August 8, 2025 • 32 mins
You know what you need to do. You’ve written it down. You’ve scheduled it. You’ve even told yourself it’s important.
But you haven’t done it.
In this solo episode, I confront one of the most pervasive enemies of personal growth: procrastination. But not the surface-level kind. This is the deeper form, the kind that masks itself as perfectionism, fear, or even self-doubt.
Drawing insights from thinkers like Marcus Aurelius, James Clear, Seneca, and a powerful article by Joseph Foley, we uncover the truth: Procrastination isn’t about laziness. It’s about fear or lack of clarity.
You’ll learn:
- Why emotional resistance, not poor time management, is what really stops you
- How to break down big goals into “too small to fail” actions
- The tools I use (like “Eat the Frog” and the Five-Minute Rule) to get out of my own way
We’ll also explore how identity, rejection, and even our relationship with God can affect how we show up. As Christians and Stoics alike would agree—action matters. And today is the only day we’re promised.
“You could be good today. But instead you choose tomorrow.” — Marcus Aurelius
This episode is your reminder that you are not broken. You are simply being called to be brave.
It’s time to start.
Check out Joseph Folley's YouTube Channel
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Website: Keepgettingafterit.com
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I hope today’s episode sparked something within you to pursue your dreams and unlock your true potential. If you found value in it, consider sharing it with someone who might need that same push.
Getting After It is for those who. want to silence their self-doubt. Refuse to be owned by comfort. Understand their limits are man-made and breakable. We live in a time of constant comparison. Social media drowns us in highlight reels and overnight success stories. But what most people don’t see is the grit behind it all. The reps. The quiet mornings. The sacrifices. The failures.
You are just getting started.
Keep Getting After It.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brett (00:00):
All right, a couple things.
Number one I hope this video isnot crooked.
My producer, allie she's nothere, so I'm on my own today.
We're going to see how thislooks.
Number two I'm excited for thisconversation today.
It's something I've beenworking on.
As I always say, the podcast isa compilation lessons I wish I
(00:27):
would have learned when I wasyounger, one of those lessons
being procrastination.
Um, because let's be real withourselves, like truth hurts
sometimes, but let's be real,let's be honest.
You know what you need to doand it's not vague, it's not
mysterious.
You may have even written itdown.
It's probably scheduled in yourcalendar.
(00:49):
You've even told yourself thatit's important to you and you
still haven't done it.
But it's not because you'relazy, it's not because you're
stupid and it's definitely notbecause you're broken.
So why the hell do we wait?
Are broken.
So why the hell do we wait?
Why do we postpone the thingsthat we know we need to do?
(01:10):
Because our bodies tell us onething or our thoughts tell us
another.
That's what we're talking abouttoday.
We're talking all aboutprocrastination, but not the
kind that you hear about in highschool classrooms or self-help
circles.
This is mainly the deeper kindof procrastination that shows up
when we have clarity, when weknow what we need to do, but the
(01:31):
issue that we're having isactually acting, getting the
thing done, and the reason thiscame to me is one.
Like I said, these are allthings that I struggle with.
These are all issues that I'mtrying to learn how to beat
myself.
Also, it's nice for me to comeon this podcast and talk about
(01:53):
these things, because it allowsme to be accountable to what I
tell you.
Guys, I don't want to tell youto do one thing and then not do
it myself.
That's hypocrisy and I do notbelieve in that.
You shouldn't either.
You shouldn't follow anyonewho's a hypocrite and I was
thinking about this because Iwas listening to an episode of
Modern Wisdom with ChrisWilliamson and he had a guest on
(02:14):
called.
His name is Joseph Foley andhe's a really interesting guy.
He has a YouTube channel which,if you're interested in
philosophy, this is a cool oneto check out, but it's called
Unsolicited advice and in it hebasically just he studies
different philosophies and tellsyou his take on them and where
he got the information from.
(02:34):
It's really interesting stuff.
One thing he also does is coachacademic students, and because
of that, he wrote an article onhis sub stack about
procrastination and in thatarticle he says this and this is
why I wanted to bring it uptoday, because I feel like many
(02:56):
of the reasons that we thinkthat we procrastinate is due to
the fact that we believe that weare lazy people, which is is
false.
That is not true.
We are not lazy.
Um, a lot of the times like,yes, we, we know what needs to
be done, but a lot of the timeswe don't do it because it's
difficult for us to do right.
It's a hard endeavor that weknow we need to proceed to, to
(03:17):
go and get done, and it's alwaysthe beginning.
That's the hardest piece.
It's kind of like the um.
We'll get into some of the tipsand tricks on how to get behind
or to beat this thing, buthere's what he says.
That was a really long way toget to this quote From his
(03:39):
article.
He says procrastination isn'tabout laziness, it's about fear
or lack of clarity.
Now, if you're listening tothis and you're someone who has
faced procrastination, someonewho does the dance with
procrastination every now andthen, and you listen to that
(04:02):
quote and you hear that lastpiece where it's about fear or
lack of clarity, then there'stwo things I hope that you think
about is one this can be beaten, because we've talked on this
podcast before about fear andwe've also talked about setting
clear and realistic goals foryourself.
And two, you should have hopebecause there's a lot of people
(04:25):
who deal with the same thingmyself included, which is why
I'm doing a podcast episodeabout this today and I felt both
of those things and both of thethe fear piece and the lack of
clarity when I was beginningthis podcast, the, the thing
that really stopped me fromactually pressing upload was
fear.
But once I shined a light onthat fear, once I brought it out
(04:50):
of darkness and I called outwhat it was, it had no power
over me.
And, as weird as that soundsand it really does sound like a
self-help thing, but I hate tosay it but some self-help things
work and this was one of themwhen you step into that fear,
you recognize that it's a milewide and an inch deep.
It's not as bad as you thoughtit was, but maybe you've felt
(05:14):
that too.
Both of those things, whetherit's in your, your fitness, or
if you want to start a sidebusiness or you have a project
that you're working on, if it'swriting, if it's healing from
something, chances are you'vestalled, like we all have.
So that's why I want to unpacktoday why we wait and, more
(05:35):
importantly, how to stop thatand how to beat that feeling of
procrastination and that littleguy that tells you not to do the
things.
We'll look at a couple things.
We'll look at some science,we'll look at some stories and
I'll give you some tools thatactually work.
So let's get into this thingBefore we do.
