Why is it that when we want to accomplish something big and important to us, we find it very difficult to do so?
The Answer: Procrastination.
Procrastination is simply the human response to resistance.
And it’s something that we all struggle with.
Regardless of how “accomplished”, “disciplined”, or “successful” we are.
And what sucks is, the bigger the apple and the more we want something, the harder it is to overcome the resistance.
This is not a new idea. There are books on this topic alone.
But damn, if we’re having trouble getting our butts outside to go exercise, we probably aren’t hitting up amazon to order and read books.
So perhaps this web page is our only hope?
Well, I sure hope not.
The reason resistance kicks us in the butt is because we are too lazy to get specific.
We don’t get specific about what we want.
Nope, we use nebulous terms like “successful”, “rich”, or “happy”.
We don’t get specific about what it is going to take to accomplish something.
Our goals are left as
- “Become a web developer”
- “Get a new job”.
- “Build a new house”.
And if it can’t be accomplished in a day, we just don’t do it.
These things just don’t happen.
When procrastination is overcoming us, it’s because we haven’t gotten specific about what we want and how we are going to get there.
It takes a lot of effort actually to decide on these things.It’s so much easier to have the goal”Have a successful blog”Than it is to have the goal”Publish a blog post every week”.
So we remain comfortable in our misery.
Like a donkey who can’t decide whether it wants to eat some hay or drink some water first.
For anyone not familiar with this little anecdote, I’ll spoil the ending.
The donkey dies of starvation.
… I’m guessing most of us probably don’t want to be the donkey in that story.
Here Are 3 Steps to Overcoming Procrastination
Decide What We Want
None of this works without first deciding what we actually want.
Is it a job?
Girlfriend?
Spouse?
New Car?
Better friends?
And when we are having trouble coming up with our list of “wants”, all we need to do is jump on Instagram for 5 minutes and realize how terrible our lives are compared to everyone else’s.
And now we have our list of wants.
Queue golf clap. We’ve graduated to step 2.
Make it Measurable
It’s much easier to:”Want to be rich”Than it is to:”Want $50,000 in the bank”.The ambiguity gives us the “out” we are looking for.But when we are serious about overcoming procrastination, we are forced to swallow the fear and get specific.
How many new friends?
What kind of a spouse?
How much savings?
What kind of a new job and paying how much?
Don’t let the specifics scare you, let them liberate you.
Make it Achievable
Do you want to know why people don’t eat hamburgers in one bite?
Because it’s simply not possible.
Do you want to know why we fail to accomplish the big things we dream of?
Because they simply aren’t possible in their whole form.
The funny thing is, we all know this truth, but we don’t use it to our advantage.
If we can’t do something to move us closer to our goal in about an hour of effort, then the bite is too big.
In fact, I find that if we don’t break our bites down into things that can be accomplished in 5 minutes, the bite is usually too big.
When we care about our dream enough to break it down into bite sized pieces, we can accomplish anything.
People don’t get to where they are by chance, but by careful planning and execution.
This is true for sports teams, companies, marriages, and mountains summited.
How Can We Overcome Procrastination?
Easy – Set ourselves up for success by getting a knife and fork out and cutting that steak into bite sized pieces.
Define the goal.(The “What?”)
Get specific about it(The “What Kind?”)
Then break it down into bite sized pieces.(The “How?”)
Use this model to go chase and accomplish your dreams.
Godspeed.