Latest / Callum Walker | Figuring It Out / #87 - How to Immediately Stop Procrastinating and Finally Become an Action Taker

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#87 - How to Immediately Stop Procrastinating and Finally Become an Action Taker · Callum Walker | Figuring It Out

• 0:03
  Callum: 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
  Callum: 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, I wanna kinda share with you something that I've very kind of briefly learned from my very good friend, Michael Lennon. This is gonna be a very short episode.
• 0:43
  But if you kind of struggle with procrastination, if you struggle with putting off the thing that you know that you need to do, this will really help. And also, not only would it really help, but also this will actually kind of serve as a legitimate walking advert that what I'm talking about actually works. So I think first of all, when we're looking at procrastination, most of us can just see it solely as the problem of, oh, you know, I'm putting things off and I'm delaying being able to achieve the things that I want to achieve. Now, yes, absolutely it is a huge problem in that sense. But I actually want to briefly articulate a problem that you probably haven't actually considered in terms of why procrastination is actually so destructive.
• 1:37
  And it's something that you definitely will have not considered. And in my opinion, it's actually the ultimate problem with procrastination. So let's look at the definition of procrastination here. Let's look at what procrastination actually is. Well procrastination is knowing that you need to do something but finding a reason not to do it.
• 1:59
  And most of the time it's not actually just sitting there and flicking through Instagram or doom scrolling TikTok. It can be almost going like I know that I should just do that but I can't be bothered. And I get it because I've procrastinated multiple times and there's so many times I still continue to procrastinate. And it's interesting. Just before recording this podcast, I was literally thinking I should record a podcast and I very nearly didn't.
• 2:28
  But then I used this tool that Michael Lennon has helped me. Now, what I want to do before I kind of reveal that tool is reveal to you the real problem with procrastination. Yes, as I kind of just mentioned, there is a huge issue in terms of you are consistently delaying your future by not taking the action that will get you one step closer to it. But really, I don't know about you, but with me, when I procrastinate, that's not the core issue. The core issue is that when I procrastinate, when I know that I need to do something but I find a reason to not do it, it's what happens afterwards in terms of the self talk that I give.
• 3:08
  What happens is that when I know I need to take an action and I don't do it, I then say to myself and I beat myself up in the sense that I basically start saying to myself, Well, you suck. Once again, there's evidence that you're just a dreamer. There's evidence that, Oh yeah, you want to do this thing but you're not actually committed. There's evidence that you're not actually an action taker. And remember that whatever we say to ourselves does come to fruition.
• 3:36
  That if you constantly say, I'm anxious, I'm anxious, and I'm anxious, I'm anxious, I'm anxious, well, what happens? Well, you end up displaying physical symptoms of anxiety and, you know, your wish is my command. That's how the mind works. If you tell yourself you're anxious, you're going to be anxious. If you tell yourself you suck, well, you're going to suck.
• 3:55
  If you tell yourself you're not an action taker, well, what's going to happen is that by consistently beating yourself up by saying I'm not an action taker, I suck, everyone else is better than me. Do you know what's going to happen? You're going to realize the actions of someone who isn't an action taker. You are going to suck. Other people are going to be better than you because you're accepting that as a fact.
• 4:17
  So remember that your self talk is actually a command to your brain to rewire yourself into the person that you are saying that you are. So if you say I am an action taker, what will happen is by consistently saying I am an action taker eventually you will begin to start to embody the personality of someone who is an action taker. And what is the personality of an action taker? What does an action taker do? Well, they take action.
• 4:46
  So if you want to become an action taker, start saying to yourself, I am an action taker. And one of the ways that we have to overcome that really comes down to looking at our relationship with procrastination. Because when we're procrastinating, I know for myself, I then start to beat myself up and say, I'm not an action taker. I suck. And your wish is my command.
• 5:09
  So that's why this is so destructive because it's not just delaying action but what happens is the more and more times that you don't take action, eventually that then gets ingrained into your personality and habitually you become someone who doesn't take action. So we need to overcome that. And what I want to share with you is this thing that I learned from Michael Lennon, which is something called a productivity pivot. Okay, it's a productivity pivot. So what is a productivity pivot?
• 5:39
  Well, what I'm doing right now in terms of recording this podcast is literally a walking advert that a productivity pivot works. So productivity pivot is basically when the thought of I should do that thing or I could do that thing arises in your mind. As soon as that thought arises in your mind treat it as a command that I must take action now. So what happened was that I was driving along and I was listening to Ryan Holiday talk about stoicism. He was revealing off kind of lessons around Marcus Aurelius And I've been reading that quite a lot recently.
• 6:20
  I've really, really enjoyed it. It's been incredibly powerful. By listening to that, I then had a thought. I was like, I should do a podcast, but I don't really know what I need to kind of like talk about. And I was mulling that thought over.
• 6:32
  Now as soon as I heard the thought, I should do a podcast that automatically drives me into taking action. So as soon as you kind of whatever you're procrastinating over, let's say it's putting a post up on Instagram. As soon as you get the thought, I should post something on Instagram. That is your command to go and do it. Now, how can you almost kind of ingrain this in your behavior?
• 6:54
  Well, we want to take advantage of the statement of how you do anything is how you do everything. So effectively ingrain this productivity pivot into your lifestyle and get your clients to do the same. So with everything that you're doing, so whether you're going like, oh, you know, I really should put a wash on or I really should pack my suitcase or I really should put the dishes away. As soon as you hear that I really should, that's a command to go and do the thing. And the more and more you respond to that, the more and more you take action on that.
• 7:27
  What will happen is that those things will then become habitual because then you will become a person who does do things. You become an action taker. And even myself right now recording this podcast episode, I feel so much better. I feel so much better because I'm like, right. Okay.
• 7:41
  There I am. I haven't recorded an episode for a few weeks. And here I am. I've managed to go and do the thing, and I've done that through a productivity pivot. And it doesn't have to be this huge action.
• 7:52
  Like, this is an eight minute podcast episode, but it's made me feel better because I've gone right. Okay. I've ticked off a podcast episode. Yes. That then puts me into a place of positive self talk.
• 8:05
  Never forget, if every one of your clients gave you just one new client, you've doubled your business.