If you can see my shirt rightnow, we found the right supplier
(05:59):
.
Guys.
We got a nice supplier that'sgoing to get us good shirts.
So those are going to be start.
Those are going to be offeredon the website really soon.
Don't know if anyone's going towear them, but I sure as hell
am going to.
So you'll see me rocking thesebad boys, but this is one of the
running ones.
I wanted to test it out, sopretty comfortable.
Why am I holding those?
(06:19):
If you look at the video,you'll understand.
Anyways, let's jump intoprocrastination.
Let's beat this thing.
So I want to start by killing amyth that procrastination isn't
just about being disorganized orunmotivated.
I believe that's surface levelthinking and Dr Tim Cycle.
He is one of the leadingresearchers on this topic and he
(06:41):
says that procrastination isnot a time management issue.
He says it's an emotionregulation problem.
When I first read that I waslike that makes no sense to me.
Like, isn't it a time issue?
Like, if you have a time blockset for your day in your
calendar and you don't stay trueto that, isn't that mainly a
time issue?
But Dr Tim Cycle says somethingelse.
(07:04):
He says it's not that we don'tknow what to do, it's not that
we don't want to feel what we're.
Let me restart.
I just got over a 10 mile runso I'm a little scatterbrained.
Let me restart that.
It's not that we don't know whatto do.
It's that we don't want to feelwhat doing it requires.
That might be fear of failure,fear of success, even fear of
(07:28):
starting, and that fear oftenhides beneath the surface.
It's showing up as scrolling,as cleaning the kitchen, as just
checking one more thing.
Doesn't that feel like it'strue?
Like that at that beginningwhat he says, it's not that we
don't know what to do, it's thatwe want, we don't want to feel
what doing it requires.
(07:49):
And again, here comes running.
But that's a really greatexample for this exact principle
that he's talking about is Iknow what I need to do when I
have a run.
On the schedule it requires meto change into clothes, lace up
my shoes, maybe have a snackbefore, depending on the length
(08:10):
of the run and go out the doorand do it.
But I don't want to.
A lot of the times and I have topush past that feeling of
discomfort to actually getstarted.
And once I begin I kind of getused to it and it's it's a lot
easier.
But that starting piece isalways going to be the biggest
(08:31):
challenge to face, and you don'thave to look far to find
examples in your life likewaking up early.
That's a hard one for a lot ofpeople, myself included.
From time to time, especiallywhen I'm over trained,
especially when I'm very tired,it's hard for me to actually
have to sit down and or have towake up and get out of bed,
especially when my body istelling me the opposite thing.
(08:52):
But when that does show up, askyourself if you know what to do
, and if the answer is yes, thenyou might just have to show up
and get it done.
You might have to dig deep anddo that thing and it's going to
be uncomfortable.
But if you want to achieveanything in life, you have to
get comfortable beinguncomfortable.
It's a classic saying.
(09:13):
But here's the deal.
There's also other things thatcan stall your progress.
That isn't necessarily justlike you're afraid of that
feeling of what doing the thingis going to require.
There's perfectionism, there'sfear and there's identity.
That also play a role inprocrastination and I want to
(09:36):
take another angle here.
So James Clear he's the authorof Atomic Habits.
He says if you're notembarrassed by your first draft,
you waited too long to start.
If you're not embarrassed byyour first draft, you waited too
long to start.
If you're not embarrassed byyour first draft, you waited too
long to start.
You should always beembarrassed a little bit and
that's actually a great thing tothink about.
If it's fear of startingsomething, well, guess what?
(10:00):
Anyone who started anythingever.
There's a starting point.
That's why people say, oh yeah,he started a business.
He's really successful.
But he started it and there wasa starting point.
With the podcast there's astarting point where a lot of
that was uncertainty.
A lot of it was fear ofjudgment.
A lot of it was I don't knowwhat kind of content to post and
I just had to keep movingforward, post.
(10:21):
And I just had to keep movingforward and over time that
clarity came to me.
Over time, the more I did it,the better I became, and the
more reps I put into it and themore I was able to take out
filler words.
I'm still working on it and itjust it allows you to put it out
there to see what your worklooks like, and then you have an
(10:42):
idea of what you can refine.
And it's only then, when it'sout there and you can see it,
that you can actually refine it.
But you have to start, and thething that I'm trying to bring
up here is we often useperfectionism as a shield, like
if it's not perfect, then it'snot ready.
That's a common thing that wetell ourselves.
(11:03):
Or if I'm not 100% prepared, Ishouldn't start.
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
That's not a great way to live,in my opinion.
Sometimes you just have to jumpinto the fire, like you've
heard that phrase before,learning by being thrown into
the fire and sometimes that justrequires you to take a leap,
like if you want to startrunning and you're worried about
(11:26):
what your journey is going tobe like.
Don't worry about the journey.
Worry about today and make youractions reflect your decisions
and the future that you want.
Like your actions today play abig role in future.
You and I love the quote thatyour future self is either
looking at you now through eyesof gratitude or regret those two
(11:50):
things.
You have the decisions toeither make that person in the
future who that's you you canmake them proud or you can make
them regret their decisionstoday.
And you don't want to live alife of regret.
And you don't want to live alife of regret.
Regretting something likeliving in regret, is a hard
existence because you know youwere fully capable at that time,
(12:12):
when you had that idea, to dothe thing, but you just couldn't
do it, for whatever reason youyou justified and you just
couldn't do it.
And imagine if you took thealternate course, if instead you
said all right, I might looklike a moron, I might look like
an idiot at the beginning ofthis thing.
If I'm starting my journeyrunning odds are I'm going to
(12:36):
look kind of crazy, I might nothave the best times, my
endurance is not going to be thebest, but if you start today,
you'll be better tomorrow andthen that will continue to
compound.
It's like that flywheel andyou'll have more and more
momentum moving you forward andyour future self will say hey,
I'm glad that six months ago Ipushed myself to start this
(12:59):
thing and I'm glad that I stayedconsistent and I had the
discipline to show up even whenI didn't want to, especially
when I didn't want to.
You'll be proud of thosemoments.
And the alternative is man, Icould have started this thing
(13:22):
six months ago.
The decision is yours.
Your future is whatever youwant it to be.
But I think, if we break downperfectionism, if we think about
what's underneath all that,where are those fears coming
from?
