If you have a habit of putting things off… of not getting around to things… or waiting before you act…

you have an enemy.  That enemy is…

Procrastination

Procrastination is nothing more than a bad habit.

“Procrastination is an outward expression of an internal conflict preventing you from taking action.”

Cheryl A. Clausen - The Race to Success

I feel every bit as strongly about procrastination today as the day I wrote that excerpt in my book.  Procrastination is a success killer robbing you from all the good things you should already have.

As Julien Smith says, “Sometimes we wait forever on taking the next action.”  I see it happen every day to SBO’s, entrepreneurs, and SOHO’s who are stuck and not moving forward.

And it’s so FRUSTRATING.  You don’t like the way things are yet you can’t seem to get yourself to ACT.  So there you sit.

Not moving forward.  Not easing the frustration.  Working your tail off getting nowhere.

Kind of makes your head want to explode doesn’t it?

I hope it makes you feel at least a little better when I tell you procrastination isn’t a character flaw.  It has nothing to do with your work ethic or your intelligence.  You procrastinate because you:

• don’t fully appreciate the big “why” that provides the motivation to act and empowers your decisions
• know what to do BUT you don’t know HOW to do it
• have taken action and now you’re stuck AND you don’t know how to get yourself unstuck

Now that you understand the internal conflict you are experiencing it makes perfect sense.  You have a perfectly logical reason for not acting.

There’s no logical reason you can’t act like the super successful though.  So here is how the successful approach the same challenge.  Yes, successful people also get stuck and procrastinate… the difference is once they recognize it they commit to doing what they need to do so they can act.

1. Identify the big solution, outcome, or result you expect from acting.
2. Gather the current information you have to make a decision.
3. Identify any critical piece of information you must have to make a decision and set a date to get it by.
4. Set a deadline to make a decision based on the information you have.  Then stick with your decision once you make it.
5. Identify what you don’t know how to do and decide if you will learn how to do it or pay someone else to do it.
6. Develop a mind map representing everything that must be done to accomplish the desired end result.
7. When you get stuck quickly move from the work that you are stuck on and identify something from your mind map you can act on and take that action.
8. Once you’ve completed all the pieces you can successfully complete on your own if you are still stuck decide how you will either learn how to do it or pay someone else to do it.
9. Accept accountability and responsibility for both your actions and your inaction and don’t accept procrastination as an acceptable habit.

What’s one thing you are procrastinating on right now?  Make it your mission this week to use the 9 steps above to eliminate that enemy.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

photo credit: WhosThisValGirl

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under sales coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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