Are You Waiting for the “Right Time”?

Just a quick (but important) topic for today…

I was listening to 177 Mental Toughness Secrets by Steve Siebold this morning and one of the secrets he talks about is the whole waiting for the “right time” syndrome.

I must admit I was quite hesitant to embrace the idea of not waiting for the “right time” when I first heard about it. It sounded like the greatest betrayl of our intuitive feelings!

That was a couple years ago…my thoughts on this topic have changed a lot since applying some of his strategies into my life AND in working with a lot of people who’re struggling with procrastination…

And here’s the scoop…

Intuitive feeling is a good thing but when waiting for the “right time” stops you from achieving your goals…it’s probably not an intuitive feeling, it’s usually your fear of failure or perfectionism tendencies acting up!

And that’s exactly where most of us get stuck! We have a goal and then we end up listening to this feeling that says “Uh…not today”

Well here’s a quick way to get over the “not today” argument… Listen, the “right time’” is never going to come down and knock on your doors…it’s something YOU have to create..

Falling victim to the “right time will come and will eventually motivate me to get this thing done” will just put you into a panic mode when the deadline’s too close or worse yet, it will prevent you from achieving your major goals..

So the next time you’re waiting for the “right time” feeling…try this…Just get started on the work…

Counter-intuitive? You bet!

But here’s the deal with this…

The hardest part of feeling good about what you’re going to do is to overcome the inertia of doing it…it’s the inertia that creates the “maybe this isn’t the right time” feeling to try to keep you from not doing it. (Remember Newton? A body at rest remains in rest..)

Just try it!

(and let me know how it goes)

Popularity: 3% [?]

What’s Your Reason for Procrastination?

Do you ever procrastinate? And does that make you feel horrible sometimes? Yep, same here!

Wouldn’t it be nice to kind of say…”Well you know what, I have a perfectly valid reason here for procrastinatinating and here it is…XYZ…”

Wouldn’t you love it to relieve that whole horrible feeling that comes from not doing what you know you’re supposed to be doing at the time when you’re supposed to be doing it…

I know I love that! In fact, tell you what?

Getting rid of that horrible nagging feeling is such an important step towards getting off your own back…which surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) also motivates you to get up and get stuff done. I don’t want to go into the whole mechanics of why this works (that’s for a later blog post).. But, for now…I can tell you it has to do something with recognizing why you’re procrastinating and acting to fix it!

You see…when most of us procrastinate..we sit down and feel horrible about it but don’t seem to be able to do anything about it! I know it feels horrible and it kills self confidence faster than anything else!

One of the easiest ways to get out of this procrastination — feeling horrible — and feeling trapped cycle is to take  a close look at your procrastination habits and try to understand why you procrastinate and where…

Ready?

Get a piece of paper and a pen

Draw out two columns

On one side write down the tasks you’ve procrastinated on recently (or the ones that still bug you)

On the right write down why you think you procrastinated…

You’ll discover some really cool patterns and learn a lot about yourself..I promise!

And, the most important thing is..you’ll be a step (a big step) closer towards breaking free of your procrastination..

Sound good? Let me know if you had an “aha” moment or any other breakthroughs with the exercise!

Popularity: 3% [?]

What to do when you fall off track

Well it’s been a long while and that got me thinking about something…

What exactly do you do when you have a good worked out plan…that somehow has fallen off the track? Do you scratch that create a new one? Give up? Try to get back? What do you do?

Have you ever had things that seem to go on well for a while and then comes the big storm that just throws you off…by a lot..and it takes for-ever to finally get back on your feet (atleast with regards to your time management)..

Yeah same here! There’s always something unexpected that kinda throws you off the track and leaves you going…”Woah..what was that!?!”

And I think that’s exactly where preparing for the troubles comes in. I always tell people don’t expect your effective time management to be a smooth ride..there will be some challenges prepare for it! In fact my book has a  whole chapter (and an extra report) dedicated to this…

But..let’s forget about the book here..that’s not the topic of the day..

The topic of the day is the ocassional “oops” that all of us have..myself included as you’ve seen in the past month.. Am I ashamed of it? Nope! I’d much rather you understand how this works with all of us than try to hide the fact that I did create a time management mess!!

Anyhow…wanna know how to deal with those events that throw you off the track? Here’s my solution!

1. Recognize the difficulty

2. Immediately start blocking off time for the most important goals and tasks in your life

3. Realize that some things can really be put off without major consequences..

4. Asses where you are and whether or not giving up that task completely is going to have a major impact on your goals, your happiness..

Here’s a real life case study..

1. I got off track! I took up a bit too many projects that I should have (oops)

2. I loved those projects so I had to look for things I could afford to fall back on..so I decided to cut my blogging time

3. I worked hard for 60 days and got my projects done…It felt extremely good!

4. I decided to take a couple days and see if I should completely give up blogging

5. I realized I loved this! I really do..it feels great to get involved and talk, answer questions and share whatever I have and help others manage their time… I also realized how blogging helped me relax and kind of de-stress after a long day

6. So I looked at my old schedule and said “You know what…I like this..let’s try going back to it”

And here I am!

So…here’s the moral of the story..

Be willing to give up somethings and then come back and see if you really need them.. Sometimes you can free up a ton of time and free yourself from a lot of useless commitments by simply looking at your plate and saying “hey, you look good but guess what? I don’t think I really need you…”

Give it a shot!

Popularity: 5% [?]