For me, I think it's the fearof not being good enough, the
fear of rejection, or even thefear of discovering your limits.
And that last one might soundweird, but if you realize and
(13:44):
you see that you have talent tostart a business, or you have
talent to be a great athlete,you have talent to really work
on your relationships and refinethose, then what that means is
that you're capable of doinggreat things.
And you know that anytimeyou're not doing your best,
you're leaving a lot on thetable.
(14:04):
And, again, that's a hard thingto live with.
It's like every day I miss aworkout, which is rare, but the
days that I do, that stays withme all day long.
And the reason being is becausein my head I'm like I know I
could have done that.
Maybe I was tired, maybe I wasweak this day, but I could have
done it.
And that kind of goes withunderstanding your capabilities
(14:28):
is, if you know what you'recapable of, then now you have
the responsibility to live up tothose, those capabilities, and
to live up to those talents andand give back to the world and
do something that makes thosetalents worth your time.
And I think the fear of notbeing good enough and the fear
of rejection are probably thetwo more common ones.
(14:50):
But the fear of not being goodenough.
We're all human beings.
We all make mistakes.
None of us are perfect andbecause of that, that should set
us free a little bit, becausewe're not going to be the best
at the and we're not going to bethe best.
Uh, at the start we're notgoing to be the best.
Five years into our journey wemight get a lot and probably
(15:11):
will get significantly better,but we won't be the best, and
that's okay.
But not being good enough,that's something you should
throw out the window, becausethe fact that you're even going
out and trying to do somethingdifficult, that means a lot.
And it's like I'm bringing it upagain because it's literally my
(15:32):
favorite quote.
But Teddy Roosevelt.
He says the credit belongs tothe man who is actually in the
arena.
And then, throughout the quote,he goes and says who knows
great enthusiasm, who strives todo the deeds, the great
devotions, who spends himself ina worthy cause.
And this is the part I want tohighlight.
(15:55):
Later on he says If he fails,at least fails while daring
greatly, so that his place shallnever be with those cold and
timid souls who neither knowvictory nor defeat.
And if you think about that fora moment, that okay.
Well, if that's the case, ifI'm going to go after this thing
(16:18):
and I'm not going to be thebest, then not being good enough
, who cares?
You at least gave it a shot.
You at least aren't going to godown with the cold and timid
souls who didn't even want togive it a shot, who were too
afraid of it.
But that's not you, and thefact that you're listening to
getting after.
It proves that, because thispodcast is all about improving
(16:42):
yourself, becoming 1% betterthrough small actions every
single day and at the end ofyour life.
The goal is to be proud of whoyou've become.
It's the goal is to be proud ofwho you've helped along the way
.
But none of that will happen ifyou don't believe that you're
good enough and I'm telling youthat you are.
(17:03):
You are worth something.
Everyone is unique.
Everyone has unique differencesand talents that they can bring
to the table that others can't,and so with that comes
confidence that, yes, you mightnot be the best, but you offer
something that's unique, andthat will be your Musashi ore,
(17:25):
if you remember my podcast aboutthat, but where Musashi he's a
famous Japanese samurai, hefights one of the best samurai
swordsmen and he shows up with awooden ore to fight this dude
and he kills him Spoiler alert.
But the point of that is he hada unique weapon and he used it
(17:49):
to his advantage, and so thatgoes for you.
And so you might not be thebest.
That's fine, accept that.
But refine your skills andcommit yourself to learning how
to get better.
Commit yourself to refiningwhat you need to after you
review the tape.
Quote unquote.
(18:10):
The other one is fear ofrejection, and fear of rejection
is something I think we all arevery familiar with.
That is something that I'veactually thought was pretty
interesting is after learningabout, like humans and our, you
know, ancestors and that kind ofthing.
The reason why we fearrejection is because we thought
(18:31):
that we would be cast out of thetribe.
You know, if we didn't bringhome the deer and we were the
hunters of the tribe, we'd getcast out.
Or, you know, we're in chargeof bringing the water to the
tribe.
Somehow that doesn't happen.
Our vases all break, whateverthe situation is, and you can
get cast out of the tribe.
And so I believe that's wherethe fear of rejection comes from
(18:53):
.
It's just like it's embeddedinto our DNA.
And luckily there's no tribes.
There's people who believecertain things, there's certain
countries, there's certainreligions.
You can say that all thosepeople are their own tribe.
But really, when you break itdown, you're not going to get
(19:15):
rejected, you're not going toget cast out, unless you do
something absurd.
But don't do something absurd.
Be smart, don't be dumb, butthat rejection is a myth.
Be smart, don't be dumb, butthat rejection is a myth and I
don't want you to think that youcan't chase your dreams because
you're afraid of what peoplewill think.
The truth is is people aren'tthinking about you all the time.
(19:35):
They're thinking aboutthemselves and they might think
about you for 20 seconds intheir day.
Uh, they might see a com orthey might see a post that you
do and comment something that'skind of rude.
But who cares?
What I've learned in my ownexperience is that people who
are doing that are losers Likeno one who is doing better than
(19:57):
you is ever going to come downand condescend you in that way.
And if they are, they're loserstoo.
But fear of rejection I don'tthink should be a valid reason
to procrastinate something.
It's hard, it is hard to havethose comments on your posts and
I've gotten plenty of them, butyou just have to ignore them.
(20:19):
You got to realize that thosepeople aren't doing anything
with their lives.
I stand by this and just moveon.
That's the best thing you cando for yourself.
Marcus Aurelius.
He says this If it's not right,do not do it.
If it's not true, do not say it.
But within that quote he alsoreminds us that action is
(20:43):
everything.
So if it's not right, do not doit.
If it's not true, do not say it.
Your best today is still betterthan waiting for some mythical
perfect tomorrow.
And so this hits me hard withfitness, because so many people
wait until they're fit enough togo to the gym, or they wait
until January 1st to make thesechanges, or they wait until
(21:05):
Monday, or they want to beconfident enough to run outside.
But the only way to become thatperson is to act like them.
Now You've heard that classicquote fake it till you make it,
which I think has some truth toit, but it's not a valid
long-term solution.
But you should act like theperson who you want to become,
(21:27):
and that takes daily auditing ofyour habits, of your actions,
to make sure that they'realigned with that person, and to
align yourself with thoseactions, align yourself with
those values and have youractions reflect them, like you
have to be a person of integrity.
