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Are You A Big Procrastinator? · RiseUp - Live Joy Your Way

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Today's episode is produced by my friends at Walk West.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: If you're looking to grow your brand and generate leads through podcast or video production, head over to walkwest.com.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's start the show.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Rise up, live joy your way.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: From emotional intelligence through cognitive distortions, certified life and wellness coach Comedy Wood is on a mission to help people see the magnificence of their own unique human spirit.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Through these small bites of self-visualization and self-confidence, you can have healthy relationships, success in business and career, and live the life you want to live.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Rise up, live joy your way.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Hi there and welcome to another episode of Rise Up, Live Joy Your Way.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it's morning, afternoon, or evening when you've chosen to tune in, I just want to thank you for taking some time from your day to spend with me.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: And today's topic is about procrastination.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Procrastination involves the habit of delaying your tasks or decisions and usually focusing on less urgent but more enjoyable things rather than doing the things that we feel or actually know that we need to focus on.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Procrastination can actually lead us to feeling as though we're not moving forward, and it can it can actually hinder us from moving towards our goals as well as moving into the ability to feel like we have succeeded at what we've set ourselves out to do.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: However, there's there is a difference between procrastination and laziness.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Laziness is really truly the habit of feet dragging, and it involves apathy and the unwillingness to act, versus procrastination is really about an active process where we're actually choosing to do something else instead of what we should be doing.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I just want to make that distinction between that concept of laziness and procrastination.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the truth is we all procrastinate sometimes, and we do it for different reasons.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we might postpone a task because we just it's not, we're not excited about it, or maybe it feels really um, it feels really overwhelming.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, maybe it's because we've got a lot on our plate, and so we procrastinate on certain ta on certain um tasks that we want to do.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: A great example is taxes.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: I know that I personally in the past have procrastinated getting all of my tax information together and it because and truthfully, it's because it feels overwhelming when I uh want, when I when I feel like I need when I know that I need to get it done.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh sometimes we procrastinate because we are perfectionists and we're actually um afraid that we're not going to get it right.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's instead of actually doing the thing at hand, we put it off.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um so when we really break it down and unpack it, a lot of times the primary reason or one of the primary reasons for procrastination is fear.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's because we're afraid of either failing, we're afraid of not getting it done, we're afraid of a negative feedback or a judgment.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's just some type of fear or anxiety as to what could come out of the thing that we were supposed to be working on.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, fear of failure is something that everyone experiences now and then.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's hard to go through life and not have the fear of failure pop up.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure there are some of us who don't have it, but a lot of us do deal with that fear of failure.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And what happens is we actually in those moments will self-sabotage uh because what we really don't want to do is we don't want to fail, so we we keep ourselves from even trying to do the thing, which is a form of self-sabotage, which is actually a form of trying to keep ourselves safe.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: But inevitably what ends up happening is we feel bad anyway because we didn't do the thing that we were supposed to do.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So the truth is as we procrastinate to avoid this fear of failure, we actually cause ourselves to experience the failure that we origin the fear of the uh failure that we originally feared in the first place.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it's almost we're working at cross purposes at that point.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: So how do we stop procrastinating?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like many times I've said before, one of my big things is to practice mindfulness because what happens is mindfulness, again, remember, is being in the present moment.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: So if we are thinking about and ruminating on something from the past or we're worried about the future more, more so worried about the future, we're ruminating on what could possibly happen and how would we deal with that.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: So essentially we're future tripping.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's the thing that could be contributing to the fear that we're feeling behind the scenes, which is causing us to procrastinate.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: So when we're trying to deal with procrastination, it's about getting into this present moment, the here and now, releasing any self-judgment, and just recognizing that we are what you know, almost asking ourselves, what's the one step forward that I'm gonna take?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: So if it's let's say it is taxes, for instance, for me, it for me it's it's there's so many pieces that need to go into that, and I find myself procrastinating.