Learn How to Release Your Mental Handbreak

By Denis Obrien

We all have a mental handbrake that stops us from moving forward when we are about to do something that seems painful or scary.

While this handbrake is there to protect us from harm or injury, it can also prevent us from taking action to bring about the change we want in our lives.

It's like you're in a car, engine revving ready to go, tyres screeching, and the smell of rubber burning; only you can't go anywhere because the handbrakes are on.

And it's the same when we come to our lives. We all have these goals and ideas; we get ourselves in a heat of desire and set off on the road to success but never staying the course to arrive at our destination. Why is that? How can you change this?

If you think of what needs to be done, the things you will need to do, the decisions you'll have to make, right away you see an impossible task, the handbrakes go up and inertia sets in.

But, if you think of the end result of what it will feel like to achieve your goal, your mental handbrake will come off and you will race towards your goals. It's the thought of doing that automatically engages our mental handbrake and keeps is stuck in inaction.

For example, to make money in business, you have to do things which can be off putting. You imagine what it would be like to start a business and market your business idea to earn money. But it may seem scary and painful and you procrastinate until the last minute. The handbrake is up and fully engaged; you only just get by.

If you could take off the handbrake you could build momentum and start generating a lot more money than you need. But if your handbrake is on, you only do just enough and constantly hover just over broke.

But how exactly is your mental handbrake engaged and how do you take off the? The thought of doing something rather than actually doing it automatically puts you in a state of inertia. To release your self from this state of inactivity, you have to consciously picture the outcome instead. How great it will feel afterwards, the sense of achievement and you will effortlessly complete the task without much thought. The handbrakes will come off!

But it's not enough to simply picture the outcome. You have to also attach feeling to your outcome. Picture the achievement and feel how good it is to have completed the task or goal.

Just remember these two important things when you have a task to complete but procrastination gets the better of you.
1. Picture the outcome of the completed task, what it will be like once you've completed it and,

2. Feel the pleasure and satisfaction of having completed the task and the feeling of accomplishment.

You have the capability to complete what may seem to be the most daunting of tasks, but only if you concentrate your efforts on the end result and the feeling of accomplishment. If you concentrate solely on what needs to be done to complete your task, this will automatically engage your mental handbrake and make you inactive. Although our mental handbrake is there to protect us from harm, don't let it stop you from achieving success in your life.