Avoidance Behaviours And Self Discipline

• Avoidance behaviours are excuses used to avoid being disciplined.
• Avoidance behaviours are a result of some percieved fear or pain.
• Fear acts as a roadblock, and prevents you taking action in your life.

One common way in which people unknowingly avoid living a self disciplined lifestyle is through avoidance behaviours. Avoidance behaviours are simply the things people do to avoid feeling the discomfort that they associate with a particular task.

For example, if you had to book a dentists appointment but delayed doing so because you have a fear of going to the dentists, a common avoidance behaviour would be to claim that you don’t have the time to schedule an appointment, when in fact you do.

Avoidance behaviours are therefore the little things that people do to avoid doing something they dislike. It’s like tricking or lying to yourself that there is something more important you should be doing, rather than the thing you should really be doing.

Do You Use Avoidance Behaviours?

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to see if you are using avoidance behaviours to avoid living a self disciplined life.

1 - Have you ever started cleaning things on your desk, or started browsing the Internet/checking your emails when you had something else you should have been doing? Such as making a phone call, or writing a report?

2 - Had long breaks instead of getting back to work?

3 - Spent time chatting with friends at work instead of working?

If you said yes to any of these questions there is a good chance you use avoidance behaviours. But don’t worry, avoidance behaviours are extremely common and virtually everyone does them in one form or another.

The key to living a more self disciplined life is to recognise these avoidance behaviours when they occur, and stop them.

Avoidance Behaviours And Fear

Avoidance behaviours are symptoms you may be experiencing due to a number of fears. These include a fear of rejection, fear of looking foolish, fear of success, fear of failure and a fear of some kind of perceived pain.

These kinds of fears are known as learnt irrational fears. At some point in the persons life they have acquired a subconsciously instilled fear, which then affects their future activities. In comparison, a real fear is one that risks your life.

Fear stops self discipline because it stops action. When you are fearful of something you become motivated to avoid it. This is usually done through various avoidance behaviours.

However, should you remove this fear, you automatically remove the block it places on your life. You are then free to take action, and achieve the things that fear previously restricted you from achieving.