Motivation
3 Rules To Kill Procrastination and Give Life To Action
Motivation is the ability to act to achieve your goal.
Successful people have the ability to motivate themselves, but why can they motivate themselves in one area of their life, but can’t motivate themselves in other areas?
Is there a secret set of rules for motivation?
I was recently working with a client who was highly motivated and successful in his career; he would happily sell himself during a job interview, he was motivated to meet deadlines and enthused to make everything he did count, but unmotivated when it came to his health. He wouldn’t exercise, diet or drink enough water, even though his goal was to lose weight!!
What is the secret to motivation? How do you motivate yourself to take action, to be more successful and to keep going when the going gets tough?
These 3 rules for motivation will change the way you approach task and goals, creating instant motivation that will kill Mr. Procrastination and bring alive Mr. Action:
Rule #1: Win the fight – Mr. Procrastination vs Mr. Action
We live each day with 2 invisible buddies, Mr. Procrastination and Mr. Action. These twin brothers have the power to motivate or demotivate you, but with great power comes great reasonability. The only weakness Mr. Procrastination and Mr. Action both possess is that only one can be in the room at the same time. The room of course is in your head! In the fight to get into the brain-room, how is the winner chosen? The winner is chosen by what you focus on
“I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become”. – Oprah Winfrey
In work, my client would focus on the challenge of the task, the enjoyment of the outcome of his project, the ability to use his skills and knowledge to make a difference to the business. He would also focus on building his career reputation as a professional problem solver
Rarely did he think about potential mistakes, getting it wrong or what others may say about his work. This is Mr. Action at his best – think positive and create action
When thinking about dieting the clients focus changed. Instead of thinking about the challenge of dieting, the enjoyment of the outcome of his new health regime, his health, fitness and longer life, he would instead think about the negatives.
Mr Procrastination relishes the negative thoughts. My client couldn’t take action as his focus was on the pain of dieting; being hungry, not enjoying soggy old lettuce and the bland boring taste from a cold weltering salad dish.
Rule 1: Change Your Focus To Win The Motivational Fight
Rule #2: Make Mr. procrastination work for you
Mr. Procrastination isn’t evil. He is a superhero or protector, keeping you away from danger. He can predict future problems, potential pain and hard work. This foresight stops you taking action on something that you wouldn’t, in the short term, enjoy. Procrastinations kryptonite is his attention to detail. Once focused, Mr. Procrastination can’t let go. One problem leads to another. Pain equals more pain. Once caught in Procrastinations trap, it’s hard to escape.
“Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is nightmare”. – Japanese Proverb
All superheroes carry out their duties for the better good. Whisper in Procrastinations ear and he will work for you. When you want to diet, focus on what problems you will have if you don’t diet and allow Mr. Procrastination to get carried away with himself; bad diet = bad health, bad health= clogged arteries, clogged arteries = heart attack…
Rule 2: Focus on The Pain of Not Taking Action To take Action
Rule #3: Mr. Action always chases the carrot
Procrastination gets your engines running. We are highly motivated to get away from pain. Imagine this scenario; You have recently been diagnosed with a curable illness, you simply need to choose which medication to take. The doctor explains that medicine one has a 65% success rate with few side effects and medicine two has a 35% failure rate with few side effects. Which would you choose?
Most people would choose medicine one with a 65% success rate, even though the odds for both of the medicines success rate are the same, because we are more motivated to move away from pain.
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. – Mahatma Gandhi
Pleasure is also motivational – the donkey will chase the carrot. Mr. action thrives when chasing his carrot, creating lots of motivation for you to take action.
Mr. action will motivate you by getting you to focus on the outcome(s) of taking action. My Clients Mr. Action told him “When you eat salad and exercise you will feel good about yourself; your own self worth will increase, you will perceive that others will find you more attractive and research shows that attractiveness plays on unconscious part in the success of a job interview outcome, which can only help your career…”
Rule 3: The More Pleasure You Associate to Your Goal The More Mr. action Will Kick In
My client already had a strategy for success. He simply needed to use his career success formula – focusing on the pleasure of completing task and the pain of not taking action, with dieting by focusing on the positives of exercise and good food (becoming more healthy, living longer) and the pain of eating takeaways (being unhealthy and dying at an early age).
