Break your negative loops

99-SECOND READ

'Take time to deliberate but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go.'

Napoleon Bonaparte

Life is full of positive and negative feedback loops - some are obvious, and some aren’t. They have a huge impact on your quality of life. The more negative loops you break out of and turn into positive cycles, the more healthy and balanced your life will become.

Here are two common examples from my coaching clients:

1. You always finish work late in the evening, and by the time you’ve eaten and unwound you get to sleep late, so you wake up late; because of this you’re on the back foot all day and you finish work late.
2. You don’t make much time for fitness, so you’re unfit; because of this you don’t enjoy exercise or look forward to it which makes it harder to create time for it.

We can fall into more subtle negative cycles without even realising:

1. You can never get on top of your to-do list, and because of this you’re always rushing, and you don’t have time to pause, prioritise or plan, which makes it impossible to reduce your to-do list.
2. You’re a perfectionist who wants to deliver high-quality work, and because of this projects and tasks take ages and are more daunting. This means you procrastinate and put them off, putting you under more time pressure and making it harder to do perfect work. 

These types of loops have a negative impact on our well-being and success. Often, we are unaware of these patterns, and when we are it can be hard to see a way out because all we see are barriers.

I help my clients build awareness, and find simple solutions to break the loop and create a positive cycle.

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