Making a good plan to stop procrastinating
Hey guys! In today’s post we are going to talk about how to make a plan to stop procrastinating on your goals. I know there are many voices out there, with different pieces of advice but I am going to tell you what worked for me. Look, I am a husband, I am a father, I am a businessman, I am a coach, and I have many things to do, and I myself struggled a lot with procrastination and shiny object syndrome at the point that truly, I even had serious problems with my wife because she couldn’t tell which way I was going, and women love certainty, when you have a clear and established path and a plan for your life. Trust me, this is not hard to get.
Before I continue, here is also a link to book a 30-minute breakthrough to help you to gain clarity and see if we are a good fit to work together. I only have a few spots available and this is a very personalized program to give the tools and accountability you need to overcome these issues once and for all, and of course, all with a spiritual perspective, and quality!
So here we go. One of the things that helped me was:
Reflect on all the pain you have now for delaying your goals with procrastination. Identify the pain. Write it if you can. What could happen if you don’t achieve your goals and dreams?
Make a commitment with God. A commitment to change. A commitment to say “no” to those addictions, because yes, procrastination is an addiction. It is a coping mechanism to avoid what we have to do, which scares us. My commitment came when I went to visit one of my friends who’s wealthy. I saw his new beautiful house, and the quality of life they had. They are deeply spiritual people, but they could spend their time with their family, in nature, in a beautiful house. At that moment, without envy I said “no more,” I don’t want to live the way I am living now. I want something different for me and my family. I want my daughters to grow up with a successful dad who can be present. I realized that procrastinating in my business was costing us freedom and peace of mind. I know, if you are deeply religious you may tell me money does not buy happiness and I agree, but having it is less stressful than not having it. Even most of the marriage problems originate around the lack of money. And if you want to add this: the bible is full of advice about achieving wealth and goals.
Even most marriage problems originate around the lack of money. And if you want to, add this:
the bible is full of advice about achieving wealth and goals.
Next step is Visualize: This is important. How do you see yourself reaching your goals? I like to do this visualizing myself, what I’m wearing, how I look, what I’m feeling. Sometimes I talk about it as if it already happened. The thing is in your hypothalamus. The more you meditate about something, the most you visualize something, the borders with reality fall and at that point the brain does not recognize what is real from what is not. I think that is when we can start achieving our goals because what we imagine, what we truly have in mind we are going to get, our brains will direct us there. That is what we are going to manifest. But if you do not visualize it, it will not go to your subconscious mind, so I recommend visualizing these goals for at least 21 days. That is the time frame some neuroscientists recommend to start breaking old neural pathways and start making new ones. After that, they will go from your conscious mind, to the unconscious where 95% of your brain action is. This is not occultism or new age. It is just focused attention to what you truly want, and how to use one of the most valuable tools God gave us: imagination.
Make a list: make a list of all the activities you need to do in order to reach your goals. Be detail oriented. This might be a little bit complicated if you are the type of dreamer procrastinator, but go ahead. After that, classify and be honest. Which activities are the ones that you truly need to get started for things to happen? Are there activities you can delegate or pay someone else to do it? If you can not or do not have the money right now, then you can procrastinate a little bit on them. Remember to go with the important ones. Usually those are the ones we procrastinate the most because they are scary like going to the market, being involved in phone calls, and exposing ourselves. Seriously, to me for instance going on social media, shooting my youtube videos, was very complicated because it confronted me the most and I delayed it a lot with activities that had nothing to do with my business or had low impact on it.
From the important activities, depending on your schedule, pick one or two you can focus on (remember the 80/20 principle!). Set a particular place and time to execute them. Example: “write 2 pages of a book at 4pm in the office.” “work in my social media marketing from 3 to 4 in the office.” Make this list not only with your business or career goals but with your family and relationship goals: “teach kids math for one hour in a school room,” “go to the nature center from 3 to 5pm.”
Apply the 5 second rule. I love this one and I got it from the book “The 5 second rule” by Mel Robbins, and basically what it says is, once you define what you have to do and then you feel like going backwards to the tv or social media you stop, count from 5 to 1 and then move to do what you have to do. I practiced this so much that now it is like an alarm to my brain when I don’t want to move, go to the gym, or write. When I see myself again on the phone, I count 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and jump into action. I recommend you read this book.
Get accountability: this is extremely important if you are starting and if you feel you need help to create more discipline. Because, what takes you out of procrastination is discipline, not motivation. In order to do so you have to work hard. Sometimes yes, you may have the willpower to do it, but many times, you will not, honestly. That’s when accountability is necessary, and not with someone who can give you the answers or the advice about what to do -necessarily,- but more with someone who can give you the right questions so you can get back on track.
Hope this helps!
To your success,
Ricardo Pinedo
Co-Founder – NeuroCoach
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