We all want different problems and things we wish to achieve, and our desire to achieve what we wish is shown in how hard we work for it. While working to get the desired goal, we get caught up in thoughts that can be distractive, demotivating or even over exciting. Thoughts that can both push us towards the directions of our goals as well as serve as a hindrance towards achieving this goal. In our efforts to achieve things, a lot of us here visualize ourselves already attaining the desired object and wonders what it feels like. We sometimes get too caught up in this daydream that we forget that to get there, we will have to put in effort. Depending on the thoughts we have, they can either make us develop traits like : overconfidence in one's ability, unnecessary excitement, conceit, feelings of doubt, obsession and the lack of ability to remain level headed, all these things make us lose focus of our main goal before we even get there.

Allow me to tell you a story with an example:

When I was in my first year of medschool it wasn't all that different from high school, we were taught physics, biology, maths and chemistry. It was all simple for us since those in medicine are usually seen as the "geniuses" so it went quite smoothly. As some of you know, no one feels more like a doctor than a level one student. They boast about being "medical students" without even being asked, Infact you can see it from their naive fresher attitude but they still get cut some slack, for they know not what they are doing....it's totally normal, all of us have passed through this stage but some people get retain this attitude even after proceeding to successive levels, if care is not taken this mirage of uncertain success of becoming doctors may lead to them becoming distracted and instead of putting more hardwork, they fall the track and get withdrawn. This is a personal example of how focusing more on a probable future success can lead you to not achieving it all together, due to conceit and overconfidence that comes when a person rests too much on his laurels. These are all as a result of invasive thoughts.

These distractive thoughts can also come in the form of self doubt. It comes when you start thinking about what might or might not happen. You start thinking "what if I don't achieve this? What will become of me?". These are thoughts that could keep recurring if we think too much of the results of our efforts or when we spend more time that we should have channeled into our efforts envisage the future success that's not gonna come anyway if the effort is neglected.

Here are few tips I use when I encounter such problems both in my academics, my social life and even here on readcash :

Focus on the efforts:

Especially in this age, distractions are a dime a dozen. All you need is a few clicks and you're done for! Once you're done clarifying what it is you truly want from the work you're doing (which is very necessary!), don't think about the outcomes much. I am not saying you should be okay with failure but sometimes anxiety set in when we focus more on the outcomes than the efforts itself. This can make us start doubting our abilities and we even become erratic at times.

Relating to my studies at this moment I feel kind of nervous when a person refers jokingly to me as "Dr". Even among my course mates where it is quite normal for us to use that term, I feel nervous. I feel like it makes me think too much about the future instead on focusing me more on the task at hand to truly become a doctor. Of course there's nothing wrong with that the "Dr" part(look! I even go by DocLayla here on readcash) but when it gets too much, I dislike it really haha. That's just me.

Live in the moment :

Sometimes even when we get too immersed in efforts relevant to our success, we still get invasive thoughts. This is when we have to live in the moment. View all invasive thoughts as a different entity and disassociate them from yourself. Remember you're not the voices in your mind.

Right now I am trying to purchase a new phone with my earnings on readcash because the current one is giving me serious issues after several frustrating repair trips. I am really working hard for it, but sometimes when I set to reach a target by the end of the day and fall short, I get invasive thoughts. "What if this phone gets damaged without me saving enough money to purchase a new one?" but I still try not to get too involved in it. I instead stopped looking at my earnings and just visit and tip articles every four hours while keeping myself immersed in other activities in between those hours. At the end, what will be will be regardless of weather I get anxious or not. Live in the moment.

This article is in no way insinuating that you shouldn't record your progress in relation to your success, far from it. Thinking about success and expecting it can even boost your motivation to put in more effort but when you act like the success is the most important thing, you miss out on other things. Do not forget that the effort you put in is also part of the success.

Thanks for reading and thanks to my upvoters, sponsors, viewers.

Special thanks to @foryoubtc09 for the sponsorship renewal.

Yours Layly,

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