Author Archive
Invest In the Right Tools
Posted by: | CommentsAre you investing in the right tools to build your life into the success you dream, desire and deserve?
If you have ever sat in a fine car, a fine home or just stood in front of a beautiful painting, you will have noticed not only the artistry and attention to detail that went it that car, home or painting. But upon closer inspection you would have noticed the quality of the raw materials that the home was made of, the attention to detail in the painting and how well the individual parts of that fine car worked concert make your driving experience a far more pleasurable one.
So I would ask you again are you investing in the right set of tools to help yourself become a success? If you truly desire to reach your goal, achieve higher level of success or become all that you can become then you are going to need to make sure you are building your success on a foundation of quality materials put together by quality tools.
When I was a kid I remember wanting to build a club house in the field across the street from my house. My and my best friend Walter, went around the neighborhood and behind the local shops collecting various materials: pieces of scrap wood, old used and often rusted or bend nails, tarps, pieces of scrap metal and so on. Then with an old hammer and saw we set to work to build our clubhouse.
Four to six hours, three blisters, two spinters and one wounded thumb later, we were sitting within the four walls and shoddy roof of our new club house. While it was fun for the few days it remained standing – it sadly toppled with the first breeze.
How many people have you seen approach their success with the same, last minute haphazard methodology? They take scraps of knowledge, and rusted bits of information and try to build their Trump Plaza of success. Which upon the first breeze of trouble – topples over like a deck of cards. Then they do like we did with our club house – leave it their in a pile of discarded waste and move on to the next project dejur.
Create Plans, Gather Quality Materials and Use Worthy Tools
Do not waste your time dragging together an easy access pile of scrap or dead wood knowledge and rusted nails expecting to build a dream house or successful life. Instead, take the time to draw up plans (Set Goals), make a list of all the supplies (Knowledge, resources etc) that you will need, and set about getting them.
Be wary of waste and extravagance in your gathering of your supplies. Balance your willingness to invest in quality supplies with what you truly need to have to get the job done. While, you want to create a ‘house’ that is not only beautiful, but can withstand the elements and endure the test of time. But are you trying to build the Hurst Castle or just a quality four bedroom two and one half bath home that is stable and comfortable? The choice is yours – but knowing answer up front will determine the correct materials you collect. It will be a little difficult to build the Hurst Castle with the studs and drywall you would use to build a house.
Do this in your personal and professional life. Take the time to make sure you have thoughtfully explored the options and have a clear vision of your goal in mind! Plan, research and seek the advices of others in order to have a realistic idea of the skills and knowledge you will need in order to achieve your goals and live the life you dream, desire and deserve! Once you have this blue print of understanding and then you can collect the right skills, knowledge and resources.
Know what you want, be willing to make the necessary investments in energy, time, and money and you CAN make your dreams become your reality!
Here are three questions to help your reach Your Success At Last – take the time to sit down and write out your ansers.
Your Success At Last Questions:
- Do I have a clear picture of my goals?
- Have I taken the time to figure out what skills I may need to achieve my goals?
- What investments are necessary to succeed?
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
FREE Video reveals how I went from the
Streets of LA to running my own company!
View the Free Video and Learn More!
Building character and strengthening relationships by opening up
Posted by: | CommentsOver the course of my 4 plus decades on this lovely planet I have learned something very special when it comes to relationships. My relationships give me strength and by sharing my thoughts and feelings with others, I build character. So the lesson is quite simply: I am able to build both character and strength via my relationships.
Do not get me wrong, there have been times when I was too scared to allow others to see the true me. I protected my hidden passions, my unconventional thoughts, my deeply held values and parts of my belief system; all because I was worried that I might not be accepted. There were even times I shelved some of my core values as a result of these fears? Have you?
Luckily, I came to understand that this fear is normal, and I bravely moved past being overly concerned about what everyone else thought. This has enabled me to truly experience, and enjoy who I was – so, I could grow into who I am. But more importantly, I have come to learn that the real reward was my increased ability to more intimately experience and enjoy all those that I formed and form relationships with.