Now I want to give you somepractical tools to help that
(21:52):
actually have helped me.
And they're not taxes, wow.
They're not fluff, they'reactual, legit tactics.
So the first thing I would sayis break it down.
And Joseph Foley, the guy whowrote this article.
He says Procrastination strikesin the gaps where we don't know
exactly what we need to do next.
So get very specific.
(22:12):
Like I said, and like Josephsays, it could be because of a
lack of clarity, so let's throwit out the window.
Let's get very clear with whatwe're trying to accomplish here.
So get specific.
Don't write oh, I have to workon the podcast.
Write instead for your goals,outline intro or record segment
two, or choose a final quote.
(22:34):
But chunk the mountain intogravel.
Make it too small to fail.
When you break it up in that way, you understand what you need
to do in this moment, whatyou're going to be doing next
and how to keep going after that.
So do step-by-steps.
It's almost like when you werein elementary school learning
(22:58):
division.
You would have a long divisionproblem in front of you and it
would say like step one see howmany times this one goes into
this, whatever.
And then you do the multi orthe adding and subtracting, long
division, whatever, all thatstuff.
But there's certain steps thatyou need to go through in order
to get the equation done.
And so you break down your owntasks as equations say, x plus y
(23:22):
equals result and figure outwhat those x and Ys are in your
equation and do X first and thenY, and then you'll get your
result.
But break it down, andsometimes that equation might
look like A plus B plus C plus Dplus whatever.
As long as it keeps goingthrough the alphabet, it might
be a very long equation, but atleast you have steps for each
(23:43):
one, so make it too small tofail.
This one, number two, is one ofmy favorites and it's the five
minute rule.
And this I apply it to running,but in running it has to be the
10 minute rule.
I'll explain why in a second.
But the five minute rule isbasically you say, okay, I'm
going to start working on thisfor five minutes.
(24:04):
Let's take journaling, forexample.
I don't really have too much tosay, I'm just going to journal
for five minutes, I'm committingto five.
But typically typically in myown experience you won't want to
stop after that five minutes,because once you get going, that
momentum builds, and fear isthe loudest when you start
(24:26):
something like I was talkingabout earlier, and so once you
get into the flow, you buildthat momentum.
Then that first five minutesthat you said you were going to
commit to, it's almost like awedge that you put in a door and
now you can open that prettyeasily.
And so that's what I would sayis is, start by just saying I'm
just going to work for fiveminutes, and the 10 minute rule
for running is, if you don'tfeel like running at all, if
(24:48):
you're really tired, if you'resore, then you say okay, I'm
going to run for 10 minutes.
If I'm still feeling this way,I'll stop.
So it's a great tool to use andit tricks your brain.
I've done this to myself somany times.
I'm like, okay, I'll just startfor five minutes, and then
Allie will be like hey, you wantto have dinner.
I'm like, yeah, what time is it?
(25:08):
And she'll be like it's sixo'clock.
I was like, okay, that twohours flew by.
But it's little things likethat, like trick your brain,
it's all these little tricks.
And so the third one is alittle bit more.
You need to have some peoplefor this one, but it's
accountability and yourenvironment.
And so if you want to getserious about something, don't
(25:29):
just rely on willpower.
Rely on a structure Like workwith a friend, set a deadline,
publicly commit to it andrecognize that no one's coming
to save you, but you can stillchoose to run with people who
will pull you forward and soalign yourself and put yourself
(25:50):
in situations where there'sother people who are trying to
achieve their goals too.
That could be runningcommunities.
It could be a group at work whoyou all want to get better or
you all want to improve.
It could be your networkingafter work and you find a group
who wants to work on differentcareers and different projects.
Whatever it is, find a groupthat aligns with your goals and
(26:12):
tie yourself to them.
Become friends with them.
That will help you so much more, because a lot of the times, if
you're working on similarthings, they'll have problems
that you might run into, thatthey already solved, that they
can help you with and vice versa, and it creates this
environment of improvement,progression, learning and
(26:32):
camaraderie.
Like you become, you willbecome closer with these people.
My wife and drew people who Irun with like I'm really close
with them, but it's because alot of the times, we're trying
to achieve our goals together.
We have very aligned visions,very aligned goals, and we want
to see if we can just become thebest together.
(26:52):
So that's an important one isbe accountable and maybe switch
up your environment, if you can.
Now this next one.
You're going to have to be veryreal with yourself, like all
truth.
Nothing's off the table here.
It's just you and you, and youcan do this in a journal, you
can do it in an audio message.
But number four is aself-awareness audit, and I want
(27:16):
you to take a real inventory ofwhat tasks do you always delay,
why do they scare you and whendo you feel the most flawed and
what led to that?
And every day or once a week,sit down, answer those questions
, understand where you canimprove and boom.
(27:37):
Now you have a game plan andtake steps forward to achieve it
.
The more you understand yourpersonal patterns, the better
you can outmaneuver them.
Again, it goes down to thatfive minute rule.
You can trick your brain onceyou understand how it works.
Some people might sayprocrastination is a good thing.
Some people might sayprocrastination is a good thing,
(28:00):
and while I didn't agree withthis in the beginning, I did
some research because I wantedto see what the opposing views
of procrastination was, if therewere any at all and Adam Grant,
who he's a doctor, actually,and he studies a lot of things
related to meditation, relatedto the brain and how it works,
things related to meditation,related to the brain and how it
(28:23):
works.
But he says moderateprocrastinators can be more
creative and so delaying adecision sometimes allows more
ideas to surface.
And he says reflection canbring originality.
So not all delay is waste, butthere is a line when reflection
becomes rumination, whenplanning becomes paralysis, when
reflection becomes rumination,when planning becomes paralysis.
That's when we're no longerthinking, we're hiding.
(28:44):
And so if you have an idea andyou're not necessarily
procrastinating, instead you'reruminating on it, you're
thinking through and you'retrying to give yourself some
time to get more creative withthat, that's not necessarily a
bad form of procrastination.
But, like Adam Grant says,there's a line when reflection
becomes rumination, and whensorry, I meant reflection, not
rumination when I said itearlier.
(29:05):
But the line is when reflectionbecomes rumination and when
planning becomes paralysis.
So if you need to take somesteps to get your plan set, do
it, but don't allow yourself toruminate and don't allow
yourself to become paralyzed bythe thought of actually doing it
.
