Create Structure When You’re Floundering

By Leo Babauta

The best of intentions often flops around without some kind of structure.

You might decide you’re going to change your diet and lose some weight, but when mealtime comes around, you just eat the same kind of food and still get too full from eating too much. Or you decide you’re going to procrastinate less and be more focused, but then after a short success, you start going to your usual distractions. You start exercising but then get lazy and fall off the habit. You start waking early but then have a late night or two and the whole house of cards comes crashing down.

We start with great intentions, but the harder ventures cause us to flounder around. Then we repeat that: start with good intentions, flounder around. Over and over again, until we feel hopeless to change anything or start to nourish a deep sense of inadequacy.

What can we do to change things? It’s not you, it’s your method.

If you current method of change isn’t working (start with good intentions and then flounder), you have to try a new method.

Unfortunately, there isn’t just one perfect method. But there is one thing you can do to vastly improve your method: add some kind of structure.

How Structure Improves Our Method

What do I mean by structure? Anything that keeps you sticking to the course better. Anything that holds you to your intentions.

The possibilities are endless, but here are some common examples:

You can see the idea. What can you do to add structure to your change or goal?

If you’re trying to push into your life purpose, there’s also the structure of my Fearless Training Program, and if you’re trying to create habit change, there’s my Sea Change Program as well.

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