Why are we not fulfilling our plans and what does excessive optimism have to do with it?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

There are many things that we really want to do, but something always gets in the way: lack of determination, motivation, willpower, or something else. This article is dedicated to all those who at least once planned to start a new life on Monday, but for some reason could not.

We all know this suspended state: here we are going to start going to the gym from Monday, here we promise ourselves that this year we will definitely start learning a foreign language, so we are going to buy an e-book to read more …, and as a result, we do not do anything from our plans.

We hope to educate ourselves, learn to play some musical instrument, make something with our own hands, and then we just give up. We had such ambitions, such grandiose intentions, such an internal incentive to finally start doing something that we could not get at for so long. But then something went wrong, and all our plans remained unfulfilled. Once again, we fell short of our own expectations.

Why does this happen? What's going on with us? There are several main reasons.

Obstacles that interfere with the achievement of goals

1. Excessive optimism

It seems to us that you can move mountains in one day. Energy overflows, enthusiasm knows no boundaries, plans do not seem complicated at all. At the beginning of the day, we think of a rough to-do list in our head, consisting of a whole bunch of items. Naturally, by the end of the day, we expect to have all of them completed. Perhaps it would be so if we lived in an ideal world. But this, alas, is not so. We do not take into account the fact that some of the things from the list can take much more time than it seems at first glance. Such optimism often serves us extremely badly.

2. Annoying little things

Continuing to develop the theme of unbridled optimism, one cannot fail to mention the small details that may well become serious obstacles in our affairs. When we are planning, we usually do not consider all the daily activities. We do not take into account the fact that during the day we need to take a shower, brush our teeth, cook food, iron clothes, eat, get to work, answer a thousand and one emails, go to a store, answer phone calls, and so on. Further. We do not take into account all these little things, and very much in vain. They take up the lion's share of our time.

3. Distractions

We always have a choice: you can focus on a business that will be useful, or you can do something instead of it that is not very useful, but very enjoyable and effortless. Most often, we choose the second option. Our desire to do business disappears in an unknown direction, and this is quite an ordinary phenomenon. To channel your energies into important tasks, you need to be able to overcome laziness and ignore distractions. This will require powerful motivation and willpower, which sometimes fails many of us.

4. Environment

Our environment has a lot to do with our ability to achieve our goals. For example, we know we are part of a team. We have a clear task before us, and if we do not fulfill it, we will let down a lot of people who are counting on us. In this case, the likelihood that we will complete the task on time increases significantly, because we are assigned additional responsibility.

Consider another situation: you work from home and no one knows what you do all day. You can watch the series, chat with friends, or just go somewhere. Yes, it seems that today you will not be able to work at all.

Responsibility, the environment, the people who work with us in conjunction - these are the important components that often affect performance.

There is no such person who has not faced all these obstacles at least once. What should be done? There is a solution: you need to form several good habits (some of them may seem obvious to you) and try to stick to them when you feel that your willpower is weakening.

Tips to Help Overcome Key Barriers

If you really want to start playing sports, learn a foreign language, read a book that you have been putting off for a long time, and implement all your wildest ideas, then here are some tips that will help you with this.

• Accept that you only have 3-4 hours a day when you can be productive and focused. Make the most of this time to get things done. No matter how hard you try, the rest of the time will be spent on physiological needs, meetings, emails, and all sorts of other little things. Pick no more than 2 or 3 of the most important tasks to get done while you are at your peak of productivity.
• Plan out absolutely everything that you are going to do in a day, point by point. Work, shopping, meeting friends, urgent matters, even the time you'd like to spend on social media. Planned out? Now exclude exactly half of the items from the list. Remember what we said about being overly optimistic? You just don't have enough time for all this. But then, if there is still time left, you can spend it on those tasks that were thrown off the list. This will definitely cheer you up.
• To free yourself up more time, eliminate distractions such as watching TV, reading useless news, or watching TV shows from your list. So you can carve out another hour or two to achieve your important goals.
• Try to do everything to make you comfortable and surround yourself with like-minded people. For example, if your goal is to learn how to play the guitar, then set aside half an hour a day for this activity. Find someone who will support you, celebrate your success, and give advice. Find a place where no one will distract you. Remember that the environment is of the utmost importance.
• If suddenly you want to quit what you have wanted to do for so long because you didn’t succeed the first time, then stop and think carefully. It seems like you are just running from the problem. Remember why you even started doing what you do. This reason should help you overcome the discomfort that has arisen.

We hope that these tips will help you at least a little. Sometimes, following basic rules helps us move on.