Seneca reminds us that while wewaste our time hesitating and
(29:26):
postponing, life is slippingaway.
The last solo podcast episode Idid, I talked about how
important time is as a resource,and it's finite, but we don't
treat it as such a valuableresource.
If you think about all thepeople who are on their deathbed
who say, like I wish I had moretime with my family, I wish it
(29:49):
didn't work as much, it'sbecause they're recognizing that
they traded their time formoney at work, which they may
have needed to support theirfamily, but it is a regret, like
they wish they could have donesomething different.
And so time is very important,and you have to understand that
the more that you wait, the morethat you hesitate and the more
(30:09):
that you postpone, that time isslipping away and that life is
slipping away.
And so, if you're going todelay, delay with intention and
not avoidance.
Be smart about it.
Let's wrap up so procrastination, the reasons why we do it.
It's not because we're lazy,but because we're afraid or
(30:32):
unclear or perfectionistic.
And the antidote isn't just tohustle.
It's to have clarity with yourgoals, it's to be courageous and
it's to take small, repeatedactions over a long period of
time.
Now let me leave you withsomething that's been helping me
(30:54):
quite a bit, that I've beendoing at work, and it's very
simple.
It's called eat the frog, whichbasically means each morning,
you write down one thing that iseither your hardest tasks,
hardest task for the day, orsomething you've been avoiding,
and then you do it first.
Just one thing you don't needto clear the entire forest today
(31:16):
, you just need to chop down onetree.
To clear the entire foresttoday, you just need to chop
down one tree.
And I want to ask you toreflect and to think about some
of these things, because what'sone thing that you've been
putting off for a while that youknow deep down, you've wanted
to start, that you've wanted toactually start getting after.
(31:37):
What is that one thing?
Write it down and then, like Isaid, break it down into smaller
steps, set a timer for fiveminutes and then just start.
Because here's another quoteI'll leave you from Marcus
Aurelius you could be good today, but instead you choose
(31:57):
tomorrow.
Don't wait, your life isalready happening right now.
And with that, I appreciate youguys for listening to this
podcast episode.
I hope it inspires you to goafter and achieve something that
you've been putting off for awhile, that you know you've
wanted to do.
And thank you for listening,thanks for tuning in and until
(32:21):
next episode, everybody keepgetting after it.
Thanks, guys.
All right, a couple things.
Number one I hope this video isnot crooked.
My producer, allie she's nothere, so I'm on my own today.
We're going to see how thislooks.
Number two I'm excited for thisconversation today.
It's something I've beenworking on.
As I always say, the podcast isa compilation lessons I wish I
(00:27):
would have learned when I wasyounger, one of those lessons
being procrastination.
Um, because let's be real withourselves, like truth hurts
sometimes, but let's be real,let's be honest.
You know what you need to doand it's not vague, it's not
mysterious.
You may have even written itdown.
It's probably scheduled in yourcalendar.
(00:49):
You've even told yourself thatit's important to you and you
still haven't done it.
But it's not because you'relazy, it's not because you're
stupid and it's definitely notbecause you're broken.
So why the hell do we wait?
Are broken.
So why the hell do we wait?
Why do we postpone the thingsthat we know we need to do?
(01:10):
Because our bodies tell us onething or our thoughts tell us
another.
That's what we're talking abouttoday.
We're talking all aboutprocrastination, but not the
kind that you hear about in highschool classrooms or self-help
circles.
This is mainly the deeper kindof procrastination that shows up
when we have clarity, when weknow what we need to do, but the
(01:31):
issue that we're having isactually acting, getting the
thing done, and the reason thiscame to me is one.
Like I said, these are allthings that I struggle with.
These are all issues that I'mtrying to learn how to beat
myself.
Also, it's nice for me to comeon this podcast and talk about
(01:53):
these things, because it allowsme to be accountable to what I
tell you.
Guys, I don't want to tell youto do one thing and then not do
it myself.
That's hypocrisy and I do notbelieve in that.
You shouldn't either.
You shouldn't follow anyonewho's a hypocrite and I was
thinking about this because Iwas listening to an episode of
Modern Wisdom with ChrisWilliamson and he had a guest on
(02:14):
called.
His name is Joseph Foley andhe's a really interesting guy.
He has a YouTube channel which,if you're interested in
philosophy, this is a cool oneto check out, but it's called
Unsolicited advice and in it hebasically just he studies
different philosophies and tellsyou his take on them and where
he got the information from.
(02:34):
It's really interesting stuff.
One thing he also does is coachacademic students, and because
of that, he wrote an article onhis sub stack about
procrastination and in thatarticle he says this and this is
why I wanted to bring it uptoday, because I feel like many
(02:56):
of the reasons that we thinkthat we procrastinate is due to
the fact that we believe that weare lazy people, which is is
false.
That is not true.
We are not lazy.
Um, a lot of the times like,yes, we, we know what needs to
be done, but a lot of the timeswe don't do it because it's
difficult for us to do right.
It's a hard endeavor that weknow we need to proceed to, to
(03:17):
go and get done, and it's alwaysthe beginning.
That's the hardest piece.
It's kind of like the um.
We'll get into some of the tipsand tricks on how to get behind
or to beat this thing, buthere's what he says.
That was a really long way toget to this quote From his
(03:39):
article.
He says procrastination isn'tabout laziness, it's about fear
or lack of clarity.
Now, if you're listening tothis and you're someone who has
faced procrastination, someonewho does the dance with
procrastination every now andthen, and you listen to that
(04:02):
quote and you hear that lastpiece where it's about fear or
lack of clarity, then there'stwo things I hope that you think
about is one this can be beaten, because we've talked on this
podcast before about fear andwe've also talked about setting
clear and realistic goals foryourself.
And two, you should have hopebecause there's a lot of people
(04:25):
who deal with the same thingmyself included, which is why
I'm doing a podcast episodeabout this today and I felt both
of those things and both of thethe fear piece and the lack of
clarity when I was beginningthis podcast, the, the thing
that really stopped me fromactually pressing upload was
fear.
But once I shined a light onthat fear, once I brought it out
(04:50):
of darkness and I called outwhat it was, it had no power
over me.
And, as weird as that soundsand it really does sound like a
self-help thing, but I hate tosay it but some self-help things
work and this was one of themwhen you step into that fear,
you recognize that it's a milewide and an inch deep.
