Become Unstoppable: Seven Strategies to Get Out of Your Own Way

Become Unstoppable: What’s in the Way is YOU

The starting point of becoming unstoppable is realizing where you get stopped.

Full disclosure: I am not a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a therapist. Nor am I certified mental health professional of any kind. I majored in psychology for three semesters at Tulane University. When I began studying abnormal psychology I started noticing too many characteristics in myself and others and switched majors to Political Economy.

However I am a student of human behavior. And for more than 25 years I have been studying and teaching the pathways to personal potential. You know it doesn’t take a psychologist to recognize that you can be your own best friend or worst enemy.

Paul, one of the greatest men in the Bible, expressed it like this:

For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing.

Romans 7:19

Maybe the words “good” and “evil” don’t resonate with you. How about what works and what doesn’t work? Effective and ineffective? Empowering and dis-empowering. Have you ever noticed the tendency to do what doesn’t work, even when you know what works? 

Seven Strategies to Become Unstoppable

1. Pay attention to where you get stopped. What tends to get you discouraged, distracted, or disengaged?
2. Ask better questions.  Stop asking, “Why do I always do that?” Implied in this question is I always do that. This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy for self-sabotaging behaviors. Ask questions like What can I learn? What’s the lesson? How can I grow from this?
3. Be where you are. This means getting complete with your past. There is nothing you can do to change it. Nothing, that is, other than change your relationship to it.
4. Stop beating yourself up. Punishing yourself for unwanted behavior rarely makes it go away. And often it can have the reverse effect, increasing the probability that you engage in it again. Let the consequences of your actions speak for themselves without the added negative emotions of coulda, shoulda, regret, remorse, I’m such a _________.
5. Break the delusion of “I know” (I already know how this day, this meeting, this project, this relationship is going to go…). I know blocks the unlimited extraordinary resources that are available to us at any moment. Open your mind to a space of not knowing how today is going to go.
6. Pay attention to flashes of inspiration. When you are in the way it can be difficult to hear that still quiet voice inside that always speaks the truth. Nonetheless, it is there. When you hear it, listen.
7. Make an empowering choice right now. This begins with a question: What am I not doing, that if I did it would have a powerful, positive impact on my life?

The starting point of becoming unstoppable is realizing where you get stopped.

Doug Grady, The Ripple Effect

Questions for Consideration:

1. Where and how do you tend to get stopped? Examine your habits, environment, beliefs, and that little voice inside your head. Be specific.
2. Pick at least three behaviors. How has each affected your life? Resist the urge to judge yourself, simply notice the consequences.
3. What is one action you can take today to get out of your own way?

Please leave a comment – I would really like to hear from you!