1. How to Defeat Procrastination
By Coach Steve Dailey
There is a mechanism that resides in all of us that causes
hesitation, waiting, contemplation, delay... what most of us
know as the disease called procrastination.
Many purveyors of success wisdom would have us
believe that this mechanism is just “laziness”. And in
some cases, that may be true. But in my experience as a
coach, most people are not lazy at all. All people have, in
fact, extraordinary desires and passions and the best
intentions to succeed; regardless of their current lot in life.
We come by the procrastination response honestly, you see. From the very beginning of our lives, we are
presented every day with new circumstances and events. With each new experience, we learn something about
ourselves and our environment... like “don't run too fast or you'll fall down, or "don't make mom mad or you’ll be
sorry". Here’s another one: Remember when you were in school and you tried something on a whim and
ended up looking stupid. I had a lot of those happen to me but one that stands out happened on the junior
school high dance floor. I won’t go into detail – it’s too embarrassing and it’ll take too long to explain what I was
trying to do – but I’ll just tell you that the reaction of my buddies as they rolled around on the floor on the
sidelines laughing and pointing at me caused me to draw a profound conclusion: when I try dancing, I
embarrass myself. So you see continuously and early in life, caution starts to enter into our sequence of
thinking. When we encounter new situations or opportunities, we begin to think ahead to something called
"consequences". So now, instead of simply reacting to immediate desire or an emotional urging... we think
about what will happen as a result of our actions. Over time, this causes us to become susceptible to four,
deeply-grooved “allies of procrastination”:
1) Fear of failure
2) Comparison of ourselves to others
3) What I call “the second thought”, and
4) the most debilitating ally of procrastination: rational lies.
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2. Procrastination is purely motivated by the consideration of consequences. We develop mental chatter that taps
into one or several of these procrastination allies.
When I ask myself, “Am I going to fail or cause someone else to fail?” I’m tapping into fear of failure. “I’m
probably not going to do as well as that guy?” is clearly the comparison game.
Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “Now I wonder what would happen if I
did it this way instead”? That’s the second thought kicking in. And then
rationalization or “Rational Lies” Takes over with “Oh, they probably won’t like it
anyway.” There have been enough times in life where the consequences for
proceeding according to immediate desire were not pleasant. We became
hesitant and uncertain because we might not like the consequences of any
new situation… so procrastination in the form of fear-motivated, comparison-
concerned, second-thought-thinking rationalization-based hesitation begins to
sneak in. Over time, procrastination becomes an automatic part of how we
think.
We shouldn’t overlook that this mechanism can actually serve to protect us from harm in some cases… but it
can also hold us back from doing new things that could bring us great reward and become an obstacle to our
dreams. It is not a wimpy thing, reserved only for those misguided or lost souls that haven't given the first
thought to their future. But it is a mechanism that we must learn to control or else we will be frozen against all
risk – therefore making all reward unattainable.
So what to do? We are going to learn how to shift this mechanism in our favor. We are going to build inside of
us habits that will counter fear and procrastination so that those no longer create obstacles. And, in fact, by the
time you are done reading this segment, there is a great potential that you will literally be "cured" of ever having
the fear/procrastination cycle rule you again. Ready?
Let's begin by reviewing five basic success fundamentals. Now if you have read or studied much at all about
success and achievement, this might seem a bit elementary – but it doesn’t hurt to review sometimes.
The first fundamental is this: it’s not about what we do; it’s about what we think. All action is predated by
thinking. All of your actions are preceded by a precious moment – the moment of choice. And in that moment
of choice, you can choose to move or choose to wait.
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3. Second - you are in 100% control of your actions because you are in 100% control of your thinking. Nothing –
nor no one – causes you to do anything. If you decide to procrastinate – that is your decision. No one else is
involved here. It’s all about what’s in your head.
Third: Movement is an action and non-movement is an action. If you decide – in the moment of choice – to
wait, that choice is an action.
The next fundamental is that the decisions we make – the thinking we do in the moment of choice – become
habits when we groove the routine of how we think – and therefore how we act. If you choose to hesitate before
acting and you do that often – that will be a habit in the way you process things. Plain and simple.
And finally the fifth fundamental is this: habits can not be
changed. What changes when we form new, more productive
habits is our response to a particular stimulus. Or said
another way: habits are changed by deciding – ahead of time –
how we are going to choose to respond when certain things
come cross our path.
So tying it all together we can say that our thinking about circumstances predates decisions in the moment of
choice and the decision can be to wait – take an action called “no action” – and doing that over and over again
creates a habit called procrastination. Then to form a new habit, we need to consciously decide what new
behavior we are going to choose when things occur in life that historically has caused us to procrastinate.
