You Don’t Have to Struggle to be Successful
If you’re human, chances are you’ve procrastinated a few times.
It’s probably one of the most frustrating emotions we can feel and we would like to go away.
Did you notice I said emotions? That’s because procrastination is usually about regulating your emotions, not managing your time. Yes, it is a behavior, but it’s coming from something more than being unable to manage your time. Having a hard time managing your time just doesn’t happen. It’s due to something going on inside of you.
The cycle usually goes from a thought to an emotion to a behavior and the cycle continues.
Procrastination most often comes from avoiding the task because 1) it’s a boring or dreadful task and 2) it needs to be done perfectly so if it’s not, forget about doing it.
We think about how the task will demand a lot (thought) then we feel overwhelmed (emotion) and as a result, we procrastinate (behavior).
Implementation Intention
I went over how you can apply implementation intentions to start taking action and get to your goals by being specific. This can also prevent a lot of procrastination. How so? By being specific, you get more clarity on what to do because it’s different from just having a general task such as “I want to get fit.” A general to-do or goal would leave you wandering forever and feeling overwhelmed and anxious. Instead, try “I’ll pack my workout clothes for the gym tomorrow at 5pm.” Before you know it, you’re done with the task. What procrastination?
By being specific with your plan, your tasks get smaller and more doable, and there’s less chance for it to be “perfect.” How perfect does packing your gym bag to go to the gym need to be? The smaller the task, the less likely you’ll procrastinate because it doesn’t feel overwhelming. “I want to get to fit” feels really overwhelming.
You Don’t Have to Struggle to be Successful
One of the things a lot of people tend to get wrong is they think in order to be productive and feel like they have accomplished something, the task needs to be hard. This can’t be further from the truth. The task doesn’t have to be hard, feel overwhelming, feel impossible, etc. Just because the task was small and easy to do, doesn’t mean you didn’t get anything done and it’s not going to help you in the long run. In fact, these easier, smaller tasks will get you further in your journey without feeling the unnecessary stress that bigger and harder tasks tend to bring us.
Some examples:
Instead of: I want to make this much profit this month
Try: I’ll spend 15 minutes every day after work organizing an excel sheet on my income and expenses.
Instead of: I’m going to meal prep this week
Try: I’ll make a list of what I’ll eat and like to eat before I go to bed tonight to go grocery shopping tomorrow.
What if life happens? and it gets in the way of your plan? I talk about this in my upcoming newsletter and more on nutrition and fitness. Plus when you sign up, you’ll get my FREE nutrition guide that is loaded with the only information you need to reach your goal.