When you feel stuck, change your focus and follow the 3 rules for motivation. Think of the pain of not completing the steps towards your goal and pleasure of achieving your outcomes and let Mr. Procrastination and Mr. Action work for you, rather than against you.
Thank you for reading my article! I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!
Motivation
(Part 2) Conquering the Impossible Space Between Where You Are Now and Where You Want to Be
I wrote a blog post based on a mini-series I did for my Subscribers on the Achieve the Impossible App and have packaged it up in two parts to share here. If you missed Part One, quick click here and have a read over that first before reading any further!
One of the first obstacles we’re going to face on this journey towards risk is one that often strikes a damaging blow to our pride and can sometimes take us to our knees. As you embark on this journey, I can almost guarantee that we will take a wrong turn from time to time, we will read the map wrong (I’ll take the hit, I’m the navigator – sorry!) which will send us off course.
When you’ve taken a wrong turn driving, what is your first thought? DAMN IT. (Yep, me too!) What’s your second thought? Is it ‘ahh, I’ve stuffed up. I’m gonna just pull over and sit here until either the roads and maps magically change in my favor or someone comes to rescue me?’ Or do we think ‘Ok, what’s the quickest way to get back on my path?’
Mistakes Will Happen
When we stuff up, make a mistake, choose the wrong software, tell the wrong people or say the wrong thing, we don’t just pack up our dreams and hide. NO. We pick ourselves back up. We face the right direction (or what we believe is the right direction) and we MOVE FORWARD.
I don’t care if you start by walking one ginger step at a time, just start! Those small steps gain momentum and eventually lead to a jog, then before you know it, you’re back running!
Mistakes aren’t meant to end us, they are there to redirect us. Anytime you embark on an unknown journey you’re going to make mistakes.How you respond is the only thing I want you to focus on. Respond with reflection, movement and momentum in the direction of your dreams.
On our journey, we’re going to make mistakes and take wrong turns from time to time, but we choose to pick ourselves back up, and get back on that journey! We’re not staying stuck, we’re ‘running to risk’! As we get back on this journey, we’re going to need to make a decision to take action and invest in risk.
Sounds like I’m about to write a message on Warren Buffett’s worst nightmare. But that’s not the risk I’m talking about and it’s not the investing I’m talking about. Sleep tight, Warren. This risk I’m talking about is the thing that stands between you and your dream. The thing that you’ve told yourself is too strong, too powerful and too insurmountable to climb.
It’s often the case that the risk we perceive in our own minds is actually far greater than it truly is in reality. I remember as a child, visiting a museum and being fascinated by a scary looking dinosaur down the other side of the room. It looked ferocious and intimidating from across the room, and as I walked closer and closer, the dinosaur, through the magic of perspective, got bigger and bigger.
That’s where I feel we are at right now on our journey towards risk. We’ve identified the risk standing between us and our dreams, and we’re taking the tentative first steps towards it. As we step closer and closer to risk, it will look bigger. You’ll start to compare the size of it to you, and don’t be surprised if it grows each step you take. But, have faith.
The closer I got to the dinosaur, the bigger it became. I had a choice to let fear or faith determine my next steps. I continued walking step by step towards the prehistoric creature. Then something strange happened.
Yes, the closer I got to the creature, the bigger it became. But then something else came into the picture. The closer I got, the more detail I was noticing. What I thought were bone-crunching teeth were actually a matte white plastic, what I thought was impenetrable skin was old flaking greeny-brown paint. Those eyes that glared at you from across the room, were now nothing but big marble sized spheres of glass.
When we step towards fear, yes it gets bigger – but as we invest in faith and continue to live our lives in the direction of our dreams, we expose the master of risk…FEAR.
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
Invest in those extra steps this week as you get closer to risk to point out the finer details, you’re going to realise it’s not as scary as it once seemed. Those steps aren’t always going to come easy though, because the journey towards risk is an interesting one.
There’ll be times when you’re pumped full of Adrenalin, bashing down every obstacle that comes your way. There will be times where you’re cruising on a nice downhill slope, enjoying the scenery and wondering why it took you this long to convince yourself to get here!
Then there’ll be times when things aren’t easy. Just like my climb this evening up a little mountain by my home on the Sunshine Coast of Australia. I started out full of energy, pumped for the adventure ahead, then five minutes into the usually very achievable rocky steps, my legs started really feeling it.
