Do you know what the #1 most successful advertising campaign is of all times?
Nike’s Just Do It.
It connected so viscerally with their target market that 35 years later, Nike is still using it to brand their products.
I love the tagline.
It’s inspiring. Hopeful. Motivating.
UNLESS…
You’re like me, and the thing at the end of the “just do it” feels hard.
👉🏽 Just lose the 20 pounds.
👉🏽 Just write the book.
👉🏽 Just start the dream business.
👉🏽 Just forgive your ex.
👉🏽 Just clear out 20 years of clutter from the attic.
When you feel like the thing you want to accomplish is hard, it triggers an automatic invitation to procrastination and resistance.
Before you know it, your nails need to be polished. And you need to check in on your favorite Tic Toc influencer. Or my favorite, you need a snack.
Because seriously, who gets excited about doing something hard?
The minute your past experiences remind you that a task is going to be emotionally, intellectually, or physically exhausting, you don’t want to do it.
Which is why order matters.
Before you can propel yourself into action, you must first shift your belief around hard.
So how do you shift your belief around hard?
👉🏽 Tell yourself what you’re procrastinating about isn’t really hard?
👉🏽 Recite convincing affirmations?
👉🏽 Focus on your why?
While these can sometimes work, I’ve found that my brain needs proof. It needs to physically experience easy in order to believe that something isn’t hard.
What does this look like?
Mathematically speaking…
Permission + Small (easy) Steps = Forward Momentum
Practically speaking…
Let’s use my Peloton as an example. I used to love doing 45-minute rides. I felt exhilarated and healthy afterwards. But for the past eight months, 45-minutes has felt hard. So, I avoided my Peloton altogether. If I wasn’t going to ride for at least 45 minutes, I wasn’t going to ride at all.
And then this funny thing happened. One day I gave myself permission to do a 20-minute ride. That didn’t feel hard. Despite thinking I wasn’t going to burn the “proper” amount of calories, I hopped on my bike and rode for 20 minutes. At the end of the 20 minutes, I felt energized, so I decided to ride another 10 minutes. At the end of that 10 minutes, I opted for another 10. Before I hopped off the bike, I had logged 50 minutes…each increment feeling doable and easy.
My body still thinks clicking on a 45-minute workout sounds hard. So I’ll continue to rewire my brain by taking small incremental steps that feel easy.
WHAT MIGHT THIS LOOK LIKE IN YOUR HOME?
Huge pile of wash thrown on your chair waiting to be folded?
Give yourself permission to pick one category of things within the pile and fold only those. Next time you pass by the pile, pick a different category of things and fold those. Each time you pass by the pile of clothing, it will get easier and easier, because the pile will become smaller and smaller.
PRO TIP: I love to pick the bulkiest things as my first category. Like bath towels or jeans. Once you remove those from the initial pile, the pile is noticeably smaller, and your sense of accomplishment greater.
Huge pile of papers on your kitchen table?
Make the task less daunting by first gathering all the papers into one pile. Next, simply sort into 3 piles:
- Papers that you need to keep, but don’t need to take any action on. They simply need to be filed.
- Papers that you need to take action on. Things like paying a bill or making an appointment.
- Papers that you no longer need and can either toss or shred.
Next, take the next step that feels easy. That might be tossing the papers in the discard pile or paying the bills in the action pile. And then, take the next easy step and the next until your papers are processed.
What’s your hard thing?
Likely it’s the thing that’s been lingering on your to do list and begging to be crossed off.
Take a minute to picture it.
Then, ask yourself what’s one easy step I can take towards accomplishing my goal AND shifting my belief that taking action is hard work.
Here’s to shifting from hard to easy,
xo
Dorena
