Procrastination is a Message!

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Procrastination is one of those things that we're

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told we need to overcome to fix.

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And to change it's viewed.

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As a sign that you're doing something wrong, you just need to be more

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organized, productive, better.

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etcetera etcetera.

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But this might not be entirely true, at least in my experience!

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For ease of understanding and so we're all on the same page.

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My definition of procrastination is not taking action on something

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I know I need or want to do.

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Now delightful productivity, advice and habit formation experts say, if you want

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to do something enough, you'll do it.

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And if you don't do it, you're just not trying hard enough

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or you don't want it or...

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You've heard it all before.

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Now, although I kind of get what this person is trying to say, and

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sometimes it might be true for the vast majority of people who are listening

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to this podcast, it never really fits.

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In reality, I've had a lot of things I needed to do and even wanted to do.

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And yet I still couldn't and no amount of sheer willpower will get me to do

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the things that I'm procrastinating on!

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If I could, well I wouldn't be making this episode and we'd all

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be hyper-productive machines.

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Oh, how exciting!!!

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Now all of the work I do with my clients and in my programs and courses

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is based around starting from you.

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The individual, because we all work slightly differently and it's

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important to trust ourselves when it comes to things about ourselves.

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And in this particular case, whenever I am noticing procrastination and

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I don't notice it all the time, I tend to ask the question why!

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You see, I don't view procrastination as a quote unquote failure on

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my part or something that I just need to grow out of or fix with

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a deliciously complicated system designed by a hyper nerd like myself.

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Although I have in the past, tried to build one, which guess what

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was a form of procrastination!

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No, I treat procrastination like a road sign...

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it's mundane, boring, sometimes has a bit of graffiti all over it, obscuring

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the direction, but it is a sign!

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Procrastination is trying to tell you that something isn't quite working or

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is stopping you from moving forward?

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Now for me, it falls into three main camps.

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One fear of getting it wrong.

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aka, perfectionism.

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Overwhelm.

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This can be not sure where to even begin or something else entirely or finally.

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And this is the fun one.

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It's not drawing my attention.

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I'm bored!

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Now a sign isn't a solution it's pointing me somewhere.

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I can then make a decision from there.

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And that's what it is.

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Now, I often know which one of these three it is.

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I don't often like it, but it is one of those three above.

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If I'm not sure, which can happen sometimes, I default to overwhelm

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because if I can't figure out what's wrong, it's because I'm already

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freaking overwhelmed to think about how my emotions are right now.

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Thank you very much.

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Once I have the information from the sign.

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I thank it, sometimes swear at it and take steps to move forward

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And sometimes that actually means just stopping and not continuing and putting

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it somewhere so that when I'm less overwhelmed I'm able to overcome the

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perfectionism moments that I am having.

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I can return later!

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We are bombarded by hundreds and thousands of pieces of productivity

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and business advice every day.

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And that often means we take in advice that doesn't really fit us.

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Similar to the procrastination is bad.

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Just get on with it.

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Sometimes things that procrastination or just signs that are designed to

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actually help and tell us something, not hinder us, no matter how annoying

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it really can feel sometimes.

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Instead of starting from common cookie cutter advice that doesn't really take

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in any of the nuances of how you work.

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Start from you.

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I don't want to go it alone.

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Reach out to me at simplicity.

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Dash specialist.com.