Three Tricks to Avoid “Mind Travel”

Moms, execs, assistants, or entrepreneurs, many of us women could have simultaneous careers as travel agents. “Mind travel” agents, that is. What’s mind travel? It happens when we set our sites on a accomplishing a goal, and then mentally survey the landscape containing everything else that requires attention between us and our goal. Instead of taking action toward completing it, our mind wanders to the groceries that need buying, the dog that needs washing, the garden to plant.

It’s ridiculous the amount of “mind travel” we do. But when we’re really stuck behind something that needs completion, chances are we’re flying the friendly skies.

You’re a Champ at Something
There are two reasons we mind travel. One is fear. The challenge of the task ahead is daunting. We lack the confidence it takes to step into it. We’re not sure how to do what we need to do.

My trick when I am truly stumped is to do something I am good at. If you do something you are good at, and then bring that feeling of accomplishment back to the task you were stuck behind, I guarantee you’ll feel better about starting. You will enter your project, or the boardroom, or the conversation with a confidence you didn’t have before.

What are you good at? Organizing your presentation? Cleaning a mean kitchen? Budgeting your expenses for the week? What makes you feel really good when you complete it? Do that. And then head into the task that has you stuck. You will bring confidence and momentum that rolls right through the challenges.

Momentum Builds the Muscle
Procrastination is the other ticket to mind travel. For me, obstacle after obstacle is presented in being a mom, starting a tech business, running it as a female entrepreneur. Part of the skill in running a business or a family is to just do the action. But, what happens when you just don’t want to do it, for Pete’s sake? Quarterly budget? Yuck! Cleaning out the garage? Please don’t make me.

The tasks we procrastinate are energy drainers. But, they have a silver lining: The accomplishment of getting to the end of just one of them is so huge, it can fuel the whole day to tackle other things.

My trick? Instead of sitting and thinking about it, break the task into smaller parts and take a massive action. Create momentum. Need to exercise? Put on your running shoes and promise to run five minutes. Once you get out there, you’ll probably run forty-five. Need to file your inbox? Stop thinking of it as drudgery, and instead, promise yourself fifteen minutes of filing. Momentum gets built in this way and pulls you along with it to success.  

Set Up to Succeed
Create exactly the environment you love in order to handle the task you don’t love.

Last week, I decided to face my quarterly budget head on. In order to give myself any confidence to tackle it, I had to set myself up for success with time and resources. I arranged for childcare to come early. I got my favorite coffee, went to the office early early. I put on my favorite podcast, pulled out my favorite pen, to really get in the groove.

Set up in this way, my massive action promise was to complete half the budget. But, I was so in the groove, I finished the whole thing! The sense of completion I felt by 9:00 a.m. was so huge, I ended up rolling it into a few other challenges … emails I’d been avoiding, other hard projects.

When you build your accomplishment muscle, you create easier access to starting and completing the tasks you don’t like to do. Set up your environment. Break down your task into sections. Do the beginning piece. Chances are, you will be brimming with energy enough to complete the entire thing. And travel will be saved for vacation.