Trusting in other people means that you will have share yourself with them. Not just the good stuff, you will have to reveal some of your faults and your foibles as well. Revealing the chinks in your armor to those that you care about will allow them to more quickly do so in return. If you want to build character and strengthen your relationships, you will have to be brave for it takes courage to honestly invite others into your life.
- Reflection Affirmation
True fulfillment comes from becoming connected to others and my inner self.
Each part of yourself that you share is like adding a new link in your relationship chain. With each new link you add you can extend yourself further to others. So I urge you to constantly build that chain.
When others are in need, they know that I am there to help. Because I have extended a strong chain, they have come to know that they can reach out and grasp it. This is how I have built strong relationships in my life. You can do the same thing, each and every day. By sharing more of you, you invite others to open themselves up. You will feel more connected to the people in your life because you will come to see who they truly are. There in lies life’s truer reward: To feel bonded to good people.
Work hard to create fulfilling personal relationships. Extending yourself to others is worthwhile. You will deepen your character and strengthen your relationships by simply and bravely opening up to the people in your life.
Ask Yourself These Self-Reflection Questions:
- Do I bravely reveal my true self with others?
- How can I strengthen relationships with the people in my life?
- What do I love most about the close personal relationships I already have?
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
Today’s Top Motivated Success Coach & Author of Success Atlas Goals Programs
FREE Video reveals how I went from the
Streets of LA to running my own company!
View the Free Video and Learn More!
Beliefs Abandon Or Action Txt Version
Posted by: | CommentsAttitude ranks high on the list of things that drive what action you take or do not take. Your attitude is molded by the things you think about during the majority of your waking hours, as well as your deep seeded beliefs. Your beliefs further influence your thoughts about the world around you. So, your beliefs are one of the roots to your success. Put simply – your thinking and your beliefs will, either fuel fear and cause you to abandon attempts, or fuel confidence moving you to action. Which do you believe will facilitate your desired level success, abandon or action?
Yes, it is true your beliefs have that much power. What you believe about relationships, risk, goal-setting, success and failure will either push you towards your dreams and goals or push them away from you. It has been said that the basic success formula is:
Belief + Time = Success.
As with any formula – the more of one addend you have, then the less the other addend you will need. In other words, the more positive belief you have, the less time you will need. The more positive belief you have regarding your success the more action you will take. Thus, the less time you will need in order to reach your desired goal. Remember though, the opposite will be true as well. The more negative belief you have about one or more aspects of your success, the more time it will take to reach your goal.
So, how can we ensure that our beliefs are empowering us to the level of success that we desire? Here are three tips that you can put into action right away to positively impact your thoughts, beliefs and everything they will bring into your world.
- Define your ‘Success Atlas’ for every area of your life; your business, your relationship(s), your finances, etc. Your ‘Success Atlas’ is your vision of your future and a set of goals that are designed to bring that vision into your reality. If you do not know how to define your success atlas here are a few previous posts that will get you headed in the right direction:
http://www.yoursuccessatlast.com/wp/2009/12/11/goal-setting-for-success-5-tips-to-map-out-crystal-clear-goals/and here is a Blog Talk Radio Show that I did on creating your success atlas (Goal Plan)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tracybrinkmann/2009/04/18/Goal-Setting-101Having your ‘Success Atlas’ defined will give you something to wake up to each day. This well defined set of goals will push you to take action and even put a smile on your face as you think about the compelling future that you are creating for yourself and those you love.
- Remove negative inputs from your day. All around you are various negative inputs that are slowly whittling away at your desire and passion to reach your goal. These inputs range from the television, newspapers, new broadcasts, some movies and music. Even some of the people in your life (yourself included) can be donating negative input. They may even be well meaning in what they have to share, but could be the source of negative inputs none the less. Not all of any one of these categories is 100% negative, but, many are and you need to deter as much negative input from your mind as possible. You need to make it a passion to eliminate as many of these negative donators as you can – ban them from your day.
