3 Simple Steps to Spot and Slay Your Success Blocking Patterns [803 Words]

Sabotage is a mis-deployed survival mechanism.

The brain is designed for efficiency and it takes shortcuts based on what it already knows. It literally lays the tracks with neurons that perform only specific tasks.
If some of these “shortcuts” were programmed in your formative years by parents, teachers, friends, etc. that had their own success blocking patterns, then they will be impacting your mindset.

If there is something that you consciously want to achieve a certain goal, or to give up a disempowering habit, but you just don’t seem to be able to get there. You can be certain that a subconscious pattern, one of these efficiency shortcuts, is running the show.

Effective leaders influence the thoughts, feelings, actions, behaviors and emotions of others. Truly powerful leaders start with influencing themselves. It’s critical to eliminate your success blocking patterns and strengthen your mental and emotional abilities if you want to reach your full potential as a leader.

SOME SUCCESS BLOCKING PATTERNS:

• Pushing so hard to achieve you neglect self care
• Making rash decisions
• Letting fear of failure stop you from taking risks
• Internal income and belief ceilings
• Procrastination and perfectionism
• Disempowering habits that chip away at your vitality
• Interpersonal drama and reactivity
• Dwelling on problems instead of solutions
• The need to be right regardless of the impact

Your subconscious beliefs, values, habits, emotions, attitudes, and perceptions make up your mindset. This subconscious mindset creates the bulk of your results.

“Positive thinking” alone is usually not enough to re-route the tracks in your brain.

Imagine you have a barrel of apples and the apples start to rot, putting fresh apples on the top only covers up the problem and eventually will become part of the problem. You must address any issues you have in business and life at the source.

Here is an easy to learn process:

This can help you quickly address the unproductive thoughts that crop up when you’re under duress:

STEP 1: Identify the core thought

When a triggering event happens that has you circling the drain,

identify what underlying limited thinking is running the show and bring it to your conscious awareness.

You can do this by taking time to examine the thoughts that are running through your head and writing them down. Or you can talk with someone that is skilled in identifying these root cause thinking patterns.

There is typically one core sentence that will be at the center of the issue. This sentence will usually be a pretty simple one.

Thoughts like:

• I can’t deal with this
• There’s something wrong with me (or someone else)
• I don’t have time for this
• This candy will make me feel better
• Why do I even bother…

STEP 2: Look at the short and long term consequences

Examine:

1. The feelings this thought generates
2. The actions the feelings cause you to take
3. The short and long term consequences of those actions

NOTE: Be sure to distinguish between thoughts and feelings.
If you find yourself saying things like “I feel as if”, “I feel that”, “I feel like’. Those are thoughts not feelings.
“I feel sad”, “I feel mad”, “I feel happy”. Those are feelings.
Sometimes the short term consequences can be desirable while the long term, not so much. Especially when your dopamine reward system is involved.

For instance:

• Eating cupcakes to fill an emotional void
• Taking drugs or drinking to distract from the pain of thwarted ambitions
• Liking, swiping and commenting on meaningless posts or answering email until it’s suddenly too late to make it to the gym

STEP 3: Dispute and replace

When critical voices come up from the inside we often don’t question them. Dispute any thought that generates poor long term results and replace it with one that will create a desirable long term outcome.

To challenge any unproductive beliefs ask:

1. How is this belief ridiculous and impractical?
2. What would others say about this belief
3. Would I say this to a child?
4. Are there examples that contradict this belief?
5. What thought or belief would be more empowering?

In this context when you argue with yourself and your beliefs, it redeploys your attention and interrupts the habitual thought pattern. Sometimes when you pause to examine, we realize that the belief isn’t even your own in the first place. It was “handed down” to you from a relative or authority from the past and it simply does not apply to you.

So next time you find yourself frustrated or in a funk, perhaps beating yourself up, remember these steps and knock the legs out from under those success blocking patterns!