by Lee Milteer
D
o you have obstacles in your life due to the fact that you procrastinate on taking right actions that would move you toward success? As a productivity coach I often hear people say: “I had this great idea but before I could act on it someone else did.” Or, “I learned something from a book, coach, or seminar and I know that if I would take action I would benefit greatly, but I just haven’t had the time to do what I need to do to utilize the knowledge.”As entrepreneurs, it is in our nature to see possibilities, but the main difference between successful and average people is the ability to take action even when things are not perfect. Life and business change on a dime, and those of us who see opportunities and do not act on them often lose out, not only to the profits, but to the fact that others who take advantage of the opportunity or change will leverage themselves to a better market position or more income streams for their business.
Remember this: we all have LIFE GIVING personal life habits such as exercising, eating right, and taking time to relax. In our business, LIFE GIVING habits would be things like brainstorming with other like minds, marketing our business, educating ourselves, getting a good staff, and looking for new ways to expand our businesses without working harder.
We also have LIFE REMOVING personal life habits such as working too hard, not taking care of our bodies, not taking time with our loved ones, losing our temper, blaming others for our problems, negative thinking, excessive spending, overuse of mindless TV or computer time, lying, procrastination, being late, losing things, and various other unwanted habits that detract from enjoying life.
The old saying, “time is money” is true for you as an entrepreneur, so keep in mind: you only have 1,440 minutes per day. Are you conscious of how you are using your time and life energy? Are you aware of how much energy you waste on LIFE REMOVING personal or business habits?
There are proven strategies to help you overcome your negative habits, which prevent you from using your life energy in ways that assist you in becoming the creative, solution-oriented person you want to be, earning the money you want
to earn, and living the type of lifestyle you want to live. For example, what types of habits do you have that serve you, and which ones hurt you?
Habits are a way of doing something you have comfortably taken for granted. Everything you do becomes a habit. Your successes and failures come from your daily habits. Society has reinforced our patterns of behavior, and it is difficult to change, even if we don’t like the way things are. We are creatures of habit and these habits are familiar, easy, and routine. A change of habit means a disruption of emotional equilibrium. The new way of doing or thinking alters life’s routine. We convince ourselves that it takes too much effort to change and that it is inconvenient because it takes too much energy. I am here to tell you, that isn’t true! It’s worth loving and honoring yourself to change old behaviors to get new results.
Because you aren’t used to looking at or breaking habits from a broader perspective, you tend to hang on to traditions and ignore new ways of thinking.
Whether you’re swearing off cigarettes, kicking the procrastination habit, or marketing your business in a new way, it doesn’t matter because you have the power to make these changes. Psychologists say that the resistance to change lies in the wall of inertia. Personality factors like old habits and childhood scars, contribute to this resistance to change, and although you’ve spent your entire life becoming the person you are, you expect to change in a weekend.
The bottom line is that you need to bring to your conscious mind – where you can take action – the pitfalls of allowing yourself to stay in a mode of procrastination. Taking action, as opposed to not taking action is what makes the difference in your bottom line and personal enjoyment of your business.
Ground Rules for Breaking Unproductive Behaviors:
• You must be honest with yourself
• You must sincerely commit to making changes in your life
• You must develop a deep passion to rid yourself of unwanted habits
• You must be open-minded to try new strategies
• You must be creative and resourceful in creating new behaviors to replace old, unproductive habits
• You must instill new habits of thought and actions.
Instead of relying on old solutions, make new choices to get rid of your procrastination behaviors. Become conscious of how you use your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual life energies to create new, positive behavior patterns. After all, your thoughts, intentions, and actions create your future. We are self-fulfilling prophecies, and what we focus on, we bring into our lives. Stay motivated to make your desired changes by enlarging the repertoire of resources you have.
Empower yourself by realizing that you can choose a new response to any circumstance and thus, powerfully affect your future. Take responsibility for your life and alter the circumstance of your future for the positive. Our perception of the world determines how we interpret events, both inside and outside ourselves. In order to effectively deal with changing our life, we must question our perceptions.
Because our perceptions filter our every experience in life, our strongly held rules can blind us to our unproductive behaviors. Resistance to new ideas rejects new ways of thinking before we’ve even given them a chance.
To be successful in overcoming unproductive procrastination behaviors, you need to step back and do an inventory on how you are using your life energy:
mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Are you being as productive as you want to be? If not, why not? If you only have so much energy per day, where is your energy being spent? If you do everything the way you have done it, you are going to get what you have always gotten, and clearly if you are reading this, you want new results.
You must understand that your emotional and mental attitudes are shaped by your habits. If you have a positive outlook on change, you look forward to challenges and experimentation. If you’re in a rut and don’t want to try anything new, you reject new solutions and opportunities for growth. It’s always your choice!
There are always consequences for bad habits and unproductive behaviors.
An event occurs that sets off your procrastination or otherwise unproductive behavior. It affects you personally, emotionally, and physically, and also affects the people around you, such as your family, friends, clients, and customers. You must accept that your actions have consequences. Lay all of the cards out on the table face up so you can deal with your unproductive behaviors and how they affect you, your income, and the people around you. After you are able to see how your habits affect you and those you care about, you are empowered to make changes in your actions and attitudes because you have had the courage to write them down and face them.
You must gain an understanding of how your procrastination behaviors have affected your business success, income, risk taking, peace of mind, and family life.
There is a huge secret to making changes in our behaviors, thoughts, and actions. Record keeping is the most useful device for self-reinforcement. Always carry a notebook with you to record your progress. You should record your performance in such a way that you can see your improvements at a glance. Have fun and create a visual representation of your progress. Create graphs of your progress that can soften any feelings of failure or guilt caused by a lapse. These will let you see how much you have progressed in your journey of overcoming unproductive behaviors.
Ask yourself questions like:
“How does acting on my unproductive behaviors make me feel about myself?”
“What are the reactions of my customers, clients, staff, or family?”
“What financial consequences have I had to deal with relating to my unproductive behaviors?”
“What are the areas where I currently procrastinate in my life?”
Identify them so you have a point of reference. Don’t beat yourself up about the past because that is a waste of time and resources. Simply accept your past procrastination without judgment. By doing this, you free yourself to deal with it more objectively. You don’t want to give it more power to work against you. Have the skill of awareness and as you approach your next project, monitor yourself.
“What are my typical procrastination behaviors?”
“How do I feel when I procrastinate?” How do you feel about the inferior work and missed opportunities that result from procrastination?
How do you feel about late charges for payments you didn’t send on time?
“What can I do to schedule free time for myself to help reduce procrastination?”
“When is my best work time?” You should take advantage of what comes naturally for you and schedule your heaviest workload for this time.
“What are my areas of strength, things I should focus my time on?”
List the things that you are so good at you can’t be replaced. (One of the secrets of success is to only do what you are really good at and outsource everything else.)
“What things can I delegate or outsource to get things done in a timely manner?”
You might also want to ask yourself exactly what motivation you have had in the past to keep acting on unproductive procrastination behaviors. Now knowing what you do, along with the new decisions and choices you have made for yourself, do old motivations still hold true for you? You can use new motivation to condition yourself and inspire your new, productive behaviors. Everyone has to take steps to keep themselves motivated toward the attainment of goals. Be creative and determine what steps will work for your personality and needs.
Whatever you believe about yourself will determine how much time you devote to trying new strategies, creating a support system, and creating positive habits to replace your old negative habits. Make a new decision to alter your life,