Welcome friends to Episode #127 of the Own Your Best Life Podcast. I don’t know about you, but there are times when I just don’t want to do the thing I know I need to do. We might be tired from doing so much already or we might just not want to do the thing you need to do. What do we do in those moments? If you find yourself delaying the task at hand and procrastinating, today’s podcast is for you. We will talk about how to beat procrastination in 5 minutes without burning yourself out.

If you have been procrastinating on one specific task or activity for a long time, you often feel a sense of guilt or judgment about it. As an achiever, you really enjoy getting things done so the fact that you still haven’t gotten this one thing done is really disappointing. It often brings a sense of anxiety or dread and instead of just getting the thing done, we see it as something that is enshrouded with dread and anxiety.

Do you know why this happens? We think it’s because we don’t want to do it and that’s all it is, but in reality it’s because your thoughts are energy and every time we don’t do something and judge ourselves for it, we attach more negative energy to the activity.

The friction we face between us having the results we want in our life and where we are right now is often because we see a barrier. We feel that there is a huge obstacle we must overcome. We feel that there is a LOT of pressure to get something done. We feel that there is a LOT of work to be done. It feels heavy and it weighs us down. No one wants to be in the energy of big, heavy dread.

If I asked you to run towards something that looks like a heavy ball and chain that ties you down, you would think twice. You’d delay it. You’d put it off until you can’t put it off and then you would do the thing. This is why you procrastinate.

I want you to see that there are a few ways to beat procrastination, but understanding why you procrastinate is often a big part of addressing the things we do to delay and avoid an activity. How do we keep from procrastinating and creating a giant, terrible thing from something that we know we just need to do.

One of the first things you can do is to see what you are making it mean. What are you adding to the activity that isn’t there right now? Are there decisions you think you have to make that don’t have to be made right now? Are there implications that aren’t real for you in this current moment but could be possible? See how you are adding more and more weight to the situation.

Overwhelm comes from thinking there is so much to do and we don’t know what to do out of all the things in front of us. Often, this is where my clients spin on figuring out what’s next. So many options. We usually think options are good but in reality, our brains are trying to make the best decisions so lots of options easily leads to thinking we have so many paths to evaluate and therefore even more work to do. We think we can’t make the best decision or do the best work so we just stop. We don’t want to fail so we delay getting started, and we procrastinate.

Instead, see the thing you need to do in its simplest form. Break it into a step that you can do in less than 5 minutes. What is that first 5 minute step and the next 5 minutes step? If you can, make step 1 small enough that it seems so easy. Maybe it’s going to the desk. Maybe it’s opening up a laptop. Maybe it’s pulling up an email. Maybe it’s finding a phone number. Maybe it’s going to the room where the activity happens. Whatever it is, make it tiny. You know that you can do a tiny thing. Then what’s the next smallest 5 minute thing you can do to move forward? Do that. Rinse and repeat for the next 30 minutes and usually you’ll end up wanting to go over the time you’ve allocated. Even 5 minutes of progress every single day is better than 0 minutes.

There are more strategies, tactics and tools I use with my clients to eliminate procrastination completely but this one alone will save you years of frustration. When my clients start seeing things as small, they run towards them. They want to go first. Get it over with so they can get on to other things with their lives. 

They end up seeing their work not just as looming piles of deadlines, but as something that they can separate and organize. It’s the same lessons we learn about staying too long in a situation or place before we realize, wait – why am I still here? Not just physically but emotionally and mentally?

Procrastination is just repeating the same thoughts and actions over and over again without a different result. 

This is often when people sign up for coaching. It’s not because you procrastinate with everything you do. In fact, you’re actually really good at getting a lot done. You sign up because you see how you procrastinate making the changes you know you need to make in areas that seem more complicated. 

Your first five minute activity becomes signing up for a consultation or sending me a message. The ball starts rolling and you love the momentum you have in your life after the consultation and each subsequent call. We remove the energetic barriers that keep you from making progress in your life one uncomplicated but highly effective move at a time.

We eliminate the friction. It is so much fun to see how your brain can change once you relearn how to approach your work and days. Instead of slogging through your day and powering through your to-do list, you’ll fly through your day and know that it’s not about the to-do list. It’s about commitment. Commitment to who you want to be as a person. Someone who honors their word, who shows up and can be trusted. Someone who thinks like a leader of their family, team, organization and community. 

Instead of fighting procrastination, we eliminate it completely. This is the first step to knowing you can have the spiritual energy, relationships, health, work and finances you desire. You know that you don’t procrastinate on what you commit to. We learn this skill first as we learn how to go deep into who you are beyond the things you do. Once you know you can do anything you set your mind to and you get to choose what those things are, incredible transformation happens.

You wake up with a sense of peace. You become the person who gets the work that seemed out of your league before. You know what it means to take care of yourself while helping others. You attract people and relationships that are of higher quality. People seem to change around you or exit. Life works for you constantly and it’s almost too much goodness for you to absorb.  This is what’s available to you as well. 

If you’re ready for your first five minute move that will alter the course of your entire life, I invite you to join me for Spiritual Achievement coaching. Figuring out what’s next just got easier when you have a roadmap and tools to help you dig deeper into your own journey of self discovery. Find out your blind spots and what your gifts are – get coached to a deeper level than you ever thought possible. This is what’s waiting for you. Reach out at www.mayempson.com/contact, today.

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If you’re ready to Own Your Best Life, I want to invite you to watch the free training on how to Stand Out and Lead, using spiritual, high-performance strategies. You can access the training at https://may-empson.mykajabi.com/stand-out-and-lead.

You can then apply to join my Spiritual Achiever® program, where you’re going to create your next chapter with spiritual and high-performance strategies to achieve time and financial freedom using my proven method. It’s risk-free. You either start seeing results within your first month or I give you your money back. Schedule your call HERE. We’ll see you inside.

That’s it for this week. Have an amazing one and I’ll talk to you next time.