How to Get Out of Your Own Way: 6 Ways to Give Yourself Some Much-Needed Tough Love to Accomplish Your Goals

Whether you’re looking to make a big life change, accomplish a difficult task, or simply be better and do better in your everyday life, a lot of us can get in our way. We’ll have doubts, slow ourselves up, blame others along the way, or give up on the path to accomplishing the next great thing in our lives.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though.

No matter what you’re trying to achieve – weight loss, a new job, going back to school, a big move – it’s not going to be easy. It’s probably going to be really, really hard. But if you can get out of your own way, you’ll be able to accomplish anything you put your mind to.

1. Be proactive

As many of us know and have learned (perhaps the hard way), is that many things aren’t handed to us…we have to work for them. And we have to work hard. That means going above and beyond: fulfilling the status quo in many situations is never going to help you move forward.

Being proactive, however, and going above and beyond will help you accomplish your goal.

2. Take baby steps

Often, life changes or big goals in our life can seem daunting. The step it takes between here and “there” can seem overwhelming, to say the least.

So take small steps: ask yourself what you can do today or this week to help take a small step toward your goal. Maybe it’s making it to the gym twice this week, in your effort to lose weight. Or perhaps it’s applying to 5 new jobs, in the hopes of a career change. You might want to gather up all the documents you need and choose 5 schools to apply to this week if you’re looking to go back to school.

As a big proponent of list making, making a list of all the small steps you need to take to accomplish your goal is an efficient way to feel a little less stressed about the process ahead.

3. Stop making excuses

You may tell yourself you don’t have the money to go back to school. (So go get scholarships.)

You may tell yourself you won’t have the time to work harder for that big promotion. (So stop complaining and don’t work hard – and also don’t get the promotion; or simply make the time.)

You may tell yourself you’re simply too stressed out to take anything else on. (Find a way to destress.)

The fact is: for every excuse there’s a way to problem-solve it. So stop making excuses; they’re like setting up road blocks to your own success on purpose.

4. Say “yes” to new opportunities

I’ve often found that saying “no” to possible opportunities is a sure fire way to not get very far.

There’s a caveat to that rule though: never say “yes” to something when it’s going to stress you out. I find a lot of friends and family never say no and overwhelm themselves easily.

In this case, I’m talking about saying “yes” to new possibilities and opportunities – not to stressful or overwhelming favors.

5. Get rid of the distractions

In 2015, we’re all inundated with so many distractions; forget the regular distractions of kids, pets, school, traffic, phone calls…let’s add TV, email, social media, and goodness knows what other kind of technology.

When you’re looking to focus and get things done in order to accomplish a goal, make sure you get out of your own way by limiting these distractions.

For some of us that means going into a room, shutting the door, turning off your phone, and ignoring your email while you conquer something on that little to-do list of yours (see #2).

6. Stay positive

Last, but certainly not least, is to keep a negative attitude at bay. My Dad always told me, “attitude is 90% of whatever you’re doing.” And it’s true!

No matter what your goal, it’ll easy to get down about it when things aren’t going your way. And chances are, things will not go your way more than once. In the mean time, do what you can to stay positive. Even when things get tough, a positive attitude will always help you through better than a negative one.