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PUT AN END TO PROCRASTINATION – Start Now, Not Tomorrow · Motivational Podcast

0:20
Speaker 1: Class is calling on reserve energy. Class is the ability
0:35
Speaker 1: to overcome any number of challenges during a race. Class
0:47
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you never get tired, but it does mean
0:51
Speaker 1: you never show it. Class doesn't mean you're not tempted
0:59
Speaker 1: to quit sometimes, but it does mean you never actually do,
1:06
Speaker 1: and in the final yards of a race. Class makes
1:11
Speaker 1: the difference. This is an extremely important element of strong character.
1:22
Speaker 1: I also suspect that in recent years we've overlooked the
1:25
Speaker 1: importance of perseverance to some extent, because we believe so
1:30
Speaker 1: strongly in talent as the true determinant of success. Perseverance
1:42
Speaker 1: means you never quit. Procrastination usually means you never get started,
1:51
Speaker 1: although I consider the inability to finish something to be
1:54
Speaker 1: a form of procrastination. I'm a perfectionist. Everything has to
2:05
Speaker 1: be just right before I can get down to work.
2:08
Speaker 1: No distractions, not too much noise, no telephone calls interrupting me.
2:14
Speaker 1: And of course I have to be feeling well physically too.
2:17
Speaker 1: I can't work when I have a headache. The other
2:21
Speaker 1: end of procrastination, being unable to finish, also has a
2:24
Speaker 1: perfectionist explanation. I'm just never satisfied. I'm my own harshest critic.
2:32
Speaker 1: If all the eyes aren't dotted and all the t's
2:35
Speaker 1: aren't crossed, I just can't consider that I'm done. That's
2:39
Speaker 1: just the way I am, and I'll probably never change.
2:43
Speaker 1: Do you see what's going on here? A fault is
2:46
Speaker 1: being turned into a virtue. The perfectionist is saying that
2:50
Speaker 1: his standards are just too high for this world. This
2:55
Speaker 1: fault into virtue syndrome is a common defense when people
2:58
Speaker 1: are called upon to do discuss their weaknesses. But in
3:02
Speaker 1: the end it's just a very pious kind of excuse making.
3:10
Speaker 1: The basis of procrastination could be fear of failure. That's
3:15
Speaker 1: what extreme perfectionism really is, once you take a hard
3:18
Speaker 1: look at it. What's the difference whether you're afraid of
3:22
Speaker 1: being less than perfect or afraid of anything else. You're
3:25
Speaker 1: still paralyzed by fear. What's the difference whether you never
3:35
Speaker 1: start or never finish. You're still stuck, You're still going nowhere.
3:42
Speaker 1: You're still overwhelmed by whatever task is before you. You're
3:48
Speaker 1: still allowing yourself to be dominated by a negative vision
3:52
Speaker 1: of the future in what you see yourself being criticized
3:55
Speaker 1: or laughed at, or punished or written out of town
3:59
Speaker 1: on a ray. Of course, this negative vision of the
4:04
Speaker 1: future is really a mechanism that allows you to do nothing.
4:08
Speaker 1: It's a very convenient mental tool. I'm going to show
4:15
Speaker 1: you how to turn procrastination into perseverance. I'm going to
4:20
Speaker 1: be very specific about how you can do this. A
4:25
Speaker 1: moment ago I refer to a negative vision of the
4:28
Speaker 1: future as a mental tool for inactivity. If you've been
4:36
Speaker 1: using that tool, I'm going to ask you to toss
4:38
Speaker 1: it aside and start using two other very powerful principles
4:43
Speaker 1: that foster productivity and perseverance instead of passivity and procrastination.
4:51
Speaker 1: The first principle is break it down. No matter what
4:58
Speaker 1: you're trying to accomplish, whether it's writing a book or
5:01
Speaker 1: climbing a mountain or painting a house, the key to
5:04
Speaker 1: achievement is your ability to break down the task into
5:08
Speaker 1: manageable pieces and knock them off one at a time.
5:14
Speaker 1: Focus on accomplishing what's right in front of you at
5:17
Speaker 1: this moment, and ignore what's off in the distance someplace.
5:25
Speaker 1: Substitute real time positive thinking for negative future visualization. That's
5:34
Speaker 1: the first all important technique for bringing an end to procrastination.
5:42
Speaker 1: Suppose I were to ask you if you could write
5:44
Speaker 1: a four hundred page novel. If you're like most people,
5:48
Speaker 1: that would be an impossible task. Yes, somebody must have
5:52
Speaker 1: written the book that you see in your mind's eye,
5:54
Speaker 1: but that person surely wasn't you. But suppose I asked
5:59
Speaker 1: you a different question. Suppose I ask if you can
6:02
Speaker 1: write a page and a quarter a day for one year.