“You’ll never know your strength until you’ve faced your struggles.”
The Adrenalin gave way to frustration, to fear and to my quickly draining self-belief in my fitness. I continued one painful step at a time. I wasn’t going the pace I normally would, but knew this mountain could be conquered one slow step at a time.
As I slowly neared the end of the steps, my legs were burning, my heart pounding and my mindset weakening. Two quiet words burst through my pain…
I’m pretty sure I’ve never said this going up the mountain before, but it seemed fitting. As I climbed one step at a time, ‘stay strong’ became my repeated mantra. After the season of pain and intentional mindset building, I reached the summit of the mountain and cruised my way back down.
There is such an incredibly untapped power within our self-belief and mindset, which shapes our self-talk. On your journey towards your risk, I can almost guarantee you’ll be faced with steps that seem too difficult, too challenging, too much to conquer.
Remember…’stay strong’. You’re on this path for a reason – you’re capable of completing it. You’ve come this far, see it through. Your ‘impossible’ dream is counting on you to conquer fear and run to risk!
This blog is based off the mini-series ‘Run to Risk’ first featured on the Achieve the Impossible App, accompanied by downloadable wallpapers and daily inspiring messages to inspire, challenge and equip you to achieve your impossible dream. Download the Achieve the Impossible App and start your free trial today!
Motivation
(Part 1) Conquering the Impossible Space Between Where You Are Now and Where You Want to Be
Deep down, you know exactly what you are capable of. There’s even moments where you get a glimpse of all the potential you have. You can get there. You just have to be willing to sacrifice the habits, things and situations that are standing in the way of your success. I honestly believe “Running to Risk” has the power to unlock mindsets and belief systems that have been holding you back from your true potential (I’m naturally conservative so it’s big coming from me!)
Before we do something crazy and ‘run to risk’, let’s take stock of where we are today and our foundational beliefs in our potential and true capacity. In the day-to-day act of living, waking up, coffee, breakfast, school drop-offs, work, more coffee, home, homework, dinner, finish off emails, glass or two of (insert drink here), collapse on couch, Netflix etc. We can become disconnected with our true potential and capacity.
You are being pulled from all sides – your family, your boss, your colleagues, your partner, your friends, even your dog. You can be forgiven for prioritising the present over the future.
To set up this series on healthy and personal-capacity fuelled risk, I want you to invest a moment or two searching deep within yourself.
- What’s in your heart for 2019?
- What is one thing you would look back on come 31st Dec 2019 and be proud of your personal accomplishment?
- What’s something that scares you?
- What’s that one thing that has been on the back of your mind that you’d love to put your name to in your lifetime?
The answer to the above is the thing we’re going to focus on in part one of this post. We’re focusing on it because with every achievement that challenges our personal capacity and unlocks our potential, there will be an element of risk.
Risk Is Scary!
Risk stares you in the face from afar and says ‘don’t you dare approach. Don’t even try’. This is when you’re faced with a decision to make, and the best (and also worst!) thing about it is you’re the only one who can make it!
As you make this decision to ‘run to risk’, the regret of not running has to be stronger than your personal comfort. Your comfort must give way to your calling. Your present must give way to your potential.
Think about the one thing on your heart – the thing that helps you step into your calling and potential. The thing with risk looming all over it. Let’s build the strength, self-belief, courage, boldness and tenacity to ‘Run to Risk.’ But what about timing? I’m not sure if I should be pursuing my dream now.
“You can’t always wait for the perfect time. Sometimes, you have to dare to do it because life is too short to wonder what might have been.”
We’re not running to risk for a laugh and a good time, we’re running to risk because that dream in our hearts for 2019 is worth pursuing. When faced with the potential of risk, we often come up with thoughts and reasons to justify our lack of momentum or progress.
I don’t know how!
I don’t have the money!
I don’t have the connections!
But one of the most common excuses I hear (I know, because I hear it from myself) is a little sentence that has killed more dreams and crushed more souls than most. ’It’s not the right time’.
It’s one of the most powerful excuses because it bulldozes every other excuse by default. You’ll always meet more people, money comes and goes, but once time is gone, it’s gone forever. This excuse becomes our default without us even realising it.