The universe is an interesting thing in that as you pull out the negative inputs, they leave a vacuum. The universe does not like a vacuum and will look to fill that vacuum with something. If you keep pulling out the negative – all that it left to put into that vacuum is positive input. So remove negative inputs from your world and replace them with positive inputs.
- Dig, Uncover, and substitute the negative beliefs you have. What negative behaviors do you have? What negative things do you say to yourself and others? In and of themselves these behaviors and words may not be negative. But, given your vision and your goals they could promote behaviors and thoughts that are holding you back. Be totally honest with yourself in searching for these negative values and bad habits. Once again create that vacuum – remove them from your daily routine – and replace them with empowering words, values and habits. Ones that will push you towards your goals and dreams.
In defining ‘Success Atlas’ you need to create a powerful why. Creating a powerful ‘why’ for why you want to accomplish a goal or a dream builds up energy like an electric power plant. Much like that plant, the ‘why’ will pump energy through the ‘power lines’ of your mind. Energy just waiting to be released. Your beliefs have the power to flick the switch and brighten your entire life – or leave you in the dark. So, sit down, define your own personal Success Atlas, remove the negatives from your world, and replace your harmful beliefs, words and habits with empowering ones. As you mold your beliefs, they will flick on the switch; releasing your power plant of energy and brighten your life and the lives of those you care about.
Empowered Beliefs produces empowered action;
Empowered Action produces an empowered life!
Think Successfully and Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches
FREE Video reveals how I went from the
Streets of LA to running my own company!
View the Free Video and Learn More!
Beliefs Abandon or Action
Posted by: | CommentsFREE Video reveals how I went from the
Streets of LA to running my own company!
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Overcoming Procrastination Part 4 Text
Posted by: | CommentsProcrastination is clearly eroded by goal setting by enabling you to not only see where you want to go – but also by providing a clear path on how to get there!
Hey Tracy Brinkmann here from Your Success At Last .com. We here we are with entry four of your Procrastination series. Over the last few blog entries we have been discussing procrastination in depth – today I want to give you your first tool for overcoming procrastination.
As I mentioned in a previous blog entry I actually given you a tool to curb the procrastination habit until now – why? The answer is simple and actually very logical. In all the group and individual coaching that I have done over the years I have found one thing to be absolutely true. That one thing is – the better I get you to understand the very thing you are trying to overcome the much easier it is and more successful you will be in overcoming it when you finally get the tools to do so. The work will still be there to be done, but, the groundwork to get it done will be more solid and you will be more motivated towards its accomplishment.
So I have spent the last three blog posts getting you to look at your procrastination from different angles, or excuses etcs. Today I want to give you your first real tool to begin chipping away at your procrastination
That first tool is: GOAL SETTING
If you are a procrastinator, you probably love this as your first tool. Why? Well because if allows you to take time to think, dream, and plan, possibly even enabling you to procrastinate even more. Because if you take the time to sit down and plan out your task or goal – then you’ve accomplished something haven’t you? Yes and No.
If you plans stay in the computer, in your journal or on the piece paper then yes it’s just another way to procrastinate but use it as the tool it is meant to be it will be the start of a great race, and as any competitive runner will tell you, how you start the race is just as important as how you finish it.
There are few key tips on goals setting for overcoming procrastination I want to share with you so that you do not get caught in the trap of using goal setting as a tool FOR procrastination but rather a tool to OVERCOME your procrastination.
