The 4 Reasons Why People Don’t Do The Things They Know They Should Do

My personal mission statement is to help convert human intention into action. I believe that if only we were to follow through on our best intentions - in our health, homes, work, and desire to make an impact - the world would be a much better place. 

It’s the reason why more than being productive, being intentional is the Northstar in my life.

I don’t want to just go about life, but I want to choose what I do and how I show up to it. Perhaps my obsession with being intentional stems from my biggest insecurity where deep down I don't trust that I have good intentions, that all the things I do to help people are just for myself, but that’s a topic for another time.

When it comes to following through on our best intentions, and doing all of the things we tell ourselves we should do or want to do, it seems like something often gets in the way. In my time studying it, I’ve found there are 4 reasons that consistently come up to explain why people don’t do the things they know they should do, that we’re all guilty of.

1. We forget. Simple human error! We set the intention to do something, and then when the moment comes we don’t even remember to do it. ‘Remembering to do something’ is an unreliable system for execution, and naturally, things slip through the cracks. That’s why it’s important to create an action plan for an intention and not just commit to it as an empty promise.

2. We get distracted or pulled off track. Life is busier than ever and we have more things vying for our attention than ever. Oftentimes, these things win the battle and whatever we were planning on doing no longer is the object of our focus. Whether the disruption comes from another person, technology, or randomly in our environment, we need to be aware of the patterns of things that distract us. With that awareness we can consciously override what normally happens unconsciously.

3. We don’t feel like doing it. It’s easy to say you want something, but when it comes down to it, it’s much more difficult to actually put time and energy into it. Through our own evolutionary biology, we have a hardwired preference to be lazy and conserve energy. Or in other words, what's normal is to not do anything other than the things that are critical for our personal survival. So a lot of that time, this resistance shows up strong, and we don’t feel motivated to take action.

4. We choose not to do it. The beautiful thing about making plans is, plans can change. In fact they should! When you have more information you can make a more informed decision. However, it’s difficult to know if a new choice is genuinely what’s best for you or if it’s a reaction to the present moment. Self-sabotage creeps in to rationalize choices that are more comfortable or convenient. And it's insidious - just because you think something makes sense in one setting doesn’t mean you’ll agree in the next.

I imagine you can relate to these because guess what - we all do. It’s a problem we all share and a battle we’re all fighting to live the impactful, purposeful, vibrant life we see for ourselves. And as someone who’s fighting this battle myself, I’ve devised a system to help me be consistent, disciplined, and organized in my follow through so that I can actually live up to being the person I know I’m capable of being on a daily basis.

Or, at least I do my best! If you want to see my high performance system in action and get your own template for how to create a version of it for yourself, watch this video where I walk you through my Self Improvement Scorecard - I’m happy to share.

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