It's not as bad as you thoughtit was, but maybe you've felt
(05:14):
that too.
Both of those things, whetherit's in your, your fitness, or
if you want to start a sidebusiness or you have a project
that you're working on, if it'swriting, if it's healing from
something, chances are you'vestalled, like we all have.
So that's why I want to unpacktoday why we wait and, more
(05:35):
importantly, how to stop thatand how to beat that feeling of
procrastination and that littleguy that tells you not to do the
things.
We'll look at a couple things.
We'll look at some science,we'll look at some stories and
I'll give you some tools thatactually work.
So let's get into this thingBefore we do.
If you can see my shirt rightnow, we found the right supplier
(05:59):
.
Guys.
We got a nice supplier that'sgoing to get us good shirts.
So those are going to be start.
Those are going to be offeredon the website really soon.
Don't know if anyone's going towear them, but I sure as hell
am going to.
So you'll see me rocking thesebad boys, but this is one of the
running ones.
I wanted to test it out, sopretty comfortable.
Why am I holding those?
(06:19):
If you look at the video,you'll understand.
Anyways, let's jump intoprocrastination.
Let's beat this thing.
So I want to start by killing amyth that procrastination isn't
just about being disorganized orunmotivated.
I believe that's surface levelthinking and Dr Tim Cycle.
He is one of the leadingresearchers on this topic and he
(06:41):
says that procrastination isnot a time management issue.
He says it's an emotionregulation problem.
When I first read that I waslike that makes no sense to me.
Like, isn't it a time issue?
Like, if you have a time blockset for your day in your
calendar and you don't stay trueto that, isn't that mainly a
time issue?
But Dr Tim Cycle says somethingelse.
(07:04):
He says it's not that we don'tknow what to do, it's not that
we don't want to feel what we're.
Let me restart.
I just got over a 10 mile runso I'm a little scatterbrained.
Let me restart that.
It's not that we don't know whatto do.
It's that we don't want to feelwhat doing it requires.
That might be fear of failure,fear of success, even fear of
(07:28):
starting, and that fear oftenhides beneath the surface.
It's showing up as scrolling,as cleaning the kitchen, as just
checking one more thing.
Doesn't that feel like it'strue?
Like that at that beginningwhat he says, it's not that we
don't know what to do, it's thatwe want, we don't want to feel
what doing it requires.
(07:49):
And again, here comes running.
But that's a really greatexample for this exact principle
that he's talking about is Iknow what I need to do when I
have a run.
On the schedule it requires meto change into clothes, lace up
my shoes, maybe have a snackbefore, depending on the length
(08:10):
of the run and go out the doorand do it.
But I don't want to.
A lot of the times and I have topush past that feeling of
discomfort to actually getstarted.
And once I begin I kind of getused to it and it's it's a lot
easier.
But that starting piece isalways going to be the biggest
(08:31):
challenge to face, and you don'thave to look far to find
examples in your life likewaking up early.
That's a hard one for a lot ofpeople, myself included.
From time to time, especiallywhen I'm over trained,
especially when I'm very tired,it's hard for me to actually
have to sit down and or have towake up and get out of bed,
especially when my body istelling me the opposite thing.
(08:52):
But when that does show up, askyourself if you know what to do
, and if the answer is yes, thenyou might just have to show up
and get it done.
You might have to dig deep anddo that thing and it's going to
be uncomfortable.
But if you want to achieveanything in life, you have to
get comfortable beinguncomfortable.
It's a classic saying.
(09:13):
But here's the deal.
There's also other things thatcan stall your progress.
That isn't necessarily justlike you're afraid of that
feeling of what doing the thingis going to require.
There's perfectionism, there'sfear and there's identity.
That also play a role inprocrastination and I want to
(09:36):
take another angle here.
So James Clear he's the authorof Atomic Habits.
He says if you're notembarrassed by your first draft,
you waited too long to start.
If you're not embarrassed byyour first draft, you waited too
long to start.
If you're not embarrassed byyour first draft, you waited too
long to start.
You should always beembarrassed a little bit and
that's actually a great thing tothink about.
If it's fear of startingsomething, well, guess what?
(10:00):
Anyone who started anythingever.
There's a starting point.
That's why people say, oh yeah,he started a business.
He's really successful.
But he started it and there wasa starting point.
With the podcast there's astarting point where a lot of
that was uncertainty.
A lot of it was fear ofjudgment.
A lot of it was I don't knowwhat kind of content to post and
I just had to keep movingforward, post.
(10:21):
And I just had to keep movingforward and over time that
clarity came to me.
Over time, the more I did it,the better I became, and the
more reps I put into it and themore I was able to take out
filler words.
I'm still working on it and itjust it allows you to put it out
there to see what your worklooks like, and then you have an
(10:42):
idea of what you can refine.
And it's only then, when it'sout there and you can see it,
that you can actually refine it.
But you have to start, and thething that I'm trying to bring
up here is we often useperfectionism as a shield, like
if it's not perfect, then it'snot ready.
That's a common thing that wetell ourselves.
(11:03):
Or if I'm not 100% prepared, Ishouldn't start.
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
That's not a great way to live,in my opinion.
Sometimes you just have to jumpinto the fire, like you've
heard that phrase before,learning by being thrown into
the fire and sometimes that justrequires you to take a leap,
like if you want to startrunning and you're worried about
(11:26):
what your journey is going tobe like.
Don't worry about the journey.
Worry about today and make youractions reflect your decisions
and the future that you want.
Like your actions today play abig role in future.
You and I love the quote thatyour future self is either
looking at you now through eyesof gratitude or regret those two
(11:50):
things.
You have the decisions toeither make that person in the
future who that's you you canmake them proud or you can make
them regret their decisionstoday.
And you don't want to live alife of regret.
And you don't want to live alife of regret.
Regretting something likeliving in regret, is a hard
existence because you know youwere fully capable at that time,
(12:12):
when you had that idea, to dothe thing, but you just couldn't
do it, for whatever reason youyou justified and you just
couldn't do it.
And imagine if you took thealternate course, if instead you
said all right, I might looklike a moron, I might look like
an idiot at the beginning ofthis thing.
If I'm starting my journeyrunning odds are I'm going to
(12:36):
look kind of crazy, I might nothave the best times, my
endurance is not going to be thebest, but if you start today,
you'll be better tomorrow andthen that will continue to
compound.