- ONE AT A TIME
Work one goal at a time. Procrastinators love to set goals and make plans and dream big. But they spend all their energy planning not taking action. Narrow your goals down to one and take action – even a small step. Daily small steps towards your goal will do wonders for your psyche, your self esteem and your motivation. If you get the urge to head of and plan another goal, STOP, write that goal down in your journal and come back to it when your current one is complete. - WALK, RUN, FLY
One the biggest mistakes I see even the most sincere and motivated person make is choose and huge goal right out of the gate. The huge daunting goal looms over them every day like a dark cloud raining doubt on them and they give up. Start with a smaller goal first. The accomplishment of that smaller goal will motivate you to the next bigger goal to the next and so on. You will be building a back of self confidence that will later enable to you to over come what once seems like a huge daunting goal.. one step as a time. - PRESCISION
Do not be vague. Avoid setting goals like “I want to lose some weight.” Turn that into a very specific goal. “I am going to weight 175 pounds by the 3rd of March” You see that is clear and specific and you will know when you have reached it. - CHUNK IT, SLICE IT, DICE IT
Then you can break your goal down into the hows of accomplishment. “I am going to double my green vegetable intake and cut my sweets to two a day” and so on. As you set these precise goals, and chuck them, them slice them and dice them into smaller tasks, you are able to see not only what you want but how to get it! - START!
This one should go without saying. But, then again, we are talking about procrastinators here. Procrastinators love, love, love to set goals and make plans but then that’s where they stop. To break that cycle – immediately after choosing your goal, making it sure its not too big for you right now, defining it clearly and breaking it down – then do something ANYTHING towards its accomplishment. Right then and there. This one simple action of starting will do wonders for your motivation and self esteem.
Goal setting is much more then just writing down what you want to accomplish and hanging that piece of paper of the refrigerator of hope waiting for it to come true. It is a though provoking and planning practice that will compel you to realistically look at what you can accomplish in the time you want to accomplish it.
When you take the time to create a successful goal setting practice and all that it entails you will have laid the foundation for not only the successful completion of that goal but you will completing the goal will give you the motivation, self esteem and self confidence to set, and achieve the next one and the next.
Here are Your Success At Last actions to take:
- What is your stopping point?
Think about where you have usually stopped in any of your past goals, especially those you have found yourself setting over and over again. - Go back to the project you picked out during the first entry in this procrastination series.
- Does it meet these criteria mentioned?
- Is it the right size for you now? If not go back to your original list and pick out one that is – or create a new one that is the right size.
- Chuck, Slide and Dice the chosen goal into smaller tasks
- Take your first action NOW!
Seriously, take these three actions NOW – and in the next part of this series I am going to talk to you about a very paralyzing problem that promotes procrastination and give you some tips to overcome it!
Until next time – think successfully & take Action!
Tracy
One of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches
FREE Video reveals how I went from the
Streets of LA to running my own company!
View the Free Video and Learn More!
Overcoming Procrastination Part 3 Text
Posted by: | CommentsProcrastination only seems like a harmless habit,
Procrastination has many negative consequences
Procrastination can even have LONG lasting costs!
Hey Tracy Brinkmann here from Your Success At Last .com. We here we are with entry three of your Procrastination series. Over the next few blog entries I will share with you tips for overcoming procrastination.
First, thank you for all your positive emails, tweets and feed back about this procrastination series. I am so glad you are enjoying it and even looking forward to this and the next entry.
One note I want to share with you right now – which is in response to a comment on why haven’t I actually given you a tool to curb the procrastination habit yet. So far I have only asked you to list some projects you’ve been putting off and would like to accomplish as well as some reasons to get it done and excuses you have been giving your self etc.
The answer is simple and actually very logical. In all the group and individual coaching that I have done over the years I have found one thing to be absolutely true. That one thing is the better I get you to understand the very thing you are trying to overcome the much easier it is and more successful you will be when I give you to tips and tools to overcome it. The work will still be there to be done but the groundwork to get it done will be more solid and you will be more motivated towards its accomplishment.
So I have spent the last two blogs entries getting you to look at your procrastination from different angles, or excuses etcs. Today we will talk about the real price you pay for your procrastination then next session knowing that you have looked at your procrastination from all these angles – I will start giving you some tools to begin chipping away at it.
So now let’s talk about the Price of Procrastination
Procrastination like ANY bad habit comes along with a cost or a price tag if you will. Like poor health habits, eating or drinking habits – that cost might be evident right away. But over time the cost builds and builds usually until it’s too late. That cost can come in many forms. Here are seven prices you WILL pay for your procrastination. This is not a comprehensive list but one that should enlighten you – hopefully before it is too late!
