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No? You’ve never set your mind to something, and moments or days or weeks later, realized you never finished? Your task list is always complete? You’ve never thought to yourself … “tomorrow”?

OK. So, I’m not the only one haunted by that pesky ghoul we call procrastination. While it’s seemingly so difficult to tame, maybe we can shine some light on the underlying issues to help end procrastination once and for all. Let’s “dispel” a few common procrastination myths, and see if we can’t take back control of our time, our passions, and our goals.

The “Perfectionist” Myth:
You’ve probably heard (or spoken) some of these phrases - “I’m a perfectionist and my harshest critic. If I can’t do it right, then I just can’t consider myself finished. That’s just the way I am, and if I don’t have everything just right, then I just have difficulty even starting.” This is the perfectionist mentality, and is often expressed by adding trivial tasks to your daily list like organizing the pantry instead of making that difficult phone call, or organizing files on the computer instead of focusing on an upcoming presentation … anything to delay the inevitable.

Translation:
The phrase, “I’m a perfectionist” can best be translated, “I’m afraid to fail.” In an attempt to hide our fear of failure, we clothe our timidity with something much more noble sounding - perfection. Simply, you’re manipulating a fault into a virtue, as if to say to those around us, “Yes, you may have accomplished great things, but you just don’t know what it’s like to be above all that.” Ultimately however, this fear of failure leads to a lack of direction and accomplishment.

Solution:
Contrary to popular belief, many things in life are not graded, and don’t necessitate over-analyzing. There’s no A+ or D-, they are simply pass/fail (a great example of this is returning phone calls … yes, while dialing the number correctly takes a certain degree of hand-eye coordination, it typically doesn’t take a great deal of thought or preparation). When it comes to these kind of tasks, identify them as such and then just get them done. It’s as simple as that. As we’ve all heard before, “Sometimes good enough is good enough”.

For the larger projects, Jim Rohn shares a refreshingly simple remedy. If you’re having trouble starting something, write it down. If you’re having trouble finishing something, break it down. The fear of failure loves confusion and complexity, and the best way to conquer that fear is to first determine the scope of your project or task, write it down, and then break it down into manageable pieces. Reduce the complexity to a single action you’re confident you can complete RIGHT NOW, and then do it. As you begin to take these simple steps toward your goal, momentum will develop, and before you know it, the procrastination goblin will seek residence elsewhere.

The “Over-Committed” Myth:
This has always been a favorite of mine. Often you may hear (or say), “Oh, I am just so over-committed, I don’t even have time to accomplish this or that. I seem to have over-committed once again. If you could only see my schedule.” Generally speaking, people who struggle with this ghostly terror wear their packed calendar like a badge of honor. They revel in the fact that they have the ability to say yes to everything thrown their way, but end up playing the martyr when it gets down to it. “Woe is me,” they cry, “the world has me over-committed again!”

Translation:
Here’s the skinny. And never forget this. If you are feeling over-committed, you are actually UNDER-committed. See, those that truly commit don’t allow distractions to fill up their valuable time. They have determined the areas of life most important to them and then guard them viciously. The need to commit to more than we can handle stems from fearing a lack of significance. We enjoy the fleeting feeling that comes from saying yes, but wallow in the guilt of not having the ability to play full out once we’ve committed.

Solution:
Know your goals and learn to say no. This is also one of the greatest time management tools available. If you know your goals, it makes it easy to say, “I’m sorry, I am already fully committed to something else, but I’m honored that you asked.” Write your goals out, and then write out your current commitments. I don’t recommending bailing ship on every activity that doesn’t fit smoothly with a goal of yours, but if you begin consciously aligning your activities with your desired goals, you will not only recognize a transformation in your schedule, you will also see dramatic results.

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Like a spooky creak in the attic, once you identify the source, you will no longer be frozen in fear, and will begin to see procrastination for what it really is … simply an unfounded fear. Whether it’s the fear of failure or the lack of significance, don’t let procrastination hold you down. Write it down and break it down, set goals and learn to say no, and see your desires develop before your eyes.

Tags: accomplishment, beliefs, goals, personal development, procrastination, productivity

Have you ever gone to a conference, read a book, or listened to a CD, and learned something you “knew” would help you, maybe even change your life … and then did nothing?! Would you say you’ve done this more than once? And what was the definition of insanity again?

Why do we do this? Because in the desire to implement what we’ve learned, we prematurely turn our attention to altering our “behavior” (or surface responses) instead of allowing our newfound lessons to transform our “beliefs” (or underlying foundation). Ultimately, however, because our beliefs drive and determine our behavior, the two cannot remain out of alignment. So when we attempt to behave in contrast to our beliefs, we’re left with two options: continue to beat ourselves up for failing, or return to our original behavior.

So where do our beliefs come from?
Each day we process an inordinate amount of information. To help make sense of this daily bombardment, we are forced to begin making generalizations to help speed up our processing time, and these generalizations ultimately become the foundation for our belief system. Once we “believe” something, our brains begin to operate on automatic pilot, filtering any input from the environment and searching for support systems to validate that belief. Of course, without this hardwired process, we would not be able to function or survive (i.e., Avoid a dog that’s foaming at the mouth because he will bite you).

The downside to this is that regardless of where our beliefs come from, we begin to blindly accept them and no longer question their origin or truth. Once adopted, these beliefs become gospel whether the past experience or perspective that created them was empowering or not. And before we know it, we have limited ourselves solely to the past as a source for our beliefs.

These “gospel beliefs” are easily displayed by filling in these blanks:

• I am _______ (intelligent, athletic, a failure, lazy, etc.)
• People are _______ (friendly, caring, selfish, power-hungry, etc.)
• Life is ________ (a joy, short, thrilling, boring, etc.)
• God is ________ (omnipotent, loving, uncaring, dead, etc.)

So while your beliefs drive you to action, you have the ability to not only eliminate bad beliefs, but develop a new empowering belief system. With enough emotional intensity and repetition, you can begin experiencing something as real, even if it hasn’t occurred yet. There are those few great achievers who believe this, and feel certain they can succeed at their new venture, even though there may be no prior examples or experiences to pull from … like the first four-minute mile or reaching the peak of Mount Everest … each has a different dream, and each has the power to make that dream reality.

So how do we CHANGE our Beliefs?
Here’s a process I have learned to take charge of the disempowering beliefs that hold me back …

Let you mind wander and write down any beliefs that pop in your head, both empowering and disempowering (as you did above), then circle the top beliefs on each list. With any disempowering belief, ask these questions:

GET LEVERAGE (PAIN / PLEASURE)

• “What negative impact has this belief had on my life?”
• “What will it ultimately cost me in my future emotionally (as well as in my relationships, physically, financially, etc.) if I don’t let go of this belief?”

WEAKEN OLD SUPPORT SYSTEMS

• “How is this belief ridiculous or absurd?”
• “Was the person I learned this belief from worth modeling in this area?”
• “Is this belief based on accurate interpretations?”

INSTALL NEW EMPOWERING BELIFES (Experiences, Information, Imagination, Visualizations)

• “What are empowering replacement beliefs that I can begin to support?”
• “What actions will I take to build a stronger foundation for this new belief?”

Tags: ambition, behavior, beliefs, personal development, purpose