eep down, we’re all creatures of habit. For example most people will pick their favourite type of coffee to order and will order this every time they have coffee, probably for the rest of their lives. They don’t order this coffee because that’s the coffee they want, they order it out of habit. Because it’s easier to say ‘Skim cappuccino please!’ than it is to use the brain power to think about what they actually want. This is why I still order skim cappuccinos as if I’m a business woman with a perm and plastic earrings from 1988. Seriously who still orders skim cappuccinos? Some cafes in my trendy suburb don’t even do skim cappuccinos and I’m not even sure if I like them. I just order them because that’s what I’ve been ordering for the last 15 years.
I was thinking about this habitual behaviour the other day when I was chatting to a mate of mine. She’s a totally rad human but she drives me bonkers because she can’t/won’t cook. She was standing in my kitchen while I was cooking her dinner and I asked her to stir the vegetables in the fry pan and she totally freaked out.
‘Um… ah… sorry… how do I do this???’
She’s a completely competent woman yet she just can’t get over this barrier when it comes to cooking. It terrifies her. Not cooking has become a habit for her and it’s almost like a trademark now. There’s actually no excuse for having a total lack of cooking skills. As far as I’m concerned, if you can read, you can cook.
After witnessing my friend totally freaking out about the simple act of stirring a pot on the stove, I started to analyse my own behaviour and the excuses and blocks I use in my own life.
– I’m very nervous about installing plug-ins on my blog and that’s ridiculous because I’m a professional blogger
– I don’t like learning to use new apps or programs
– If something stops working for no reason, I won’t try to fix it myself. I’ll just yell at Mr Smaggle or one of my blogging wives (Kate or Chrissy) to fix it
My excuses are almost exclusively related to technology. If I’m crocheting and I make a mistake, I just calmly undo my work, figure out what went wrong and start again. If I’m building an email for a sales funnel and something goes wrong, I will most likely smash my fist on the table and wail ‘COMPUTERS HATE ME!!!’ before sobbing at Mr Smaggle to fix it. I have a major block when it comes to new technology. This is a terrifying thought because my whole business and career is 100% reliant on figuring out how to work computers. I’m making a promise to myself to stop being such a diva about computer issues and to just calmly and rationally try to fix my own problems.
The reason I’m getting so uppity about all this is because I went to see The Martian last week and it’s very brilliant. I won’t ruin it for you but the basic premise of the movie is the how problem solving skills are essential. When you hit a barrier or a road block you HAVE to figure out how to get past it. Otherwise you’ll just spend the rest of your life banging your head against a wall.
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What road blocks do you have? Are they all the same area like mine are? What deflective behaviour do you constantly make excuses for?
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