- GUILT
Procrastinators are well aware of the guilt factor and feel its price far more then they would like. They feel guilty for not getting the report done on time, for the flimsy excuses they try and mask that tardiness with and so on. They feel guilty that they let someone down, or even let themselves down – they feel guilty they can’t break the procrastination cycle. It’s like quicksand, it slowly sucks you in. By the time you feel in danger and start to try to escape, you are so deep that you have to work so hard – you often give up. Resulting in your getting pulled in deeper. - ANXIETY
If you are able to rush around and get the late report in at the last minute – there will be this firestorm of anxiety churning within you. A firestorm that has an impact on your body. Studies have shown that procrastinating college students reported nearly 9 illness symptoms a week, while non-procrastinating student report only ½ that. Procrastination has REAL effect on you even if you have an excuse your body will know the truth. - RELATIONSHIPS STRESS
Procrastination effects more then just the procrastinator – if affect their friends and family as well. Parents procrastinating a child’s needs can turn that child rebellious, defensive and cynical. This can cause the parent to resort to more aggressive parenting methods furthering the downward spiral. Friends and spouses can get frustrated with one anther as a result of unmet expectations or unfinished projects and dreams not realized together. Which lead into… - LOSS OF TRUST
Trust is eroded with the flimsy and repeated excuses. The procrastinator might even be blind to the trust fading away – but the word will get around that they can’t be relied on to get things done in time or at all or if does get done the quality of the work will come into question etc. A bad reputation is VERY difficult to repair and it takes a long to do repair it. - OPPORTUNITIES LOST
Procrastinator miss out on huge opportunities such as job promotions, completion of wage impacting certification and degrees, meaningful relationships, business opportunities and so much more. They miss nurturing themselves to their full potential. - SELF CONFIDENCE
I would content that is impossible to feel good about yourself when you are doling out excuses for late projects and little white lies to cover your procrastination. Inside the procrastinator knows the truth and feels like a lair and a failure. So when the next project comes along their already wounded self confidence does not offer much stimulus change thus causing them to sink even deeper in the low self-esteem quicksand I mentioned earlier. This leads into… - DIGGING THE HOLE DEEPER
Every time the procrastinator defers, delays or doesn’t even start a project they reinforce the procrastination habit. A habit is something that you have done so many times that you begin to do it without conscious thought. So it becomes less and less recognizable as it becomes 2nd nature.
If you are still with me on this procrastination series I will assume you are a procrastinator or care for someone who is experiencing one or more of these prices of procrastination. The remaining blog entries, in this series, are going to focus on overcoming this savage success sucking, self-esteem chipping, relationship ruining, performance bogging and job threatening beast.
Here are Your Success At Last actions to take:
- What is your Price of Procrastination?
Review the negative consequences you wrote down from the first entry in this series – do you want or need to add anything to your list? - Write down how your life will be different when you no longer have to live with these consequences.
- Update your list of positive rewards / consequences you will enjoy when you have completed your project(s).
- Have these two lists up where you can see them as you work through the project and this procrastination series.
Seriously, take these three actions NOW – and in the next part of this series you will be primed and ready for you first tip to overcome your procrastination!
Until next time – think successfully & take Action!
Tracy
One of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches
FREE Video reveals how I went from the
Streets of LA to running my own company!
View the Free Video and Learn More!
Overcoming Procrastination Part 2 Text
Posted by: | CommentsProcrastination 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:
- 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.
- 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?
- 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
- 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
FREE Video reveals how I went from the
Streets of LA to running my own company!
View the Free Video and Learn More!
Overcoming Procrastination Part 1 Text
Posted by: | CommentsProcrastination is the source of stress and feelings of low self esteem.
Procrastination makes life much harder then the very task being put off.
Procrastination makes life much harder then it should be!
