The basics of the 3-step method are well familiar: Take a big task, break it up in smaller steps; organize these steps in a logical order for completion that will yield the fastest and best results; and focus on one step at a time.
Simple, practical, and should work every time. So why doesn’t it? Why is it that often times, instead of losing pounds, we’re gaining more? Instead of organizing the house, it gets more cluttered. Instead of catching up on our work, we fall further behind? Why is it that the more we try to change, the more we stay the same?
Here again enters the problem we face with just about all problems regarding humans: The Lord made us so unique, the answer will be different for just about every person. The best we can do is to aim for broad solutions, hoping to speak to the majority of people. Though there will be people who have difficulty in breaking up the big task into smaller ones, and others who will have difficulty in organizing these, and still others on just focusing on the step at hand and not getting side tracked or discouraged by all that must still be done before the goal is completed, there are others where the problem lies elsewhere. And elsewhere is where we will have to look for answers.
For the class of task that became big because you postponed doing something sooner: the answer may lie in the question: “Why did you allow matters to get so bad that the task is now a daunting one that needs a strategy in order to be completed?” Why did you not do something after you gained the first 10 or 20 pounds? Why did you not do something about the clutter at the beginning of the mountain, rather than now when you can hardly get into your house or garage? Whatever the reason was, it served a purpose, and unless you resolve the purpose it serves, that very same purpose is going to hinder your attempt to resolve the problem. Did you eat because it was a way to relieve stress, or combat loneliness … there are so many reasons that drive people to food as a solution, or to accumulating stuff and memories - the list goes on.
For others the problem lies with decision making, it simply does not come easy to them. Questions like: “Do I keep this item; do I try to sell it; do I give it away; throw it away…?” paralyze them. For more info on this topic, please see my LinkedIn post at this link.
For many of us, yours truly included, it comes down to plain laziness, lying in front of the television is easier than working out, so now you are so unfit you can hardly get up one flight of stairs. Not eating food you are craving takes discipline, self-discipline drains your energy - much easier to just give in.
So where to start: find out what is preventing you from victory, and deal with that first. Then follow the 3-step method - it's really good.
Wishing you a victorious life,
Reen
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