6 Reasons Why You Avoid Impactful Work

Are you avoiding impactful work?

Welcome to the Self-Performance-Strategies (S-P-S) Newsletter

“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.”

Jean de La Fontaine

Everything is a joke; why try

Typing those words out stings.

I honestly felt like that.

In my 20s, I avoid impactful work in all areas of my life.

I thought, why try?

I will end up in the same place anyway.

Ridiculous thinking.

I would make a joke out of everything to hide my insecurities.

I was not doing hard or impactful work; deep down, I felt it.

I have a darker sense of humour, and my sharp wit has pulled me out of many negative situations.

But good looks, charm, and a few jokes might be useful in the bars.

But in the workplace, it carried little weight.

I even chose jobs I thought would allow me to avoid doing a lot of work.

I ended up working in retail management.

Sh*t pay, long hours, but very easy.

Well, it would have been easier if I wasn’t hungover all the time.

But we don’t need another story about my party years.

I want to focus on the emotional barriers I had created.

These barriers were a mix of low deserve levels and upper limit issues.

1st: I didn’t feel like I was smart enough or deserved success.

2nd: When I got some success, I would blow it with bad jokes, parting, and dumb decisions.

The problems lay in two main areas:

1 - No goals

2 - No reflection

Without these critical habits or systems in life, I repeated many mistakes many times. Most of my 20s were one year on repeat.

It now reminds me of that Steven Covey quote:

“Some people say they have 20 years experience, when in reality, they have 1 year’s experience repeated 20 times.”

Also as Ray Dalio says, "Pain + Reflection = Progress".

I had the pain but no reflection and no progress.

My low deserve levels and upper limit issues caused havoc into my 30s.

But around 10 years ago, 2011/2012, I started journaling and meditating.

Thankfully, with these habits, I have removed many of these barriers.

The reflection part caused me to assess my fears of success and failure.

It showed me I had run away and created a life that took me away from what I thought impactful work was.

The funny thing about not working on impactful activities is that you make your life harder.

Doing hard work and going after what you want in life is 100% easier than avoiding it.

All you have to do is get over the initial doubts and fears.

Simple but not easy.

It took me a few years of stop-start before I was free to chase after my dreams.

But ultimately, you need to do it if you want a fulfilled life.

If I had not faced these barriers over the last 5-10 years, I am not sure where I would be.

I know I would not have been prompted multiple times in my last corporate roles.

I know I would not have had the courage to start my own coaching business during a global pandemic. 

I know I would not have helped dozens of business owners and leaders save time and make more money. 

6 Reasons Why You Avoid Impactful Work

Let’s go in deeper and break down the 6 main barriers I faced and why they are important to overcome if you want to create even more success in your business.

You know must do impactful work to move your life and business forward.

But you can spend weeks and months avoiding that work.

You choose lesser or easier goals to distract yourself.

But to grow, you will have to overcome these 6 areas:

1 - Fear of failure:

“The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”

 Paulo Coelho

Failure sucks when you attach to specific outcomes.

But failure is a guide when you see it as a lesson.

You assume everything should work, but 90% of your work will fail or get okay results. You avoid doing the work to hit the 10% that wins.

Everyone is failing every day; you assume you look stupid when you fail; the secret is no one is watching you.

They are all too busy focused on their own failures to notice yours.

2 - Fear of no:

“Learning to hear no over and over again and to never quit... now that builds character and self-esteem. That’s empowering!”

Richard Fenton

No is one of the best words in the world, next to yes.

Maybes suck and are used by people who have no backbone.

No, doesn’t hurt; it allows you to learn and focus on what’s next

You get more yeses, the more nos you get.

Simple math.

You avoid impactful work because you don’t want to hear no.

But hearing no’s helps you get to yes and success.

Get used to the word NO.

3 - Fear of success:

“Fear of success is one of the new fears I’ve heard about lately. And I think its definitely a sign that we’re running out of fears. A person suffering from fear of success is scraping the bottom of the fear barrel.”

Jerry Seinfeld

We love to sabotage ourselves.

Often with unresolved emotional issues and bad habits, you implode when you win.

Think lottery winners; the boom and bust over 90% of them go through is down to the fear of success.

They don’t feel like they deserved all that money.

And you do the same with your success.

Low deserve levels or upper limit problems.

These issues could come from childhood, or they have developed while you hung out within your comfort zone.

Gay Hendricks explains this as an inner thermostat: if your internal setting gets too high, you sabotage yourself to drop back down to your familiar zone.

4 - Not clear on goals:

“We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”

Robert Brault

One of the easiest barriers to completing impactful work you can fix.

Set clear goals...done.

Not having specific goals means you work the activities that don’t align with your deepest desires.

People can spend a lifetime not doing what they truly want to do.

But that’s not you. 

Get clear on your goals.

Don’t let low-value or busy work distract you from going after impactful work. 

5 - Not sure of your high $$$ work:

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”

Warren Buffett

Leading on from not knowing your goals, do you know what work gets you paid?

With no clear goals, I would suggest you don’t.

Or at least you are not getting paid anywhere near what you should be.

Higher the impact higher the paycheque.

One of your top priorities each day is to work on the activities that ring the cash register.

6 - Not dropping draining activities:

“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” 

Arianna Huffington

No goals, not sure how you get BIG-$$$ = you do low-value draining activities.

You work more often on the 80% you dislike than the 20% that brings you joy and wealth.

To do impactful work, drop the draining sh*t from your life.

If it’s not creating value in your life mentally, emotionally, or physically, you gotta drop it. 

I hope you can overcome and avoid these 6 barriers. 

Big love.

Make it a great one,

Stephen

P.S. Need help overcoming your barriers?

I will help you do that in less than 30-Days guaranteed. 

Find out more here with the 30-Day Accelerator.

Give me 30-minutes, and I will show you how to reclaim hours and focus on the right activities.