I remember when I was wanting to launch a few online courses, a podcast and a book. (These are all my risks for 2019). But they were also my goals for 2017 and 2018. Sadly, I put my insecurities ahead of my identity and my convenience over my calling. Looking back now, each excuse I held to for not launching these projects was based on timing.
First, the IG algorithms were affecting posts, then someone else launched a podcast in my niche and gosh, I couldn’t do that! Next, as I was writing my IG Online Course, another one came on the market. Nope, can’t do that now. I’ll wait until the marketing heat dies down on that one. The exact same situation with my book launch…it just wasn’t quite the right time.
Here’s what I learnt and something I want to share with you, there’s never a right time to do the thing that’s on your heart. The right time will never simply show up, you’ve got the time, now it’s up to you to make it right!
Looking back, I’ve felt the pain of regret and don’t want to let the fear of risk lead to regret again. Now is the time to look risk dead square in the eyes and say ‘ready or not, here I come’. Yeah, the I could start now I guess…I know what I want to do and I kinda believe now is as good of time as any…I’m honestly not sure where to start.
“Never be afraid to try something new, because life gets boring when you stay within the limits of what you already know.”
Now It’s Time!
We’ve just told risk we’re coming for it. We’ve made the decision to put our calling over our comfort and choose to be lead by faith not fear. Now it’s the time to start. We’re starting right now because we have been given the time, and we’ve got complete power and control to make it the ‘right time’. We’ve made the decision to go after that thing that’s on our heart, the thing we’ve always wanted to do, the thing that has been too risky.
Not anymore. Today, we start.
There is huge power in the start. When we start, we have the luxury of being on home ground. We are making more decisions for ourselves, rather than having to make decisions based on responses which we will have to inevitably do down the road.
Today, we start.
We’re filled fresh with enthusiasm, passion and driven by our desire to accomplish something meaningful this year. Yesterday, we may have had a loss to our name, we may have stumbled and fallen…but you’ve picked yourself up.
Today, we start.
We look to the future with our heads held high, the hopes of a brighter future with that dream in our heart knowing that we are valiantly pursuing it despite the risk. We know our dream, we know we are capable of achieving it, we know we’ve got the time and today, we start.
We start the journey as we ‘Run to Risk’.This blog is based off the mini-series ‘Run to Risk’ first featured on the Achieve the Impossible App, accompanied by downloadable wallpapers and daily inspiring messages to inspire, challenge and equip you to achieve your impossible dream. Download the Achieve the Impossible App and start your free trial today!
Last Friday was a bad day for me. I woke up late, missed the gym and didn’t meditate.
None of this was intentional.
I then turned my computer on to do what I do every day: blog. I was not prepared for the whirlwind that followed.
As I opened up my social media channels, there were a lot more than usual, direct messages. I started reading each one and they were from colleagues and friends who wanted to warn me that I had a large amount of hate-fuelled comments on social media. I’m usually pretty good at dealing with hate comments. Not on that day, though — I was having a ‘bad day.’
I turned off the computer and didn’t respond to anybody. In the same week, I’d been told I was now a LinkedIn Top Voice for 2018.
I should have been celebrating and I didn’t because I didn’t feel worthy. If anything, I wanted to give up there and then. Luckily I didn’t follow through with any of these ideas. I knew it was just noise in my awful day.
I went away to sit on the couch and think about what I’d just read. Without really thinking about what I was going to do for the rest of the day, I began thinking about my team at work. There were several leadership challenges that I had to solve.
One was from a customer that was being abusive to female staff. Another was a rejection I had to deliver to someone that wanted to work with us. The hardest part about delivering the rejection was that I’d already said yes.
Despite the day being bad, I made a fundamental decision — to keep doing what I do and not stop. I said to myself “How can I inspire people while simultaneously solving both these challenges?”
I’m a big believer that it’s not what you say that matters; it’s what you do. Talk is cheap. I came up with a bold plan to address both challenges.
I was going to do something that made me see the good in the people involved.
Even if the people in both situations had let me down, I was going to assume they were still good.
I concocted a plan to help both people and try and show them a more positive way to move forward. If I break down the plan, it was about being an inspiration in both situations.
I didn’t feel like being inspiring.
