Have you ever wondered why it is so challenging to go along with new positive habits and create sustainable change in life?

I’m sure you all had a situation when you were committed to change, yet somehow something was pulling you back putting the thickest invisible wall between you and the life you always pictured you could have created from this moment on…

So did I. I figured it out. And it took quite a while to realize what caused all these drawbacks.

Everything comes down to a five-year-old that lives in each one of us without exceptions.

The Only Thing That Holds You Back in Life

I had a hard time adopting the whole idea of sport and healthy habits and introducing them into my daily life. I’m not going to lie; it is challenging when it comes to breaking old rusty patterns even if they never served you well. It’s tough. So I took each and every single opportunity to detour, to sabotage myself and then, to rationalize all pros why I should quit.

The urge to give up kept creeping up and demanding my capitulation into the old “cozy” patterns. The patterns I was very familiar with to make my whole life easy peasy again. At my darkest, weakest moments I wanted nothing more than just to give up.

Yes, I gave into those rationalizations, unexplainable urges of old patterns and that voice inside my head that kept saying: “Carry on then. Get yourself some pizza! C’mon! Eat some fries. Forget about that crazy yoga and running! Why do you make yourself miserable, huh? Life’s too short.”

That is the exact voice that always stands in our way when we try to make a sustainable change in life. 

That’s the voice that says it’s completely OK to go and have an extra portion of chips, extra-large pizza, and sugar loaded cola. “Life, by all means, should be pleasant. As pleasant and easy as possible!”

That’s the voice that begs you to skip your running session, yoga practice and spinning class because you can play X-box, lie on a comfy couch in front of the TV or even spend hours on Facebook instead. “Why bother with “uncomfortable” exercising routine? Life’s way too short for that misery. Ditch that sport for good.”

That’s the same voice that drifts you into procrastination when you are faced with a task that you find difficult. It causes you to skip running session, learning a second language you’ve always wanted to learn or writing a desertion. Why? Because it tells you that you are better off doing something that looks much easier, effortless.

That’s the same damn voice that keeps you on the same job, that keeps you from quitting and starting your own business. And, hey, is there anyone out there who is not scared of failure?

The same voice keeps you in the familiar environment and tells you not to connect with new people, tells you not to stay connected with friends you once had.

That voice is NOT you! That’s just a version of you. Probably the version of you when you were five-year-old. Or maybe 6.

So what does that kid that lives inside usually do?

This little rascal likes when things are simple, comfortable, familiar and as pleasant as they get; when things are fun and easy.

That is the same child that tried and gave up when he faced things when they turned out to be challenging and downward difficult. But who on Earth would hold this behavior against him?

But guess what, we are not 5-year-old children anymore. Sometimes our life and its direction are completely in the hands of that kid. Especially when we are not aware of what’s happening around us.

The solution here is relatively simple. We don’t have to give into those endless rationalizations. We don’t have to obey everything that that kid tells us to do. We don’t have to listen.

I’m sure we are strong enough to endure any challenge. We can learn how to be perfectly OK with “discomfort” facing the fear of the unknown.

Stay on target. Make your life better!

Photo from vk.com