Latest / Callum Walker | Figuring It Out / Episode 52 - How to Break Free from the Cycle of Procrastination

Transcript

Episode 52 - How to Break Free from the Cycle of Procrastination · Callum Walker | Figuring It Out

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: All we have to do is find out who has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker, and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the podcast. Today, it is wedding day. It is wedding day.
• 0:36
  Not my wedding. Not my wedding. I know so many of you have been rooting for me to finally get on a knee and ask Alice. However, that hasn't happened yet. But yeah, got a wedding later on today.
• 0:50
  But what I want to kind of talk to you about today has been something that we've actually been covering in quite a lot of detail in the next level coach program, which has been overcoming procrastination and getting more things done. So if you do kinda like struggle with procrastination, then this episode will really really really help you. And and I think when it comes to kind of procrastination, I know for myself that for quite a long period of time, I knew what I needed to do to grow my business, to get better results of my clients, to be happier, to be fitter, to be healthier. But for some reason, I just couldn't do what needed to be done. I couldn't do what needed to be done.
• 1:44
  So I think that like, you know, one thing that has always been ringing through my mind has been there is a difference between knowing what to do and doing what needs to be done. So, you know, and it's been a a real theme that we've been speaking about recently in terms of like with every almost kind of like project, there's two halves to it. You have the 50% which is first of all figuring out what you need to do, and then there's the second 50% which is doing what you need to do and then course correcting off the back of it. And I think that procrastination is like it is the ultimate enemy really because if you think about like success that you're going to have, any form of success, whatever you actually kind of define that as is the completion of a project. You know, there's a lot of almost kind of like, you know, different definitions of what is success to you, money isn't success or whatever.
• 2:42
  But I think fundamentally, success is just the achievement of a specific goal that you have set. The achievement of a specific target that you are looking to achieve. So really kinda coming down to defining what it is that you want and then success is whether you are able to achieve that or not. Money can be a specific thing but I think that where that's kinda like got a little bit skewed has been that money has been the only definition of success. But the point I'm coming at is that regardless of whatever whatever thing that you are pursuing within your business, within your coaching, within your life, fundamentally, success is the achievement of that off the back of multiple actions of actually having done something.
• 3:32
  So therefore, if we want to be successful, that means that we have to do things. So I know that can be really really obvious, but like but again, it's kind of the most obvious things that for some reason we overlook. So again, it's almost like, right, if I'm not where I want to be right now, it's because I haven't done the actions that I actually need to take in order to to be in that specific place. So here's one thing that has immensely helped me with my procrastination. And it actually kind of comes down to like actually how I kind of do washing?
• 4:06
  Sounds really really silly. But Alice is exceptionally good at washing. Like she is so good at washing. She loves a wash and she seems to just do it with ease. Yet for me, it's just like I just don't know why I couldn't do it.
• 4:20
  Like I just can't do it. And I figured out what the problem was, and it's been something that has immensely helped me recently and allowed me to actually take more action and move forward faster, which has been just focusing on one thing at a time. So whatever action that I'm currently trying to do, just focusing specifically on that action. Now what's that gonna do with me doing the washing? Well, the thing is that like whenever I would do the washing, like I'd be upstairs, my washing basket's upstairs.
• 4:58
  I'd go and put like, you know, my clothes in the washing basket and then I would kinda like start to bring them down. So if I actually look at the process of putting a wash on, it should be done in like sixty seconds or a hundred and twenty seconds. So like between one and two minutes because it is as simple as taking the washing biscuit basket, bringing it downstairs, sticking sticking the clothes in the washing machine, putting the little like washing machine sort of like packet thing in there and pressing on. K? But for some reason, it'll take me half an hour.
• 5:36
  And because it takes me half an hour, I then don't have the desire to go and do it or it doesn't get done or other things then get backlogged. And off the back of that, other things don't get done because I've spent so long putting a wash on. Now why does it take me so long to put a wash on? Because I'll have the idea of going like, right, I'm gonna go to put a wash on. I'll go to go and get the basket and then I have my phone.
• 6:00
  My my phone then kinda like drags me in a different direction. I'm then texting someone else. I'm then, you know, watching something on Instagram. I then decide to go and put some music on. Before I knew it, spent fifteen minutes upstairs doing absolutely everything else but putting a wash on.
• 6:16
  And then off the back of that, I then go downstairs and the same thing happens again. I get distracted or I try and do three or four things at the same time. So the point that I'm coming at is that you want to get if you want to get things done faster, which fundamentally result in you moving forward faster and making more and more progress, just focus on one thing at a time. So when you are just doing one specific thing, just do that one specific thing. So it's like for me right now for example, I'm about to go into Sainsbury's.
• 6:49
  The only thing I need to pick up is some hair wax and some shaving cream. K? That's all I need to do. Oh and I need to go to the cash point to to get some cash out for the wedding. Now the point is that previously that my goal is to get in and out of this supermarket in the next five minutes.
• 7:07
  Because if I don't get in and out of this supermarket in the next five minutes, then I'm going to faff around and we're going to be late and Alice is gonna kill me. Okay? Now how do I ensure that I actually just get in the supermarket quickly and I get out of the supermarket quickly? By just solely focusing on purchasing, walking in there, getting some hair wax, getting some shaving cream, getting some cash out. That should take me two minutes.
• 7:32
  But it won't take me two minutes if I bring my phone with me, if I then start kind of flicking through Instagram. If I then go down the bread section, I go, oh, I'm gonna buy that that that that that that. Before I knew it, not only have I gone and spent like £30, but then also I've gone and taken another half an hour out of the situation and off the back of that other tasks then get delayed. So the point that I'm coming at is that if you really want to move forward faster, get more things done, but more importantly, more of the right things done. Just focus on doing one thing at a time.
• 8:06
  Now that sounds really, really obvious, but trust me, apply this into your life with every other task that you're actually doing and notice what happens. Notice that when you sit down to go and do some content for example, that it takes you ages to go and do the content because you're like, you're picking up your phone, you're doing this and and this, before you know it, you've spent like forty five minutes on one thirty second reel. Like and and and again, I'm a big believer of kinda operating from the place of like how you do one thing is how you do everything. So within your life, if you wanna get more things done, just focus on doing one specific thing at a time. And even if it's like making a cup of coffee or having a drink or training, when you're training, just focus on your training session.
• 8:48
  Don't flick through your phone during the session. When When you're making a coffee, just focus on making the coffee. When you're eating, just focus on eating. And I promise you, look at how much faster things get done and then by adopting that mentality, if I'm just gonna focus on that one specific thing at a time, you will get more things done and you will get more things done faster. Because all of these things are metaphors for other areas of your life, so they start to kinda seep into your behavior and you start to become the kind of person who just tackles one thing at a time and gets things done faster and no longer procrastinates.
• 9:23
  Because the majority of the time as to why I used to procrastinate was because I'm like, this is gonna take me fucking ages to do and an incredible amount of effort so therefore I'm going to put it off. Or I spent so much time doing loads of other things, I've now gotta cram these things in and it doesn't get done effectively, and then off the back of that, it's not perfect, so I'm not gonna do it. Does that make sense? So an action point off the back of this. With every single action that you do, just focus on one thing at a time and notice how you will have an internal desire to be pulled in multiple different directions to prevent you from doing that.
• 10:00
  And then when you have that awareness, you're then like, okay, cool. I now know that that is a weakness of mine. And because I know the weakness, I can then overcome it. Never forget, if every single one of your clients gave you just one new client, doubled your business.