ARGHHHH! I have been battling frustration, bad attitude, angst, anxiety, and certified craziness for the past week. What the #$^%@ is up with that! I’m a life coach, I should have my life together, right?! Truth of the matter is — I am human. The good news is that I know how to recognize when I’m in a rut and how to pull myself out of it (and some close friends who aren’t afraid to slap sense into me).

My craziness is a symptom of procrastinating things I don’t want to deal with. You know, the stuff that brings up emotions I don’t like to feel. We all have our avoidance areas.

For me, it is finances and dealing with customer service people. I HATE crunching numbers, formulas, ledgers, accounting details, spreadsheets…(need I go on?!). And I can’t stand wasting my time on hold for hours just to be accidentally hung up on, transferred or told there is no solution to my problem and if there is one, it will cost me $$$$$$.

In the end, I give up due to shear exhaustion. Then the more time the issue goes unresolved, the bigger the problem grows and looms before me like an hairy, scary monster. This downward spiral of negative thinking doesn’t solve the problem, it just makes it worse. How do you pull out of the spiral?

1. Host a pity party for yourself. Poor you. Why don’t you cry about it? Oh, your life is so horrible. You have to pay the bills… you have to lose weight and work out… you have to have dinner with your spouse’s boss…. Boo Hoo… Come on, save the whining for something really good. Invite all those dreadful thoughts over to play for an hour or so. Enjoy the misery. Turn on the pathetic, whiny music — and woo hoo!!! Good times! NOT! Hopefully you begin to see how silly and annoying you look. C’mon, you hate when your kids do it. Whining is not flattering (even in candlelight). Ok, the party is over. Now snap out of it!
2. Make a list of what your DREADFUL TO DO’s (DTD’s, it sounds like a disease, doesn’t it) and find a way to make them more fun or enjoyable. For my finances, I pay my bills in front of the TV while I watch mindless reality shows (my guilty pleasure). I make my customer services issue calls either in the bathtub (could I get electrocuted?) or while lounging in the sun.
3. Reward yourself for eliminating the DTD’s. This week, after I spent 2 hours on the phone with Quickbook customer service in my accountant’s office (my two worst enemies – finances and customer service people – at the same time), I rewarded myself the next day by taking my kids to the indoor roller-skating rink. I pretended it was for them, but the truth is … roller skating to pop music makes me really happy (see my FUN DIET blog entry), in fact, almost giddy. (Yes, I admit it, I wore leg warmers and rainbow shirts in the 80’s.)
4. Do what is most important FIRST. Then everything else will seem easy for the rest of the day.
5. Focus on the the positive. If you notice you are headed for a tantrum, remind yourself of what is good in your life.
6. Change your self-talk. Remind your self that you don’t HAVE to do anything, but you CHOOSE to do it. Otherwise consider the consequences of not doing it. You don’t HAVE to pay your bills, but you CHOOSE to so you don’t have bad credit and collections people calling you. Which is worse?

Stop being a big, whiny baby (I’m not calling you a baby, I’m talking to myself here), take care of your responsibilities so you can get on with enjoying life again. There. I feel better already. ☺