It was not the day to be inspiring.
But it was the only way I could motivate myself to finish off this bad day and wake up the next morning fresh. It’s funny how a good nights sleep takes away all the pain and negativity from the day before.
So, by the end of the day, I enabled both plans. I set out to release inspiration in both scenarios and that was my only focus. I didn’t look at anymore hate fuelled comments or go near social media.
On that bad day last Friday, my actions helped me keep moving forward and not give up.
It’s not about necessarily seeing the good in your bad day.
I’ve read this sort of advice heaps, but it requires a lot of willpower.
“Using your actions to make the day better rather than trying to think your way out of your bad day seems to be a lot easier to implement”
It’s not about the bad day.
Bad days will happen.
It’s what you do on a bad day that determines if you’ll feel the full effect of all the negativity that can potentially knock you out like a Tsunami that comes your way when all you wanted to do was lay on the beach and soak up some sun.
I’ve learned to find situations during a day that’s not working out well for me, to do something good, and often that’s not something that benefits me. If I was to look at it another way it would be “How do I not focus on my own bad day?”
Trying to make someone else’s day good distracts you from your own bad day.
If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net
The dialogue in your mind is the battleground where your motivation lives and dies every day. In every moment, your words are either lifting you or sabotaging your success. Unfortunately, most people are losing this battle within themselves. They are using their most powerful asset — their mental energy — to beat themselves up, play victimization games, or stop themselves from sharing their passion. (more…)
3 Areas You Should Focus on to Become a Great Leader
7 Things You Need to Do to Grow as an Entrepreneur
The 6 Step Process for Delivering Critical Feedback in a Constructive Way
Life3 weeks ago7 Strategies That Will Help You Build Self Discipline Once and for All
Entrepreneurs3 weeks ago5 Challenges New Entrepreneurs Will Face While Starting a Business
Life4 weeks agoSuccess Doesn’t Lead to Happiness. Here’s Why:
Entrepreneurs4 weeks ago10 Productivity and Business Hacks for Early Stage Entrepreneurs
Success Advice4 weeks ago4 Reasons You Should Develop a Daily Writing Practice
Success Advice3 weeks agoThe Hidden Power of Imagination and How to Use It to Succeed
Life3 weeks agoChasing Permission: How Addressing Self-Worth Can Change the World
Life3 weeks agoHow to Unlock Your Spiritual Energy for Prosperity
Pamina Mullins
Aug 4, 2015 at 9:22 am
Great analysis of Mr. Procrastination Chris – especially Rule #2! This guy often gets such a bad rap that we miss the point. Your statement “Mr. Procrastination isn’t evil” is important. In fact as you point out he’s a great diagnostic tool for the areas where our insecurities and fears lie. When we look him in the eye and say “I see you” his power to limit and disrupt is greatly diminished 🙂
Joseph Harris
Aug 1, 2015 at 8:05 pm
Thanks for these powerful tips, they are very true! Another way to put it, is to look at the “Opportunity Cost” of doing or not doing. Bravo!
Jagdish Kashyap
Jul 30, 2015 at 10:06 pm
First – Thanks for the tips that you have mention, really helpful!
How I Motivate Myself? – Just think “Why you have started working on”
Cheers! Nice!
Chris Delaney
Jul 27, 2015 at 8:31 pm
HI Esther
Thats a great frame – often with clients I ask a similar question and get the client to write a list of what it will cost if they do not take action. This technique increases motivation
Chris
Chris Delaney
Jul 27, 2015 at 8:30 pm
HI Esther
Thats a great frame – often with clients I ask a similar question and get the client to write a list of what it will cost if they do not take action. This allows them of really focus on the outcome of not taking action creating high levels of motivation
Chris
Esther Mellar
Jul 26, 2015 at 1:53 pm
Hi Chris,
I love how you shift the general focus by suggesting “ focusing on the pleasure of completing task and the pain of not taking action “ It is really powerful.
Another way to put it could be “What does it cost me if I do not do it?”
Thank you,
Esther
Chris Delaney
Jul 23, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Hi Wanda
Thanks for the feedback really appreciated
Chris
Wanda
Jul 22, 2015 at 1:22 pm
Great tips for motivation! Your entertaining approach with superheroes really kept my attention. Nice work!