It’s Wednesday and you have two days to complete an offer for a joint venture opportunity. This alliance has the potential to double your revenue. You’re excited about this opportunity so you make time to sit down at your desk to outline the joint venture project and then it happens – something stops you.
Your enthusiasm is replaced by anxiety so you check emails and shop online to release the tension. However, the few moments checking emails and shopping turn into two hours and before you know it, you’ve got to pick up your children from school, make dinner, help with homework and do laundry. How the heck are you going to give this project the time and attention for maximum result it deserves?
You feel stressed out and get angry with yourself. How did you let this happen? You were hoping for a chance to expand your reach and now you may have botched your opportunity.
What do you do when you’re procrastinating? Do you beat yourself up for all that you aren’t doing?
There are three main reasons for procrastination patterns and they have nothing to do with laziness; they are blockers sabotaging your success. They are:
- Not having enough information – When you don’t have all the details to a project, this may keep you from moving forward on a project.
- Not for our highest good. Sometimes, we may procrastinate on a task when we intuitively know doing something isn’t for our highest good or simply….the timing isn’t right. All we see is the outside symptom that we feel blocked. Unless you have a way to translate your gut messages, you might make matters worse by ignoring your feelings and pull out the whip and try forcing yourself to do projects you despise.
- Negative internal dialogue – It may sound like this: ‘I can make this work, I can make this work…’ until you’re exhausted. It usually comes on strong when there’s threat of you growing beyond your current comfort zone.
Procrastination often occurs in our lives because we’re bombarded by too much information every single day. According to research, before Facebook, Twitter and the plethora of social networking tools out there we had to deal with over a million bytes. In essence, there’s too much to do, read and respond to in our day-to-day living.
Because we don’t want to miss out on anything, we also suffer from terminal ‘over-commit’ and ‘under-perform’ habits and take on too many projects, creating stress and producing work that is below our standards.
That’s not real living and it’s a sign of a self-sabotaging blocker. You need to get to the core of this procrastination pattern and unlock yourself from this negative mindset so you can say ‘No’ to inappropriate projects and ‘Yes’ to those that fit your life vision. Then, you can accept things that are in alignment with your core nature and compel you forward.
Before we can fix the procrastination habit, we need to clearly recognize when we’re off track.
How do you know when you’re off track?
You know this feeling when you feel overwhelmed, unfocused, take on too many projects, you miss deadlines and you feel guilty, distracted, tired, irritable, anxious or unable to finish a task or project.
By contrast, when you’re in the ‘zone’ and not procrastinating, you feel energetic, everything flows and you accomplish a lot. Your actions come naturally, you don’t have to think all the time, you’re calm, less stressed and you feel engaged and love what you’re doing. You also notice that time disappears, things get done, you’re not aware of noise in the environment – everything gets blocked out. As a result, you may notice that income growth becomes a natural side effect of ‘being in the zone.’
How do you tackle procrastination? You begin by paying attention to what you are procrastinating on and building a zone of competency. This is created by following three key secrets.
The first key is to align your head and gut (unconscious) with your projects. The second key is to watch for synchronistic timings in your environment. The third key is to commit to alternatives and action when you see the signs.
If you follow these three keys, you’ll build your zone of competency and follow through and complete your projects. In essence, you’ll learn how to listen to your true self and unlock the power that resides within you.
Key #1: Align your head and intution with your projects
This rule is tricky because we’ve been trained to ignore our intuition (unconscious) and listen with our mind and this has been taught to us since we were little in school. When we’re not in alignment with what we really want and need, we’re conflicted and we procrastinate.
When you’re out of the zone, you need to slow down and pay attention to why you might be out of alignment. Do you dislike a task, do you lack the skill set to complete the challenge or are you tired, overwhelmed or unfocused? Listen to your gut and see how you might make the task more appealing.
Key #2: Watch for synchronistic signs to ease your path
If you’re aligned with your true self, you’ll act with your gut instincts, calm down and notice your environment. Your power of focus will be automatic and you’ll see places, people and things that can help you on your path to accomplish your work. When we’re in the ‘zone,’ we often think these types of events are coincidences.
For example, when I sold my house and was considering buying a townhome that was across from my son’s favorite park.
The townhome had all the features I wanted, but the dues and taxes were as high as the mortgage. That didn’t seem like a fit so waited a few months and then saw an online ad for a place. It didn’t have a location or picture listed but I had the urge to call.
The agent wasn’t available, so I left a message. After several messages later and nearly 2 weeks, the agent finally called. As I was driving to see the condo, it dawned on me the place was exactly what I was considering buying. As I walked into the unit, I knew I could live there. I gave the agent cash for the deposit and faxed the application.
Sometimes we’ve got to be patient for what we want. My unconscious wanted to live in that development and it created an opportunity for us to live there at a great price. Long story short – the rent was nearly half of the payments if I’d bought the property.
Key # 3: Commit to action when you see the signs
In my example, I saw signs and realized the townhome was what I needed so I reacted right away. I committed myself by signing agreements and paying cash for the condominium right away; I didn’t procrastinate.
You need to commit to action when you find a match for your quest.
If you follow these three keys you will unlock your power of focus, you’ll have the energy and motivation to move forward and get more done. Your true self will be aligned and you’ll feel energized and ‘in your zone of competency’ more often.
What can you commit to this week?