It's like that flywheel andyou'll have more and more
momentum moving you forward andyour future self will say hey,
I'm glad that six months ago Ipushed myself to start this
(12:59):
thing and I'm glad that I stayedconsistent and I had the
discipline to show up even whenI didn't want to, especially
when I didn't want to.
You'll be proud of thosemoments.
And the alternative is man, Icould have started this thing
(13:22):
six months ago.
The decision is yours.
Your future is whatever youwant it to be.
But I think, if we break downperfectionism, if we think about
what's underneath all that,where are those fears coming
from?
For me, I think it's the fearof not being good enough, the
fear of rejection, or even thefear of discovering your limits.
And that last one might soundweird, but if you realize and
(13:44):
you see that you have talent tostart a business, or you have
talent to be a great athlete,you have talent to really work
on your relationships and refinethose, then what that means is
that you're capable of doinggreat things.
And you know that anytimeyou're not doing your best,
you're leaving a lot on thetable.
(14:04):
And, again, that's a hard thingto live with.
It's like every day I miss aworkout, which is rare, but the
days that I do, that stays withme all day long.
And the reason being is becausein my head I'm like I know I
could have done that.
Maybe I was tired, maybe I wasweak this day, but I could have
done it.
And that kind of goes withunderstanding your capabilities
(14:28):
is, if you know what you'recapable of, then now you have
the responsibility to live up tothose, those capabilities, and
to live up to those talents andand give back to the world and
do something that makes thosetalents worth your time.
And I think the fear of notbeing good enough and the fear
of rejection are probably thetwo more common ones.
(14:50):
But the fear of not being goodenough.
We're all human beings.
We all make mistakes.
None of us are perfect andbecause of that, that should set
us free a little bit, becausewe're not going to be the best
at the and we're not going to bethe best.
Uh, at the start we're notgoing to be the best.
Five years into our journey wemight get a lot and probably
(15:11):
will get significantly better,but we won't be the best, and
that's okay.
But not being good enough,that's something you should
throw out the window, becausethe fact that you're even going
out and trying to do somethingdifficult, that means a lot.
And it's like I'm bringing it upagain because it's literally my
(15:32):
favorite quote.
But Teddy Roosevelt.
He says the credit belongs tothe man who is actually in the
arena.
And then, throughout the quote,he goes and says who knows
great enthusiasm, who strives todo the deeds, the great
devotions, who spends himself ina worthy cause.
And this is the part I want tohighlight.
(15:55):
Later on he says If he fails,at least fails while daring
greatly, so that his place shallnever be with those cold and
timid souls who neither knowvictory nor defeat.
And if you think about that fora moment, that okay.
Well, if that's the case, ifI'm going to go after this thing
(16:18):
and I'm not going to be thebest, then not being good enough
, who cares?
You at least gave it a shot.
You at least aren't going to godown with the cold and timid
souls who didn't even want togive it a shot, who were too
afraid of it.
But that's not you, and thefact that you're listening to
getting after.
It proves that, because thispodcast is all about improving
(16:42):
yourself, becoming 1% betterthrough small actions every
single day and at the end ofyour life.
The goal is to be proud of whoyou've become.
It's the goal is to be proud ofwho you've helped along the way
.
But none of that will happen ifyou don't believe that you're
good enough and I'm telling youthat you are.
(17:03):
You are worth something.
Everyone is unique.
Everyone has unique differencesand talents that they can bring
to the table that others can't,and so with that comes
confidence that, yes, you mightnot be the best, but you offer
something that's unique, andthat will be your Musashi ore,
(17:25):
if you remember my podcast aboutthat, but where Musashi he's a
famous Japanese samurai, hefights one of the best samurai
swordsmen and he shows up with awooden ore to fight this dude
and he kills him Spoiler alert.
But the point of that is he hada unique weapon and he used it
(17:49):
to his advantage, and so thatgoes for you.
And so you might not be thebest.
That's fine, accept that.
But refine your skills andcommit yourself to learning how
to get better.
Commit yourself to refiningwhat you need to after you
review the tape.
Quote unquote.
(18:10):
The other one is fear ofrejection, and fear of rejection
is something I think we all arevery familiar with.
That is something that I'veactually thought was pretty
interesting is after learningabout, like humans and our, you
know, ancestors and that kind ofthing.
The reason why we fearrejection is because we thought
(18:31):
that we would be cast out of thetribe.
You know, if we didn't bringhome the deer and we were the
hunters of the tribe, we'd getcast out.
Or, you know, we're in chargeof bringing the water to the
tribe.
Somehow that doesn't happen.
Our vases all break, whateverthe situation is, and you can
get cast out of the tribe.
And so I believe that's wherethe fear of rejection comes from
(18:53):
.
It's just like it's embeddedinto our DNA.
And luckily there's no tribes.
There's people who believecertain things, there's certain
countries, there's certainreligions.
You can say that all thosepeople are their own tribe.
But really, when you break itdown, you're not going to get
(19:15):
rejected, you're not going toget cast out, unless you do
something absurd.
But don't do something absurd.
Be smart, don't be dumb, butthat rejection is a myth.
Be smart, don't be dumb, butthat rejection is a myth and I
don't want you to think that youcan't chase your dreams because
you're afraid of what peoplewill think.
The truth is is people aren'tthinking about you all the time.
(19:35):
They're thinking aboutthemselves and they might think
about you for 20 seconds intheir day.
Uh, they might see a com orthey might see a post that you
do and comment something that'skind of rude.
But who cares?
What I've learned in my ownexperience is that people who
are doing that are losers Likeno one who is doing better than
(19:57):
you is ever going to come downand condescend you in that way.
And if they are, they're loserstoo.
But fear of rejection I don'tthink should be a valid reason
to procrastinate something.
It's hard, it is hard to havethose comments on your posts and
I've gotten plenty of them, butyou just have to ignore them.
(20:19):
You got to realize that thosepeople aren't doing anything
with their lives.
I stand by this and just moveon.
That's the best thing you cando for yourself.
Marcus Aurelius.
He says this If it's not right,do not do it.
If it's not true, do not say it.
But within that quote he alsoreminds us that action is
(20:43):
everything.
So if it's not right, do not doit.
If it's not true, do not say it.
Your best today is still betterthan waiting for some mythical
perfect tomorrow.
