If you are anything like me, being able to stop procrastinating would be a massive improvement.
For many years, I would tell people that I am a procrastinator. I had resigned myself to this state of being and literally accepted it.
Whenever I had to stay up late at night trying to finish a project, whether it was for school, a presentation or job related, I would beat myself up for having waited until the last minute.
I eventually started justifying my procrastination by saying I work better under pressure. And indeed, I did. It seemed like the “juice” flowed more when I’m in that tight spot. I believe everything else was shut out and my focus was solely on what was before me.
After delivering whatever I was working on and received a sub par level feedback and sometimes great feedback, I would say to myself, “what if I had given myself more time?”.
I thought of so many good ideas after the fact, which I then would berate myself about because it would have made “it” so much better. It was too late.
This went on for a long time until I realize it was impacting my health and jeopardizing other areas of my life. It impacted my interaction with my co-workers. They would stress how important what it was they expected me to do and to get it done on time.
The more they pushed this one point, the more frustrated I became because the truth stings. It hurts. I felt bad as it were and didn’t need anyone else adding to my bad-feelings.
When I received feedback that was below what I wanted to hear or see, it made me stop and think. I acknowledged my contribution and how it was my fault. Again, it didn’t feel good.
Here’s the crazy thing: I didn’t change right away. I kept on procrastinating and I realize now there was a deeper issue … Fear. I gave myself permission to procrastinate so that I could blame my late start.
I’ve made tremendous progress in this area. Taking action and giving myself more time to prepare, has reduced my stress level. As a heart surgery survivor, this is one area I need to pay close attention to. Reducing my stress level is key to my overall survival.
Here are 5 tips that will help you stop procrastinating and start pursuing your passion:
1. Know your passion
Know what it is you want to do. Be clear on that. You might have a number of things that you are passionate about, which might be one of your reason for procrastination. It’s like going to a restaurant and after looking over the menu, you procrastinate on what to order for dinner.
What happened? There were too many choices placed before you. The mind have a difficult time with such a smorgasbord of choices.
So it is with having so many passions reigning in your head.
The trick is to “downsize” your list, and find the one that you feel tops them all.
2. Break the passion in manageable sizes
Once you’ve settled on the passion that you are more than likely pursue, begin to take it apart. What part of it you could do now? What part would need to wait – you can’t do it now? What part of it you might need to get help on (I’ll talk more about this later).
3. Take action
Now that you have byte size portions of your passion, it feels more manageable. Start with the part you identified as what you could do right now. I expanded on this in this episode of my podcast.
4. Get help
You might want to team up with a buddy and create a buddy system, where they’ll hold you accountable for what it is you say you’ll do.
I find that if you hire a coach at this point, and having to pay for their service, makes a huge difference. A buddy is good but a coach makes it greater. You don’t have to pay a buddy so there’s not much skin in the game. By hiring a coach you have to.
The point is, how serious are you? This step will determine that.
5. Set deadlines
Once you have a buddy or a coach, set deadlines as to when you are hoping to have the part you’re working on, finished. I find that deadlines forces or pushes you to make what you’re working on an important task and causes you to be more focused.
I have used both. When I know that my next call with my buddy or coach is going to include an update on my progress, it pushes me. I don’t want to give them excuses or lie to them. Why should I do that when they are having my best interest at heart.
These 5 tips will help you stop procrastinating and start pursuing your passion. Which tips work best for you? Do you have your own personal tip to overcome procrastination? Please share with everyone in the comments section.
