Sometimes you are your own worst enemy when it comes to reaching your goals successfully. A fitness journey, in particular, can be very frustrating if for some reason we are just blocking ourselves from success. The word sabotage means that something is interfering, blocking, hampering, or hurting, our success. Success stems from your internal state – how you speak to yourself, especially. Observe your thought pattern because thoughts become things. It is so important to focus on what you want, instead of what you don’t want, so that you attract the right things into your life.

Self-sabotage can include our thoughts and behaviors that hold us back and prevent us from reaching our ultimate goals. Knowing things are not in our best interest, but yet, doing them anyway is a form of self-sabotage. The crazy thing about self-sabotage is that sometimes we have no idea we’re doing it. Sabotage and resistance are similar, it’s like there are two parts of ourselves that are conflicted – having an internal battle, back and forth. A lot of this is due to a fear of success, and if we are getting in our own way, it could be that we don’t want the attention we will get from success, we may feel exposed as we get attention, for example, we may want to dodge the questions asked about what we’re doing to lose weight, the comments like “WOW! You’re looking great!”, etc….

Stop for a moment. Examine yourself. Dig deep. Let’s think about a goal that you might have – whether it’s in your fitness journey, business life, personal life, career, health, etc.… hold on to that goal and think about the meaning that it has for you. Think about the difference that it would make in your life in you achieved this goal. Think about what you’ve done to work towards this goal or to make this goal happen. Think about what you’ve done to maybe get in the way of achieving this goal. Sabotage happens all of the time.

When you self-sabotage, you go from a point of feeling great and then you revert back into a point of feeling shame, guilt, depression, stuck (a lower vibration energy and feeling) and it takes a lot of work to get back into that (higher vibrational energy) point of feeling great. It takes energy and effort to stay in that state of feeling great. Some people may not find this state until after having a rock bottom moment, hitting a brick wall or after being in a rut. That’s when you can truly “heal”.

What thoughts or beliefs could be blocking you from your greatest success? What fears are holding you back?

SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY – when our beliefs and expectations influence our behavior at the subconscious level

Retrain your brain with these tips:

• Reprogram your thoughts – turn poor thoughts into rich thoughts
• Talk with someone else about your goals – someone you trust, someone who looks at you in a less critical way, especially when you’re doubting yourself
• Examine your emotions – what emotions are causing you to engage in unhealthy behaviors?
• Recognize patterns – sabotage usually stems from an unconscious pattern of some sort that you’ve likely developed at an earlier time in your life, recognize these triggers

SELF DETERMINATION THEORY – people are driven by three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness 

• Autonomy– the need to feel in control of our own behaviors and goals; the feeling of being in control helps us feel self-determined
• Competence– the need to gain mastery of tasks and learn different skills
• Relatedness– the need to experience a sense of belonging or connectedness with others

Optimal performance happens when our actions are propelled by our intrinsic interests or extrinsic values that we have internalized. Satisfying the three basic psychological needs listed above promotes our motivation.