January 2024
A Time to be Strong
I’m starting this year on a solemn note. While I’m always there for anyone who wants to lead a more prosperous life, I especially want to encourage anyone who had a setback in 2023. There were many high notes in 2023 but I did have several major disappointments. I was brave enough to take a class called “Solving the Procrastination Puzzle” taught by Dr. Timothy Pychyl, a renowned procrastination expert. As I took the 8-week class, I became painfully aware of my own shortcomings. Like many of you, some of my setbacks in 2023 weren’t my fault. They were due to the current condition of the world we are in today. However, when knocked down, I didn’t fight back hard enough or soon enough. Let’s not let that happen in 2024.
What could you have done differently in 2023? Are you ready to fight back?
Tim Pychyl learned to procrastinate in school. That’s where many of us learned to procrastinate by putting off studying and writing papers until the last minute. During his doctoral studies, Tim discovered the connection between procrastination and wellbeing and decided to study procrastination as a research psychologist. It is impressive to note that he does not procrastinate at all in this stage of his life. In fact, not procrastinating saved Tim’s life. He had some symptoms that many of us would have ignored but he went to the Doctor and was found to have cancer. Since he didn’t procrastinate he received treatment and is now cancer free.
Are you taking good care of yourself?
Tim’s research on procrastination lead him to the belief that there is nothing positive about procrastination. Procrastination comes with a high cost in the areas of performance, health, wellbeing and relationships. Tim says “tomorrow is a mystical land where 90% of all human productivity, motivation, and achievement are stored”. Yet many of us constantly say to ourselves “ I will feel more like doing it tomorrow”. Tim teaches that delaying action is “giving in to feeling good”. If a task is aversive, difficult, or even just boring we often put it off and do something more enjoyable instead. All of Tim’s words were a wakeup call for me. It was gut wrenching and humbling. He may as well have slapped me or thrown cold water in my face. I discovered that I had a sneaky kind of procrastination. Since I don’t do many particularly frivolous things, I thought I could pat myself on the back because I was usually doing something worthwhile or constructive. The secret was that there were many things that I should have been doing and wasn’t doing. I wasn’t setting priorities that were consistent with my purported purpose and my stated goals. Frankly, a lot of the time I was just “busy”.
Are you doing what is really worthwhile?
Thankfully, I have learned a lot from Tim. First of all, be sure to clearly state your goals. List what you must have in your life by the end of this year. They must be your dearest dreams and not someone else’s expectations or demands of your time. In Tim’s class we talked about Prochaska’s studies on making effective changes. This research tells us that we are much more likely to follow through with a life change that has deep personal meaning for us and that we are firmly committed to. After committing to our changes whether they are personal or business, we must not let procrastination get in the way of our progress.
What dreams has procrastination ruined for you?
What has worked for me and many of my clients is to set 2 or 3 priorities for each day. It is important to check in on yourself several times a day and assess how you are doing. The signs that I’m lapsing into procrastination are thoughts like “I need to make a phone call; I need to look something up on the internet or I should have a snack”. With subtle procrastination we are likely to catch ourselves cleaning the house instead of doing our taxes or some other onerous task. Another sign for me is rumination. The ruminator can worry about something for a longer time than it would take to just do it.
Will you choose between ruminating or making your dreams come true?
In fact, Tim says to “just get started doing it’. What this means that instead of saying “I’ll feel more up to doing that tomorrow”, decide to just take the first step on a project no matter how small that step is. In fact, starting small may be best. Keep practicing doing this. Some people call it willpower but willpower is not really the right word. Our willpower can fade and let us down. By constantly trying just one more small “next step” we are developing what some people call grit or persistence. When you feel like giving up on something have a talk with yourself and agree to just go at a difficult task again if only for 5 minutes. You’ll get stronger and stronger. You can bargain with yourself and promise a reward if you do a task for an agreed on period of time. Sometimes I promise myself that after I work on a dreaded task for a specific amount of time that I can then reward myself by doing the things I would normally do to avoid the task. I might tell myself that I can watch a horse video after I do an hour of paper work.
What could you get done if you broke through the procrastination barrier?
I think we are all going to need to be stronger in 2024. To help people achieve their dreams I will be giving some coaching classes and presentations to help people stop procrastinating and start setting priorities. I want to help everyone start strong with a comprehensive business plan with clear action steps. I’m going to give my small business class to assist new businesses in getting off the ground and to give tools to get established businesses ready to move to the next level. Growing and changing are easier to do when you have the structure of a class and the support of other business owners. I know these classes work because I use all the techniques on myself. I don’t tolerate fluff or glitter. I only want to use ideas that have stood the test of time. These important tools will help us all to have a happier and more profitable 2024.
What would it look like if you had the tools to scale your business and live a bigger life?
This is going to be a very serious year for me, my clients and my business colleagues. We will need to take some time off to refresh ourselves to continue to achieve and to overcome challenges. We all need at least one day a week to rest and clear our minds. If you are a workaholic try to start with 1 or 2 hours a week of rest and work up to a whole day. A perfect place to practice resting is my vacation rental in rural Buffalo, Missouri. It’s called Sabbath Sojourn for a reason. Come spend a weekend and experience what it really feels like to refresh yourself.
https://evolve.com/vacation-rentals/us/mo/buffalo/462541?queryID=2c2f70dd5b526a4ad69f3561a0e8645d
https://evolve.com/vacation-rentals/us/mo/buffalo/462542?queryID=2c2f70dd5b526a4ad69f3561a0e8645d
