WAYS WE UNCONSCIOUSLY SABOTAGE OURSELVES

To sabotage yourself is to do something that comes in the way of your success or progress consciously or unconsciously. There are ways we sabotage ourselves and this includes:

1. Being a yes-man- A yes-man is a person who says “yes” to every request or demand regardless of whether or not they want to, in a bid to please or impress other people. Yes-men tend to over stretch and overwork themselves and eventually become burnt out. Yes-men even say yes to demands when they have already become overworked, overstretched and burnt-out.

Have you ever been in a situation where your car breaks down suddenly on the road? Many times the car has already given a warning signal that there is a problem but we choose to ignore it. If you keep on overworking and overstretching yourself, you can end up like a car that stops abruptly on the road. Stop saying yes to every demand.

 

2. Over-Procrastinating- The danger of over-procrastinating is that you pile up work and have to tend to that pile of work later on and thus give yourself more work to attend to in such a short period of time. Whilst procrastination is inevitable sometimes, it’s important to catch yourself to avoid it from becoming too much.

 

3. Comparing your worst to someone else’s best: Have you noticed that when we want to compare ourselves to other people, we tend to choose a yet to be developed part of our lives and compare it to the aspect of a person’s life that is very developed. We could have amazing things going on in our lives, aspects that many people admire and may even envy but somehow, our minds have a way of only highlighting the aspect of our life that is yet to be developed and blindsiding us to the aspects of our lives that are great. Comparing something you’ve only spent one month building to something someone else has spent 10 years building is indeed self-sabotage because an almost 10-year gap in experience and expertise exists between the both of you.

 

4. Letting fear hold you back from good opportunities: Did you know that you do not need to match up to a job description 100%? As a matter of fact, if you meet 70% of the requirements of a role, you can be chosen for that opportunity. Fear makes us disqualify ourselves for things. It makes us perceive ourselves as not being good enough. Fear drives you to imagine the worst possible outcome of things and as a result we refrain from seizing opportunities. When next you are presented with a great opportunity instead on not applying or shooting for it because of a fear that I wouldn’t work out, think that it will work out instead.

 

5. Over-indulging in things and ignoring the consequences: To over-indulge in something means to do something over board. Somethings we can over-indulge in include; eating junk food, playing games etc. Whilst doing these things are not bad, over indulging in these activities when you are well aware of the consequences is self-sabotage because at the end of the day you will suffer the consequences. Everything ought to be done in moderation.