The 3 Stages of Plausible Sabotage
Readtime: 3 minutes
As high performing professionals, we know how to craft a persuasive argument.
But we are probably a little too good at using those arguments against ourselves.
We’re great at coming up with plausible reasons to:
Not do something that we know is good for us
Do something that we know isn’t good for us
I call this ‘Plausible Sabotage’.
For example, we may have signed up for a work-related event, that we know would broaden our understanding on something and be great for networking. But, as the event becomes imminent, we tell ourselves that we’re so busy with work right now that we can’t spare the time to go. That we can use that time for catching up on emails and other work tasks instead.
Or, we may have booked a gym class, but on the day we tell ourselves that we’re feeling exhausted from work, so we’ll skip this one class and make up for it later in the week.
If you keep sabotaging yourself with rational excuses you will limit your success.
And you will feel pretty bad that you let yourself get outsmarted, by none other than yourself…
In this article, I’ll share the three stages of Plausible Sabotage, and how you can put an end to your own.
(I will focus in this article on not doing something that you know you should, that is good for you. But the same logic also applies to doing something that you know you shouldn’t.)
1. Proximity to the positive behaviour
When the planned activity is far off into the future, we don’t need to decide now not to do it. We have plenty of time for life to make that decision for us.
But, the closer we get to the activity, the more likely it is that we will come up with a last-minute reason as to why not doing it makes sense.
Sometimes we subconsciously know we are going to come up with a reason ahead of time, and we don’t, therefore, make the necessary preparations to do the thing.
For example, we delay an important work task, which then becomes urgent and clashes with the planned activity, or we don’t make sure we have clean gym clothes, or we don’t arrange for childcare.
2. Noticing your Plausible Sabotage
You’re great at coming up with justifiable reasons to do or not do something.
And this can be really helpful in your professional career to help get the important stuff done.
You will also probably notice that you’re particularly brilliant at this when giving advice to other people, to persuade them to do something that you think they should.
The issue comes when we use these powerful skills on ourselves, causing Plausible Sabotage.
We come up with these reasons so that we can be excused from doing something that we know we should.
We will notice when we’ve done this because we pat ourselves on the back and feel good about this bad decision that we’ve just made.
We are also likely to notice it as it takes a bit of effort to come up with our plausible excuses – so we can notice in that moment as well.
3. Intervening to stop yourself
Once you’ve noticed you are about to plausibly sabotage yourself, you have to intervene.
You intervene by a) acknowledging the Plausible Sabotage thinking, and b) creating a stronger argument for the better course of action.
For example, you can create a stronger argument that the work-related event will boost your longer-term leadership credibility and allow you to meet people who will be helpful for your success. Much more beneficial than firing off a few more emails.
Or you can create a stronger argument that attending the gym class would boost your energy levels and help you relieve stress. And that you could always take it easy during the class if you’re feeling tired.
You can also tell yourself that you’re not going to outsmart yourself with Plausible Sabotage.
As you practice this, you’ll not only notice that you come up with these plausible excuses quite often, but also that it gets easier to override them and go with the more beneficial argument.
In Summary
Congratulations, you now know the three stages for controlling your Plausible Sabotage:
Proximity to the positive behaviour
Noticing your plausible sabotage
Intervening to stop yourself
I would love to hear your thoughts. Please email me at coaching@mostynwilson.com.
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