6:10
Speaker 1: Do you think you could do it? Now? The task
6:15
Speaker 1: is starting to seem more manageable. We're breaking down the
6:19
Speaker 1: four hundred page book into bite sized pieces. But even so,
6:23
Speaker 1: I suspect many people would still find the prospect intimidating.
6:28
Speaker 1: Do you see why writing a page and a quarter
6:31
Speaker 1: may not seem so bad? But you're being asked to
6:34
Speaker 1: look ahead one whole year. When people start to look
6:38
Speaker 1: that far ahead, many of them automatically go into a
6:41
Speaker 1: negative mood. So let me formulate the idea of writing
6:46
Speaker 1: a book, and yet another way, let me break it
6:48
Speaker 1: down even more. Suppose I were to ask you, can
6:55
Speaker 1: you fill up a page and a quarter with words?
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Speaker 1: Not for a year, not for a month, month, not
7:01
Speaker 1: even for a week, but just today, don't look any
7:08
Speaker 1: further ahead than that. Do you think you can do
7:11
Speaker 1: it one day at a time. You've probably heard that phrase.
7:17
Speaker 1: That's what we're doing here. We're breaking the time required
7:20
Speaker 1: for a major task down into one day segments. Keep
7:26
Speaker 1: this up for one year and you'll write the book.
7:36
Speaker 1: Discipline yourself to look neither forward nor backward, and you
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Speaker 1: can accomplish things you never thought you could possibly do.
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Speaker 1: Then all you have to do is persevere. Procrastination won't
7:50
Speaker 1: be a problem because the task is now so small
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Speaker 1: that fear won't kick in. And it all begins with
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Speaker 1: those three words, break it down. My second technique for
8:07
Speaker 1: defeating procrastination is also only three words long. The three
8:11
Speaker 1: words are write it down. Instead of describing the things
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Speaker 1: that you want to do or the places you want
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Speaker 1: to go, you're going to describe what you actually do
8:28
Speaker 1: with your time, and you're going to keep a written
8:31
Speaker 1: record of the places you actually go. In other words,
8:37
Speaker 1: you're going to keep a diary of your activities, and
8:40
Speaker 1: you're going to be amazed by the distractions, detours, and
8:44
Speaker 1: downright waste of time that you come up with during
8:47
Speaker 1: the course of a day. All of these get in
8:50
Speaker 1: the way of achieving your goals. For many people, it's
8:54
Speaker 1: almost like they planned it that way, and maybe at
8:57
Speaker 1: some unconscious level they did. It forces you to see
9:04
Speaker 1: what you're actually doing and what you're not doing, and
9:10
Speaker 1: you should keep this up for at least a week.
9:15
Speaker 1: You don't have to do anything else at all. It's
9:18
Speaker 1: just a process for making yourself aware of how you
9:21
Speaker 1: actually spend your time. You will naturally and effortlessly begin
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Speaker 1: to reorganize your life. Perhaps that seems like too much
9:36
Speaker 1: to believe, but it's true. When you're forced to write
9:40
Speaker 1: down the fact that you hung out at the coffee
9:42
Speaker 1: machine for fifteen minutes today, you'll think twice about doing
9:46
Speaker 1: that again tomorrow. When you've got to put it in
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Speaker 1: writing that you worked on an important project for thirty
9:53
Speaker 1: minutes today and then took a break to read the newspaper,
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Speaker 1: you'll persevere a little longer on the project to tomorrow
10:00
Speaker 1: and forget about the newspeople. Break it down, write it down.
10:10
Speaker 1: This is how you put an end to procrastination. This
10:13
Speaker 1: is how you get yourself started. But how do you
10:17
Speaker 1: keep going? How do you keep your motivation consistently high?
10:24
Speaker 1: How do you learn to persevere when the novelty is
10:27
Speaker 1: worn't off and you're still some distance from your goal.
10:33
Speaker 1: The Irish poet William Butler Yeates once wrote a poem
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Speaker 1: describing some of the unfortunate characteristics of the modern world.
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Speaker 1: One of the things Yates noticed was the fact that
10:43
Speaker 1: bad people seem to have the most energy, while good
10:47
Speaker 1: people become discouraged and doubtful of their own abilities. The
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Speaker 1: best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with
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Speaker 1: a passionate intensity. Those are the words Yeats used. And
11:05
Speaker 1: it's true that we can look around the world and
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Speaker 1: see all sorts of things happening that we might wish
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Speaker 1: we're not happening, and there are people working very hard
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Speaker 1: to make those things happen for reasons that we might
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Speaker 1: not admire. And when we see that, it's easy to
11:20
Speaker 1: start saying, what's the use? What hope do I really have?
11:24
Speaker 1: Why don't I just give up on all the things
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Speaker 1: I've been trying to accomplish and just start taking it easy.
