How to Force Yourself to Do Something You Don’t Feel like Doing

Postponing an unpleasant task and looking for an excuse to do so is common in every adult’s life. When a child does not wish to do something, they just go ahead and say so. An adult, however, is capable of coming up with solid reasons and good excuses for their procrastination. Today we’ll talk about making yourself do the things that must be done no matter how you feel about them.

Acknowledge the importance and worthiness of the task to be done

Behind every unpleasant task there is a visible result. You only need to acknowledge it to see the worthiness of the task in front of you. It might help someone you love, make this world a better place or bring your company a bit closer to an important goal. The actual task you dislike in advance is seldom something worthless, and that’s the beauty of it.

Admit to yourself that you are afraid of the unknown

Quite often we don’t want to do something because we are afraid of failure. People make mistakes and fail, but not everyone can handle the failure. We will definitely discuss using failure to your advantage, in a separate article. And for now try acknowledging your fear; face it, accept it and start acting. It’s important to control your fear instead of letting it control you.

Give up your perfectionism

Did you know that children are less afraid of creative failures than an adult? Would you care to guess why that might be? It’s just is that a child has no idea what perfect looks like, so he creates one of his own! As soon as you stop looking back at stereotypes imposed by the society, you will succeed.

Result is less important than intention

Do as you must, whatever is destined to happen – will happen. With that in mind, try casting away any thoughts about the result. Just start acting. Right now the most important thing is to get down to it and keep moving in the right direction, the rest will fall in place.

Our life comprises things beyond those we enjoy

Unfortunately, or maybe luckily, this is true. And there is nothing terrible about it. After all, it’s those unpleasant things that make our life so varied. If we were doing just the pleasant things, they would stop being that enjoyable after a while. Therefore, unexciting things make our favorite things to do even more enjoyable!

Set limits

Freedom is great, but not always so. If you are to do something complex and not too enjoyable, setting limits for yourself will help you handle it much faster. Focus as much as you can once you get down to it, therefore simplifying it. Minimize all distractions: internet, gadgets, TV and other noises.

Take it one step at a time

Everyone knows how difficult it is to start. The first step is the most difficult one, especially if we are talking about something that’s not exactly pleasant or easy. Begin, make a tiny step (write the first sentence of your report or article, start drawing a sketch, compile a speech plan) and stop right there. Now you can go ahead and compliment yourself on having begun. Make another tiny step and stop for a bit there. Very soon you will get adjusted to the work process and won’t feel like stopping until you cross the finish line.

Don’t let your brain lead the way

It’s human nature: our brain goes out of its way trying to resist any unpleasant task, eagerly picking up on any distractions that present themselves. With an engaging task, any outside noise stops being relevant to the brain, simply getting blocked. When you need to make yourself do something unexciting, you must make an effort to block any attempts of your brain to get you to distract. Turn off the TV, put your smart phone and tablet away, keep yourself from checking your e-mail and social network accounts. As soon as you get accustomed to the work process, your brain will calm down and stop looking for distractions.

Stay positive no matter what

It’s very useful to learn to see “the other side of the coin”. Working on a boring project will probably make you grow as a professional, preparing a presentation will help you overcome complexes and fear etc. It might be hard to believe, but every unpleasant task comes with positive bonuses. All you need to do is learn to identify them.

As a conclusion, here’s a thought that’s worthy of keeping in mind:
Tasks that we enjoy and take pleasure in doing help our body and soul rest, while those we do not particularly enjoy help us grow and cultivate new qualities, often giving us unexpected perspectives on things. Do keep that in mind when there is a task on your to-do list that you are really unwilling to get down to.