Overcoming Procrastination Part 2 Text

Procrastination brings about those little white lies.
Procrastination fosters those excuses that we tell ourselves.
White lies and excuses that perpetuate the Procrastination cycle!

Hey Tracy Brinkmann here from Your Success At Last .com.  We here we are with entry two to your Procrastination series.  Over the next few blog entries I will be brining you 10 tips for overcoming procrastination.  Being guilty of procrastination myself I have come to learn that I am not alone and I am hoping that tips help you as much if not more then they have helped me to tame the savage success sucking, self-esteem chipping, relationship ruining, performance bogging and job threatening beast know as procrastination.

In this entry I want to focus on your excuses.

I have found the most procrastinators are hopeful people.  Well at least the ones that would take the time to go absorb this kind of information are.  The pick a dream, even makes some plans, set some goals, break those goals down in  task and perhaps even break those task down into step all the while planning and talking about all the great things they are going t accomplish when they reach their dreams and goals.  But then the day come with their road of planning and talk end and the road of action begins.   At this junction of the road the procrastinator can make the right turn and begin taking action towards their dream or the wrong turn down Excuse Avenue.   We all know which turn we usually make don’t we?

Once a procrastinator has traveled down planning lane as far as they can they become very familiar with the twists, turns and alleyways along Excuse Avenue.  I mean after all, once they can’t come up with an excuse then they might actually have to start taking action, Right?!

Well I am going to spend the next couple minutes going through ten of the top excuse used by the most procrastinators.  I have to warn you I am about to bring up and expose some of the flimsy excuse you personally might be using….

So – you have been warned!

The top ten excused used by procrastinators!

• #10 “I need time to think it through before I get started” – Alright this comes back to planning lane.  I mean really how much time do you really need to think about it?  A day? A week? A year, 5, 10 years?  Let’s put it this way – there were three frogs sitting on a log.  If one thinks about jumping off – how many are left?  THREE – he only THOUGHT about jumping off.  TAKE ACTION! NOW!  Even a little action!  If you need to think set a limit – I will decide by tomorrow 8pm and hold yourself it!

   

• #9 “All I do is work work – I need some fun time to myself – THEN I will get started” – This one will only work for a short time.  I mean how much celebrating can you do before you are unable to say you don’t have time for fun.  If you stop spending all your time putting thing off – trust me you’ll have lot of time for fun and things to celebrate.

   

• #8 “Once I get organized – then I will get going” – Lots of procrastinators use this one to appear like they are doing something.  I mean after all if you cleaned your office and re-arranged all your files – you’ve accomplished something right?  But how closer are you to your real dream?  NONE one bit!
• #7 “It’s too hard” – Oh my god, here is some cheese to go with your whine.  They excuse perpetuates the “poor me” syndrome of procrastinators.  The “poor me” mentality is important to a procrastinator because it enables him to believe in his or her excuses.  Yes it might be hard – but if it was easy you’d already be doing it – and there probably wouldn’t be a reward getting it done.
• #6 “I’m not in the mood” – this is the old adage of standing in front of the stove of life and saying “ok stove give me some heat then I will get some wood to put in you”  If you wait for the mood to strike – you’ll probably be waiting a very long time.  Or, worse yet it will strike at a time when you can’t take advantage of it. No, start doing and the mood will grow with in you!

   

• #5 “I will do [this] (not dream oriented) and start [that] (dream oriented) tomorrow” – tomorrow is a procrastinator favorite day.  The fact is if today is not a good enough day to start then I am willing to bet tomorrow will not be much better.  START today!

   

• #4 “I need to do [this] (not dream oriented) first” – the procrastinator will get a lot of things done – but none of them even remotely related to the true task at hand.  Do you need to do the dishes then you are out sweeping the porch – do you need to sweep the porch ten your in doing the dishes.  Usually this is not an excuse that is said outwardly but said in action instead.  Before they spend 1 minute on that true goal they are like little butterflies flitting from one small task to another.   Getting this started or redoing that until hours go but then they can use excuse #3

   

• #3 “I am too tired” – while there may at times be some validity to this excuse, more often then not it is just that, an excuse.  Seems procrastinator will have plenty of energy if their best friend would be to call them up and say “I need a fourth for golf” or “we need someone to play tennis basket ball etc with us.  But when the though of their task enters their head – droopy eyes and slumped shoulders can be found.  Well man up and start your task anyway – your body will get motivated and find the energy to move you through.

   

• #2 – “I have plenty of time” – there will not always be a tomorrow.  I think Jim Rohn best said it when we talks about not having 20 more years but 20 more times.  If you go on a special trip with someone you love every year you don’t have 20 more years.  You only have 20 more trips.  Wow that changes things – because after this trip you only have 19, then 18… soon only 1.  Start now!

   

• #1 – “I work best under pressure” – I saved this one for last for obviously reasons.  I think this is the one I have heard more often then ANY of the others and in each case the resulting product was only ½ of what it could have been. 

What I find most interesting is all these excuses are most often told to the procrastinator themselves – not to others.  They spend more time and mental energy telling these little white lies to themselves then they might ever spend on their whole task, goal or dream and on top of that while they are lying to themselves they are de-motivating themselves. Because inside they know they are lying so they feel bad, bringing down their self esteem and self worth…. You see it’s a vicious downward spiral.  So stop telling yourself these little white lies and you will be one your way to slaying that savage success sucking, self-esteem chipping, relationship ruining, performance bogging and job threatening beast know as procrastination.

Here are Your Success At Last actions to take:

1. Keep a mindful eye and ear open for these and any other excuses you tell yourself as you strive to accomplish the project or task you picked out from the first installment of this series.
2. Review what you wrote down on: how NOT completing these tasks or project has negatively impacted you (physically, financially, emotionally etc).  Is there anything you can add?
3. Review the excuses that you have that you wrote down last session – and determine that you are NOT going to believe these little white lies
4. Write down a reason why each one of the excuses you noted last session is NOT valid.

Seriously, take these three actions NOW – and in the next part of this series I will share with you some more tips and expose to the price of putting it off!

Until next time – think successfully & take Action!

Tracy
Today’s Top Motivated Coach

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