11:33
Speaker 1: Even people of strong character feel that way. Sometimes all
11:37
Speaker 1: of us have moments like that. That's when perseverance gets really,
11:43
Speaker 1: really tough. What's the answer, What do you want to do?
11:50
Speaker 1: What do you want to be? What do you want
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Speaker 1: to see? What do you want to have? Where do
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Speaker 1: you want to go with? Whom do you want to
11:59
Speaker 1: sh In other words, who are you working for besides yourself?
12:08
Speaker 1: Who is depending on you? Who will benefit if you
12:12
Speaker 1: persevere and succeed? Who will suffer if you give up
12:18
Speaker 1: and stop trying. I'm scared. The world is full of
12:23
Speaker 1: bad things. That's why I have to become stronger. Who
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Speaker 1: can you reach out to and help once you've achieved
12:29
Speaker 1: your goals? The world's not a dark place. That's a lie.
12:35
Speaker 1: If you have a family, your spouse and your children
12:38
Speaker 1: are depending on you. Perhaps even your parents are depending
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Speaker 1: on you now if they're elderly then require some care.
12:47
Speaker 1: But even if you're a single person or just starting
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Speaker 1: out in your career, you can think of reasons to
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Speaker 1: persevere and succeed that go beyond your personal needs. This
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Speaker 1: sharing doesn't have to be limited to money either. If
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Speaker 1: your work has given you certain skills, you can share
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Speaker 1: your time and your abilities. You can, and you should.
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Speaker 1: But even this isn't putting it strongly enough. It isn't
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Speaker 1: just that you'll do better if you feel you're working
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Speaker 1: for others in addition to yourself. You absolutely must find
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Speaker 1: reasons outside yourself to persevere. If you want to keep
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Speaker 1: going when the going gets tough, Hemingway wrote, a man
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Speaker 1: alone hasn't got a chance. And that doesn't mean only
13:41
Speaker 1: that you need people to help you in life. It
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Speaker 1: means also that you need people you can help. You
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Speaker 1: need people who can become the real reasons for perseverance,
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Speaker 1: above and beyond your material possessions or your financial success.
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Speaker 1: Once in it for me can only take you so far.
14:01
Speaker 1: What's in it for somebody besides me can take you
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Speaker 1: as far as you need to go. In the last
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Speaker 1: days of World War two, the American cruiser Indianapolis was
14:18
Speaker 1: sunk by an enemy submarine. This was one of the
14:21
Speaker 1: most tragic incidents of the war for American forces, in
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Speaker 1: which hundreds of men lost their lives. Many who made
14:30
Speaker 1: it through the initial attack had to spend days and
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Speaker 1: nights in the water before rescuers arrived. The experience of
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Speaker 1: trying to stay alive and the water was so overwhelming
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Speaker 1: that many people simply gave up. In fact, the survivors
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Speaker 1: reported later that virtually everyone wanted to give up at
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Speaker 1: one time or another, but whenever someone wanted to quit trying,
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Speaker 1: the others would talk to him about the people back
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Speaker 1: home who needed him, who were depending on him to survive,
15:03
Speaker 1: And if there was no one who was depending on
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Speaker 1: him right, then they would talk about people in the
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Speaker 1: future who would someday be needing him, people he hadn't
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Speaker 1: met yet, people who hadn't even been born yet. This
15:19
Speaker 1: motivation beyond the self was the only motivation that was
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Speaker 1: strong enough. Some of us are hungry for wealth and power.
15:35
Speaker 1: Some of us are hungry for truth. Some people want
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Speaker 1: everyone to love them, others want everyone to fear them.
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Speaker 1: But there's a fundamental challenge with all these appetites. None
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Speaker 1: of them can ever be permanently satisfied. When it comes
15:54
Speaker 1: to wanting things. There's never any such thing as enough.
16:36
Speaker 1: You get a new car, but in a couple of
16:38
Speaker 1: years it's an old car. You get a new computer.
16:42
Speaker 1: It does everything real fast, certainly faster than the one
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Speaker 1: your neighbor's got. But then a year goes by and
16:48
Speaker 1: now your neighbor gets a computer that's even faster than yours.
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Speaker 1: Where does it all end. There's really only one kind
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Speaker 1: of person who's actually comfortable with the possibility of satisfying
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Speaker 1: is appetized. This is the person who wants that mysterious
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Speaker 1: commodity called wisdom whatever that is, and wants it more
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Speaker 1: than all the cars and computers in the world. Wisdom,
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Speaker 1: like the learning capacity of the human brain, is infinite.
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Speaker 1: There will always be more to know, and there will
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Speaker 1: always be plenty of room in your brain for everything
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Speaker 1: you've learned. Life is a paradise, really, if you're a
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Speaker 1: person who genuinely wants wisdom,