Drag Your Feet
What do you want to get out of your life? We all have goals to reach, tasks to accomplish, and things to do. If they were easy, we would all have these desired things. Truth be told, it’s not easy, and many things require constant work. A clean house requires constant cleaning, a healthy body requires a consistent healthy lifestyle. We are really good at tackling these head on when we are motivated. We might be able to keep that fire burning for a few weeks or even months. Still, a few months of being healthy will not give you a healthy life. Where are we left when we’ve lost our drive? What do we do when the flame has burnt out?
Drag Your Feet: Hard Truth
You will not always be motivated. Motivation is fleeting. We love to accomplish things when we have that burning passionate fire within us that fuels our actions, and drives us straight to success. However, I’d like to encourage you to think about the goals you have achieved in life- big or small, and ask yourself, “What got me there?” You’ll find it was not the motivation itself, but the action steps you took to make it happen.
Certainly motivation helps, in fact to an extent, it’s vital, but what do you do when it’s not there? DRAG YOUR FEET. Whether you do it with intensity or unenthusiastically, if you go hard or take it easy, whether you have full pep in your step or you’re just dragging your feet, you are moving forward, and it is by moving forward and by moving forward only, that goals are truly achieved.
Successful People
Goals, achievements, and self-betterment happen through work; it’s not in the planning process, it’s not in the energy, the motivation, or the circumstances. What separates the successful person from the unsuccessful person? Successful people DO the things that make them move forward toward their goals. If you have moved even an inch closer to your goal, you have succeeded. We might die before fully reaching all of our goals, and we should, because if we die having all of our goals met, then we have failed at creating new ones or decided we no longer need to improve on anything. Therefore, goals being met cannot define success, but rather the advancement and progress towards your goals as well as personal improvement.
Give What You've Got
You can be passionate about achieving a certain objective, without being passionate about what it takes to get there. It is worth allowing yourself to accept that, while still doing the necessary tasks without the excitement. Whatever it is that you are trying to get better at, you do not always have to have your head in it. In fact, sometimes you are completely spaced out, mindlessly doing the actions needed to be done.
Your head is not in it, your body is not in it, but you are doing it. Not everyday at work are you all in, but you are still doing what it takes to do the job well. Not everyday do you pull out the workout mat or roll up to the gym about to crush your personal record, but you are still moving your body. Not everyday do you make dinner with that secret ingredient: love.
Many days you are just doing it, but not only did you do it, you persevered. You overcame the temptation to take the easy route of not doing it at all. That day, you still went to work. That day you still worked out. That day your family still got fed, and that all matters. That day you were successful. Go you; be proud of that. As a good friend told me, you give what is in the tank that day. If there are only drops of fuel in that tank, and you use them up to get closer to achieving your best life, you are living an incredible and successful life. Do what it takes and give what you’ve got. Make yourself proud.
All or Nothing
This mindset of “All or Nothing” can be a powerful tool. However, oftentimes this mindset can be damaging to our sense of pride and ability to reach our goals. If you are trying not to eat sugar, but indulge in a cupcake, it’s easy to say, “Well, now I’ve done it. I already ruined my chance at a healthy day, so I guess I’ll eat bad today and try again tomorrow.” Another example is if I were to only work out when I feel like I can give it my all, I would rarely ever exercise. In short, this mindset suggests that if we can’t do it all or give our all, the alternative is nothing, and as we know, nothing gets us nowhere.
If we think we may fail, we do not want to start. If we think we can do it, but then don’t do it perfectly, we are apt to want to quit. The root of this issue lies in our nature to thrive on our own success and contrarily, continue in a downward spiral of defeat. When you took a bite of that cupcake, you got the gratification of a delicious treat followed by an immediate feeling of defeat of not being able to maintain your goal of not eating sugar. That feeling of defeat begins to create a snowball effect of more poor choices, because that defeat bruised your ego and lowered your sense of ability to maintain sugarless.
Nevertheless, the opposite is true. If you did your morning workout, you’ll be more likely to eat a salad for lunch and drink water instead of pop. This is because we thrive on our own success. It makes us feel good. When we feel good, we make better choices and want to continue to do things that make us feel good. Thus, the snowball effect of good choices continues- until we slip up.
With the all or nothing mindset, you are not allowed to slip up, fall short of your goal, sin, or make any mistake without being a complete and total failure. It says “You lose and have to start over at ground zero.” Starting over again is hard. In fact, it’s typically the most challenging part of accomplishing anything. With the all or nothing mindset, you either quit or keep starting over. (Which eventually leads to quitting)
We must train our minds to believe that not everything needs to be all or nothing. We must be able to fall, make mistakes, and be human without thinking we have lost it all. The goals are still worth pursuing; you do not need to quit. You do not need to start all over, but simply pick up where you left off. It is okay to do that. Allow yourself grace, so you can keep moving forward without your brain incapacitating your ability to flourish.
How to Make Dragging Your Feet Easier
Dragging your feet is hard, because to drag your feet still requires movement and discipline. It’s not easy, but it can be done. It absolutely must be done if you want to acquire the wisdom, the healthy body, the intelligence, the skill, and/or the life you are wanting to live. Seeing that the drive and motivation is not always there, I have compiled a short list of things you can do to help get you going even when your heart’s not in it.
1.) Know Your Reason
This is a vital part to staying disciplined, because without your reason, there is no purpose to what you are trying to accomplish. You need to be personally connected to your goal, and have a deep rooted reason to achieve it. Deep roots are what keep you grounded. This is the most important aspect to getting started in anything you do in life.