Hey Tracy Brinkmann here from Your Success At Last .com. Over the last few video blog entries I have been bringing you tips for overcoming procrastination. It was been brought to my attention (thank you friends for your feed back) that not everyone can or will watching video blog entries. So from now on after the video blog entry I will post a text version for your reading pleasure. To get us started let me catch everyone up with the Procrastination Series I have been posting (which we are almost ½ way through)
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. 25% of the entire population openly admits to being a procrastinator. Research says that 70% of us have a serious problem with procrastination.
Coming from the Latin word ‘pro’ meaning forward combined with ‘crastinus’ meaning tomorrow – giving you a the putting forward until tomorrow of a task that should be done today or worse yet the day before yesterday.
Now if you are like me and if you’re still listening to this video blog entry then I am going to assume you are. Anyway if you are like me – you start your task or project with great intentions, passion and hope for its successful completion. You set a goal, make a plan get your hopes up heck you might even actually get started but somewhere along the way either with the taking of step one or moving on to step two you can seem take that first or next step.
Many in academia agree that the reasons for procrastination are as varied as the tasks they impact. One psychologist at the California Institute for Technology says that although it may seem like there is a lack of willpower or that the person is lazy – procrastination is often something far different. It could be a fear, like a fear of failure or even a fear of success (yes you heard me fear of success). Tendencies toward perfection can paralyze people into inaction. Again the list goes on and on.
Net net again we all start of with great intentions but somewhere along the way we falter. New Years resolutions are a perfect example. Did you know the 70% of all new years’ resolutions are abandoned by February 1st?
Well if procrastination is such a success sucking, self-esteem chipping, relationship ruining, performance bogging and job threatening problem why you ANYONE engage in it. I mean we are all smart enough to be aware of it and avoid it right? RIGHT? Yet some how it creeps into our lives time and again, stealing our dreams, robbing our pleasures and putting the weight of guilt on our shoulders.
Well that’s why I’m going to be giving you a series of tips on overcoming procrastination. Now you may ask – why not give them all to me at once Tracy? That’s what you have been doing with goal setting, and shopping and all your other topics lately.
Well the reason is, deciding to stop procrastinating along won’t work. It is not just simply a matter of making a promise to yourself not to procrastinate any more – well not for most of us anyway. It is a matter of taking the HABIT of procrastinating – in whatever area of your life you are doing it and replacing that bad habit with a better one.
That is not something done in a single day – so I’m spacing this video blog entries out to help you truly try and break that procrastination cycle by giving it to you over time – so you can take it step by step and really deeply drive in the new habit – make it a part of who you are.
Here are Your Success At Last actions to take:
- Write down three projects or tasks that you have been putting of, or have had good intentions of started – yet haven’t started or haven’t continued to completion
- Write down what excuses you have been giving yourself (or others) to defend your not starting or completing these tasks & projects
- Write down how NOT completing these tasks or project have negatively impacted you (physically, financially, emotionally etc)
- Pick one of these three projects and put it on a 3×5 index card. This will be the project that you will focus on during the future video blog posts – the one that we will work together on getting done.
- Post the index card where you will see it every day, perhaps on your bathroom mirror or on your monitor – so it reminds you to check out the next video blog post.
Seriously, take these three actions NOW – and tomorrow we will review excuses and challenge
Until next time – think successfully & take Action!
Tracy
Once of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches
FREE Video reveals how I went from the
Streets of LA to running my own company!
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Overcoming Procrastination Part 4
Posted by: | CommentsFREE Video reveals how I went from the
Streets of LA to running my own company!
View the Free Video and Learn More!
Sorry
Posted by: | CommentsSorry my friends, I haven’t forgotten you! I have just been feeling WAY under the weather lately. Pushing myself a little too hard I think and the old body is saying “OK Tracy you better rest or else…” Sadly I didn’t listen and now i have a wicked cold to shake.
I will be back tomorrow with your next installment of the procrastination series. In this installment I will give you your first solid tool to use to battle your procrastination (whether its serious or just occasional)
Till then – Think Successfully (ACHOOO.. sniffle) & Take Action!
Tracy