when I get there. I hate the unknown….

  • I think when you get there, you’ll either enjoy, relax, or set another goal. Or maybe some combination of those…

  • I have this problem when it comes to prospecting for clients. Hard thing to overcome, especially when you know it’s going to mean lots of rejection.

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