Sometimes we make goals without giving much thought as to why we want it. Next time you make a goal for yourself, think about your reasons. If you want to succeed, make them for YOU. They should not rely on outward validation or they will not last. Having an inward reason results in outward action. That is where you will find consistency and true determination.
2.) Find Your Motivation
This sounds like it doesn’t belong, because these are supposed to be tips for when you DON’T have motivation. However, motivation is paramount in achieving goals. So, my advice when you do not have motivation: FIND IT. Search for it. It can come in many forms: Mantras, tracked progress, written goals that are posted where you can see them everyday, etc. Do what you need to do to fuel that fire. There are still days you need to drag your feet, but finding your motivation will help you take that step.
3.) Clear The Path
Remove things that are getting in the way and preventing you from doing what you need to do. If you are trying to repair or improve your marriage, have someone watch the kids once a week so you can have a better environment to do that. If your goal is to have the house clean by Friday, hide your toddlers legos until Saturday. Prepare the path you are trying to walk down so when you get to it, you are able to stroll instead of stumble and stagger.
4.) Formulate An Action Plan
Figure out what it takes. Sit down, make a plan, and divide it up into tangible action steps. If you get to the gym, and then have to plan out what you are going to do there, it will be that much harder to work out. This is because your workload increases from simply doing the workout, to having to plan AND do the workout. Another common goal is to save money. If you want to save money, make yourself a budget, and work within that budget. You do not want to get to the check out and then decide if everything you put in the cart is worth it or fits with your goal. When you get to the checkout, you want to be able to pay and leave, already knowing how it will fit in the budget.
If you are already dragging your feet to get something done, simplify it for yourself so when the time comes, you just have to do it. No extra work needed. We are going to be moving forward smarter not harder, my friends. Let’s make the plan so we can get it done.
5.) Show Up and Start
Remember that natural instinct to continue our success and thrive on our achievements? Well, let’s get that snowball rolling. Even if you are doubtful, even when you are afraid, even if you know you won’t be able to give it your all, start. Wherever you are physically or mentally, just start.
Sometimes all I have the strength to do is pull out my workout mat and press play on the YouTube workout video. That’s all I do. And all of a sudden, I am following the lady along. All of a sudden, I am picking up the weights. Before I know it, the whole workout is over. My head was not in it. I was checked out the whole time. But I finished a workout, and all I did was pull out the mat and press play.
Show up to the office, and you end up doing your job- whether you wanted to or not. You want the kitchen clean? Start the dishes. Obviously if you do the dishes, you have to wipe down the counters. (Okay, that one isn’t so obvious for my husband) But, when you wipe down the counters, the crumbs fall on the floor so now you find yourself sweeping. Before you know it, the kitchen is clean, the workout is over, the next step is completed. You have done it. You did it.
An object in motion stays in motion. So, show up and just start. Ride the wave, and let the momentum carry you.
6.) Prepare
Preparing your body for the task ahead of you is important. This is in regards to the body physically, mentally, and spiritually. This may require things like attaining new skills, fueling your body properly, dealing with your issues that prevent you from moving forward, etc.
If your goal is to build a house, you’ll be more successful if you put some time into learning how to build a house first. If your goal is to create a healthy relationship, face your past head on and work through the issues keeping you from doing that.
Sometimes you need to help your physical body to be able to do what you need it to do, too. If you are wanting to sleep better, taking melatonin might be a good option for you. Another example is if you want to improve your focus, eating proper foods, and maintaining a healthy diet can help with that. If you want to be able to maximize your workouts, but can only do them early in the morning when you have no energy, try a preworkout drink. If you are trying to manage a medical condition, continue taking your medication. I could go on and on.
Tear down the road blocks that are preventing you from moving forward. Prepare your mind and body to reach the objective, and give yourself the best chance at being successful.
7.) Lower Your Standards
Normally, I would not recommend this. I prefer that you always strive to do and be better. However, on the small scale, lowering your standards can be what you need to do in order to take that first step. We tend to overwhelm ourselves with the big picture goal. Not only do we need to break the goal down into steps, but we need to break down the steps into manageable pieces. If the goal is to build a house, and the first step is learn how to build a house, you will have a hard time getting yourself to learn to build a house. Why? Because, that is a lot to learn. There is SO much to building a house, and with our inclination towards the all or nothing mindset, “nothing” will be chosen most of the time.
You do not need to complete a full step in one setting. That being said, you do need to move forward. Lower your standards by breaking down the steps. When you sit down to learn how to build a house, start by learning how to set the foundation. If that is all you learn, you have moved forward. You didn’t lose because you didn’t learn to build the whole house. You improved and made progress so that tomorrow you can learn how to frame.
Next time you get to a big task, tell yourself you’ll do a part of it instead of all of it. You’re more likely to start if you go into it planning to only do so much. If you do more, that’s great. If you only do the little bit you said you would do, you are still staying true to yourself in doing what you set out to do. You still make progress toward achieving your goal, and you are better because of it.
You are responsible for achieving your goals. Your participation and movement is essential to making it happen. So, make it happen. Do what you need to do to make it happen. You know what those things are for yourself. If you don’t know, sit down and think about it until you do. Your life depends on it, and there should be a sense of urgency. Nobody looks back at their life and thinks, “ Wow, that went by so slow. “ Your life is moving, so move with it. Show up and start. Even if you have to drag your feet.
Were You Inspired?
If you loved this post, I would LOVE if you shared this with a friend!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments or other ways to help make dragging your feet easier!
As always you can find me on instagram or you join our Fiercely Flourish Community Page on Facebook!
Can’t wait to get more to you next week!