Overcoming Procrastination is about Overcoming Old Conditioning and Sticking to What Works

In this video I want to talk about why we reject easy solutions. And we do, we really do reject easy solutions in life. We will be struggling with something, whether it be procrastination or anything else really, and we will find a solution and it'll be surprising because we'll look at the solution and we'll think well that looks too easy. And we will implement that solution and we will experience how easy it is and we will see progress from that. But the egoic voice within will say well that's too easy. So we might even be, you know, we've been in a really bad place with something and we'll implement the solution and we'll start to make consistent progress in a goal right. And that had, from the starting position, maybe we were not making any progress, we looked at that progress and we would have thought that well that would be incredible if I could just do that much consistently right. That would be fantastic. And it is, the truth is that you make small, you make progress through small consistent daily actions right. But you think well if I could just do that that would be incredible. But the problem is once you do it and you start doing those small consistent things and you're able to maintain consistency in them, the egoic will invariably come in and say well you know that was so easy you should really probably do more than that actually okay. And then what happens is that's a rejection of an easy solution and we will overwhelm ourselves and then the whole thing collapses. And I have seen this time and time again with people. One of the things I talk about in my book on overcoming procrastination is, and it's not a new concept, it's not the most original concept in the book, but it is a concept I talk about and it is the idea that you only commit to taking small action steps right. So consciously that's pretty much all you are committing to on a daily basis is I'm going to do this today right, that's it. After that I'm not really carrying any conscious obligation or commitments to doing anything. I'm just focusing on starting doing small tasks consistently. And this is you know opposed to many people will hear that idea and they'll think okay but they are coming from this thing of having huge elaborate plans right and of course it didn't work. So they start to implement that strategy of small consistent you know consciously held commitments and it works. And it works for a couple of weeks but then the conditioning comes in and it's well you know that's so easy why don't you just do a little bit more than that. I mean your progress will be much more rapid and faster if you can ramp up your efforts a little bit. And it starts off as a little bit and then two weeks later you see the person and it almost resembles that massive plan that they used to have right which wasn't working. So it subtly goes back in. So the solution to overcome a procrastination is pretty easy. In fact it has to be easy. It's always committing to small steps right now. There's a process around identifying what those steps are. One book that's really useful and that is called The One Thing. It's about kind of how to stay focused but really it's like what's the thing that I can do the small action step that I can do today that's going to make me feel as if I'm making solid progress right. Now there are other questions around that one thing is it doable for me can I make maintain consistency in it and yes is it going to help me move forward. So you identify those things but once you have identified those small action items on a daily basis it's very easy right. It's just a matter of okay that's super easy. I used to think when I was really suffering with procrastination I used to think I'd have to do all these hours of work on my thesis or whatever right. And really I never did because I was completely overwhelmed by that strategy. Once I changed the strategy to I'm going to do 30 minutes today. Lo and behold what happened was I started doing 30 minutes a day. So that was my new baseline for action and then I would continue to make commitments assuming that that first commitment was met right. So I never actually had the intention of doing any more than half an hour on a given day. That was the only thing I told myself consciously but from time to time sometimes I would just do 30 minutes that was fine right. That was the discipline was to say yeah that's actually okay you're allowed to just do the 30 minutes right. But sometimes I would do nine hours. Now I never once told myself that right. But the solution wouldn't be to say tomorrow okay well I did nine hours today just doing one small thing at a time. Tomorrow I have to wake up and do nine hours. Now it doesn't work because you're actually asking your nervous system to do something it sounds a bit crazy to that to your nervous system. So the idea of today's video is that you probably already know a great solution to be more productive to be focused to be consistent and it is the idea that you do small tasks. But why don't you stick to that plan. That's the tricky thing right. Why why if that's such a great sounding idea don't you stick to that. Just committing to doing small tasks. It's it's a thing called mission creep right. It's it works and because it works we start to assume well that's so easy and to be consistent with anything isn't actually easy at all right. To be consistent on a daily basis in small action items is not easy right. So it's sort of undermining yourself to say well it's so easy I can just add more action items to it and of course that doesn't work. So today's takeaway for this video is once you identify the small action steps that you're going to do become aware that there's going to be predictably this inner critic egoic voice that's going to undermine that and say well that's not enough now really you should be doing more than that at this point. And that is the very thing that's going to sabotage you because it'll lead to overwhelm right. So it's the conditioning it's it's it's not necessarily that you change your mind it's this old habitual conditioned way of thinking that comes in that basically its default is to demand more of you all the time. That's it right. Even when you find something that works and you're noticing okay I'm making daily consistent progress in this it's still doing its thing which is to demand more of you all the time. So it's to become aware of that voice and to realize okay that's actually the primary problem. That voice that's demanding more all the time. So it's about sticking to your guns then right. It's really okay I'm not going to respond I'm not going to react from that voice. I'm going to realize that there's a very very subtle almost invisible trick I keep falling for here where it's like I keep very subtly gradually over days and weeks adding extra tasks to the thing that was working and was easy. So we go back to I'm sticking to I'm committing to only doing the easy thing here. The thing that's doable for me. And that's beyond that beyond that the only thing that would ever undermine that is an irrational conditioned voice. It's irrational but it's completely irrational. So I've seen that many times with clients they make that progress to become consistent but very soon after that it's they're right back to where they were before. Why? Because they've seen they've literally lived through that working. It works. It's easy. It's doable. But yet they don't stick to that. It's that conditioned voice that comes back in. We all have it right. So but if you're aware that it's there and that it's not your voice it's not you undermining yourself it's a conditioning it's our cultural conditioning that's telling us it's the imperative it tells us is what you're doing isn't enough. It's not going to cut it. That's what we're dealing with here. So just becoming aware of that voice and realizing I don't have to listen to that voice. I'm going to very diligently commit to doing the easy thing that's going to facilitate me being productive and consistent with my goals and you stick to that. That becomes your primary focus on a daily basis. That's it and nothing else. Certainly nothing else consciously that you're demanding of yourself. So keep that conditioned subtle voice that comes into undermining and undermining when you've actually found something that works. In all probability if you've tried different things to be productive you've probably already found something in the past that works and the reason it got rejected or you put it down or you tried something else it was that it was working and it was too easy actually was the reason you're not doing it. So it's kind of bizarre to think about it like that but that's what I see time and time again and I'm convinced that that's what's happening. So recognize the voice and recommit to yourself. Disidentify with that voice. Realize it's not you it's just conditioning and get back on track as soon as you can and just recommit to consistency and what works and what's easy. Hope that's a useful video. Talk to you guys very soon. Take care. Bye-bye.