So what responses to new things do we need to make? Here you go: I have talked about four allies to
procrastination, five success fundamentals so here are six allies to Momentum.
Number one is to possess a proper goal achievement strategy. In my segment on the Keys to Goal
Achievement, you’ll get all of this spelled out in a very powerful form. But for now, a proper goal achievement
strategy simply contains these components:
- A clear, vivid Vision for your future success
- Specific, well defined goals that will track to the attainment of that vision
- A detailed Action Plan for each goal
- And clear, compelling rewards for the achievement of each goal
Have these things in place as a backdrop for all your decisions in the moment of choice and you will be well on
your way to conquering fear and establishing momentum.
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4. The second ally to momentum is developing a thinking habit I like to call “the
First Thing”. Whenever you are faced with a new thing where uncertainty
might start to creep in, simply ask yourself, “What is the first thing that I might
do to move forward on this?” Lots of times we get hung up on the perception
of how overwhelming a new opportunity or obstacle might be, but if we break
it down to the first, most simple and logical step… it becomes simple. It’s the
old “eat an elephant one bite at a time” thing.
The third ally is developing a new thinking habit called “a little more”. So far, you’ve got clear goals, action plans
and rewards set in the context of a vivid vision for your future. And you have started with the First Thing.
Now just do a little more. You’ll be amazed at how powerful you will be with this one-two punch of the first
thing plus a little more… then the first, next thing and a little more.
The next ally to Momentum that defeats procrastination is an attitude of immediacy. The way I like to frame this
is with the acronym DOWIT Now - Do Whatever It Takes Now... D>O>W>I>T NOW.
Making DOWIT NOW a reflex… developing a thinking habit of immediacy in the moment of choice… replaces
your response of delaying the inevitable and will begin to overwhelm the allies of procrastination. Now this is
more than just responding quickly. DOWIT NOW has elements of creativity, imperturbability, grit and resolve.
It’s an attitude more than an action. You are saying to yourself and anyone watching, “Excuses are not part of
my vocabulary. I am going to go for, reach for, press into and keep leaning on whatever is necessary and to
whatever degree is necessary to overwhelm inertia and make action prevail. Not only will procrastination be
defeated but momentum will win because I WILL it to win!”
The fifth key ally to Momentum that replaces the thinking habits that fuel procrastination is Tenacity. Now I
have an entire segment on Tenacity that you may want to listen to a couple of times. But here’s the bottom
line: you develop the thinking habit of tenacity when you decide once that your goals are worthwhile. Tenacity
is a resolve and acknowledgement that the end of the game will be your point of focus and though there will be
obstacles, there will be unpredictable circumstances, there will be curves in the road… no matter what comes
between you and your ultimate goals, you will get past, through and around those things that life will
predictably throw in your path. Tenacity is about a focus on completion, not a focus on circumstances.
Remember, it is fear and concern for consequences that causes procrastination. Tenacity annihilates those
fears with a persistent focus on the vision.
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5. And the sixth and final ally to Momentum is Courage. And this
is the most powerful key of all. It actually ties all the key allies
together. A proper goal achievement strategy and a “do the
first thing first” approach to light the fuse, followed by “a little
more” … then DOWIT Now immediacy and a “follow through
until it’s done Tenacity” all set you up for huge success. But
you must wrap all of this with another thinking habit called
courage. Courage is rooted in an internal belief in “the right thing”. Courage connects to the core notion in all
of us that the richness of life must prevail and that purity of purpose is superior to the tangential zigzag of
indecision and uncertainty. Courage overwhelms circumstances past and present and allows us even the
inkling of a personal vision. Courage allows us to see not only what to do, but what to do first and then what to
do next as a little more. Courage is the core of immediacy and “DOWIT now” and, of course, courage is the
backbone of tenacity.
So do you have it? Realize that the procrastination mechanism is built inside of all of us and what is responsible
is simply “learned response” to the newness or uncertainty of circumstances. Procrastination is fueled by the
subtle lieutenants of fear of failure, comparison, the second thought and rational lies. We begin to unhook
procrastination from our core make up by remembering that we are in control of our thoughts and therefore our
actions, inaction is every bit of an action as action itself and that habits are formed and changed by how we
respond to circumstances over time. With those principles firmly in place, we can now leverage the allies of
momentum: a goal achievement strategy, starting with the first thing, then doing a little more, developing
a habit of DOWIT Now immediacy, deploying the critical thinking response of tenacity and pumping a
commitment to courage through everything you do!
Now one question… what do you have to do… right now?
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877-668-0607