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if I'm practicing mindfulness and I get into the present moment, I can ask myself, what is the one thing that I'm gonna do right now?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: So breaking it down into pieces.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the second thing when dealing with procrastination and breaking this, the habit of it is to just really nurture for yourself the concept of a growth mindset.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: The concept of, you know, every opportunity, every mistake that we make is an opportunity to grow and learn.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's not about uh not being good enough.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we when we really truly put efforts into growing this idea of the growth mindset, out get outside of this idea of the fixed mindset that we can we can change, we can adapt to new situations, we can strengthen ourselves, we can learn from every situation that doesn't have an outcome that we we anticipated or that we wanted, we're able to not be so afraid of the things that we want to get done, which breaks down this idea of procrastination.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mentioned this already in the first when I was talking about mindfulness, but the third one is to really just break down the tasks.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: When when we have a task to do, break it down into small palatable bites.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when we have a full plate of food, we don't eat it all at once, we eat one bite at a time, it's the same concept.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, visualizing success.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: When we're at the beginning of a task, uh at the beginning of a work project, or we are um we've got the thing that we need to accomplish, we start to see all these outcomes in our in our minds, and instead it's about let's envision what would success look like, what would uh an outcome that I'd like look like so that we can imprint that on our minds' eye, and that's what we're focused on rather than all of the negativity, all of the negative thoughts that might be popping into our minds.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because again, if we really look at procrastination, it could be the fear of failure or the fear of not accomplishing the thing.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: So if we're focused and we're visualizing for ourselves and we're thinking about what we would what we would like the outcome to be, we're able to, and we're visualizing what success would be, we're able to switch from focusing on the negative into a more optimistic outlook.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then just understanding which type of procrastination style you belong to.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: So are you the perfectionist where you're procrastinating because you're so focused on the details and it's preventing you to actually start the project?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if if you recognize that that is the case, you can break down, well, what would be a a good enough way for me to work on what one specific part of the task?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Are you a procrastinator?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, are you a delayer in terms of your procrastination style?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: So delayers have a hard time getting started on a task and generally will find excuses for putting off putting their tasks off.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe it sounds like, you know, oh, I'm really tired right now, so I'll just do that later.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's just when we can recognize that that's the style, we're able to then take an action item, uh, an aligned action to recognize, oh, that's just my voice telling me I'm too tired.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this morning I'm going to just go ahead and take this one step for this one step forward and get this project started.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, there's the dreamer.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, unlike the perfectionists, the dreamer doesn't really like the details and often overlooks them.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And since they don't pay a lot of attention to detail, the dreamers have a difficulty implementing their ideas.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: So they end up just procrastinating.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: They just keep putting it off because they're not paying attention to the to the details.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: This, when we are the the dreamer, sometimes it's really important to go ahead and break the task down into smaller bite-sized pieces because then at least we can the dreamer can tend to focus on those ones.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: So when we when we really just break this down and just kind of put it all together, procrastination is a habit and behavior that we we tend to tend we tend towards if we're avoiding something or we're afraid or we feel overwhelmed.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so what ends up happening, it's really important to just recognize that we have to move past this idea of, oh, I'm I'm just a procrastinator, or oh, I've always been a procrastinator, and just recognize that it is a form of self-sabotage and it can impede your performance and success and just lead to your own self-dissatisfaction.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So when we recognize that and we recognize that the behavior and the habit can be changed, and we understand this the the reasons or the style of our procrastination, we can then start taking those steps to break break that habit and put in and build those new neural pathways into recognizing how it's best for us to get started on tasks or projects to move ourselves forward.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: If you find yourself struggling with procrastination or you have other um issues that you'd like to chat with me about, feel free to book a time at chatwithcomedy.com.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: And until next time, I hope you have an amazing day and we will talk soon.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Bye-bye.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Rise Up, Live Joy Your Way.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: For more information, book a chat with comedy at www.chatwithcomedy.com or visit her website at www.comedywood.com.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: You can also find comedy on Facebook or Instagram.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Username it's authentic me.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.