Self-Esteem Challenge Day 6: Obstacles to Success

Today is Day 6 of the Self-Esteem Challenge, originally from Better than Dark Chocolate. It's a series of questions and prompts to get you thinking about your good qualities and things that make you happy or proud. See my introductory post for more info.

What are some obstacles that are preventing you from accomplishing your goals? How will you overcome them?

There are three main obstacles that are holding me back from completing my goals at the moment:

1) Self-doubt-I talked about this more on Day 3. Lack of confidence is holding me back from completing my novel and also from learning to drive. I'm currently trying to work on building my confidence up by concentrating on my strengths and avoiding 'negative self-talk'. I do have a habit of putting myself down and worrying about things too much and I'm trying to stop that in its tracks and replace it with empowering thoughts. I'm also trying to push out of my comfort zone a lot more. I started going to Zumba last year, I took on a huge website design project, I dance in a yearly show and this year I took the plunge and accepted a new job offer. Hopefully taking risks more often will prove to myself that I can do anything I put my mind to.



2) Poor time-management-Although I have no problem meeting deadlines at work, I'm not good at sticking to a schedule in the rest of my life. I'm an 'all or nothing' kind of person, so I tend to let things like chores build up until I can't stand it any longer, then do a lot of work all in one go. As a result I'm frequently running late, losing things and generally being disorganised. I often feel like things are out of my control-I'm just rushing around from one commitment to the next and when I do finally get a break I just procrastinate and waste my time away when I could be getting on with things that need to be done. Luckily for me, I now have 6 weeks off work, so I'm going to use this time to get stuck into projects that I've been putting off. I'm also going to try to come up with a routine that works for me, so that I can fit daily exercise and writing into my schedule and adopt a 'little and often' approach to all areas of my life to keep on top of everything.

3) Lack of energy- I often feel tired and run-down which makes me grumpy and I can't motivate myself to get on with things. Part of this comes from being an introvert, I think, as spending time with lots of people at work and socialising a lot in the evenings can be really draining for me and leave me wanting to crash on the sofa all weekend. But I think some of this could be helped by getting into a routine of going to bed earlier and getting up earlier, eating a better diet rather than so much junk food, drinking more water (I always forget to do this and am probably dehydrated most of the time), and getting more regular exercise (quick daily bursts rather than long weekly slogs). So this summer is going to be a kind of health and wellbeing boot-camp for me. I'm hopefully going to re-charge my batteries in Tennerife and go back to work in September with renewed energy and motivation. Here's hoping!