And so this hits me hard withfitness, because so many people
wait until they're fit enough togo to the gym, or they wait
until January 1st to make thesechanges, or they wait until
(21:05):
Monday, or they want to beconfident enough to run outside.
But the only way to become thatperson is to act like them.
Now You've heard that classicquote fake it till you make it,
which I think has some truth toit, but it's not a valid
long-term solution.
But you should act like theperson who you want to become,
(21:27):
and that takes daily auditing ofyour habits, of your actions,
to make sure that they'realigned with that person, and to
align yourself with thoseactions, align yourself with
those values and have youractions reflect them, like you
have to be a person of integrity.
Now I want to give you somepractical tools to help that
(21:52):
actually have helped me.
And they're not taxes, wow.
They're not fluff, they'reactual, legit tactics.
So the first thing I would sayis break it down.
And Joseph Foley, the guy whowrote this article.
He says Procrastination strikesin the gaps where we don't know
exactly what we need to do next.
So get very specific.
(22:12):
Like I said, and like Josephsays, it could be because of a
lack of clarity, so let's throwit out the window.
Let's get very clear with whatwe're trying to accomplish here.
So get specific.
Don't write oh, I have to workon the podcast.
Write instead for your goals,outline intro or record segment
two, or choose a final quote.
(22:34):
But chunk the mountain intogravel.
Make it too small to fail.
When you break it up in that way, you understand what you need
to do in this moment, whatyou're going to be doing next
and how to keep going after that.
So do step-by-steps.
It's almost like when you werein elementary school learning
(22:58):
division.
You would have a long divisionproblem in front of you and it
would say like step one see howmany times this one goes into
this, whatever.
And then you do the multi orthe adding and subtracting, long
division, whatever, all thatstuff.
But there's certain steps thatyou need to go through in order
to get the equation done.
And so you break down your owntasks as equations say, x plus y
(23:22):
equals result and figure outwhat those x and Ys are in your
equation and do X first and thenY, and then you'll get your
result.
But break it down, andsometimes that equation might
look like A plus B plus C plus Dplus whatever.
As long as it keeps goingthrough the alphabet, it might
be a very long equation, but atleast you have steps for each
(23:43):
one, so make it too small tofail.
This one, number two, is one ofmy favorites and it's the five
minute rule.
And this I apply it to running,but in running it has to be the
10 minute rule.
I'll explain why in a second.
But the five minute rule isbasically you say, okay, I'm
going to start working on thisfor five minutes.
(24:04):
Let's take journaling, forexample.
I don't really have too much tosay, I'm just going to journal
for five minutes, I'm committingto five.
But typically typically in myown experience you won't want to
stop after that five minutes,because once you get going, that
momentum builds, and fear isthe loudest when you start
(24:26):
something like I was talkingabout earlier, and so once you
get into the flow, you buildthat momentum.
Then that first five minutesthat you said you were going to
commit to, it's almost like awedge that you put in a door and
now you can open that prettyeasily.
And so that's what I would sayis is, start by just saying I'm
just going to work for fiveminutes, and the 10 minute rule
for running is, if you don'tfeel like running at all, if
(24:48):
you're really tired, if you'resore, then you say okay, I'm
going to run for 10 minutes.
If I'm still feeling this way,I'll stop.
So it's a great tool to use andit tricks your brain.
I've done this to myself somany times.
I'm like, okay, I'll just startfor five minutes, and then
Allie will be like hey, you wantto have dinner.
I'm like, yeah, what time is it?
(25:08):
And she'll be like it's sixo'clock.
I was like, okay, that twohours flew by.
But it's little things likethat, like trick your brain,
it's all these little tricks.
And so the third one is alittle bit more.
You need to have some peoplefor this one, but it's
accountability and yourenvironment.
And so if you want to getserious about something, don't
(25:29):
just rely on willpower.
Rely on a structure Like workwith a friend, set a deadline,
publicly commit to it andrecognize that no one's coming
to save you, but you can stillchoose to run with people who
will pull you forward and soalign yourself and put yourself
(25:50):
in situations where there'sother people who are trying to
achieve their goals too.
That could be runningcommunities.
It could be a group at work whoyou all want to get better or
you all want to improve.
It could be your networkingafter work and you find a group
who wants to work on differentcareers and different projects.
Whatever it is, find a groupthat aligns with your goals and
(26:12):
tie yourself to them.
Become friends with them.
That will help you so much more, because a lot of the times, if
you're working on similarthings, they'll have problems
that you might run into, thatthey already solved, that they
can help you with and vice versa, and it creates this
environment of improvement,progression, learning and
(26:32):
camaraderie.
Like you become, you willbecome closer with these people.
My wife and drew people who Irun with like I'm really close
with them, but it's because alot of the times, we're trying
to achieve our goals together.
We have very aligned visions,very aligned goals, and we want
to see if we can just become thebest together.
(26:52):
So that's an important one isbe accountable and maybe switch
up your environment, if you can.
Now this next one.
You're going to have to be veryreal with yourself, like all
truth.
Nothing's off the table here.
It's just you and you, and youcan do this in a journal, you
can do it in an audio message.
But number four is aself-awareness audit, and I want
(27:16):
you to take a real inventory ofwhat tasks do you always delay,
why do they scare you and whendo you feel the most flawed and
what led to that?
And every day or once a week,sit down, answer those questions
, understand where you canimprove and boom.
(27:37):
Now you have a game plan andtake steps forward to achieve it
.
The more you understand yourpersonal patterns, the better
you can outmaneuver them.
Again, it goes down to thatfive minute rule.
You can trick your brain onceyou understand how it works.
Some people might sayprocrastination is a good thing.
Some people might sayprocrastination is a good thing,
(28:00):
and while I didn't agree withthis in the beginning, I did
some research because I wantedto see what the opposing views
of procrastination was, if therewere any at all and Adam Grant,
who he's a doctor, actually,and he studies a lot of things
related to meditation, relatedto the brain and how it works,
things related to meditation,related to the brain and how it
(28:23):
works.
But he says moderateprocrastinators can be more
creative and so delaying adecision sometimes allows more
ideas to surface.
And he says reflection canbring originality.
So not all delay is waste, butthere is a line when reflection
becomes rumination, whenplanning becomes paralysis, when
reflection becomes rumination,when planning becomes paralysis.
That's when we're no longerthinking, we're hiding.
(28:44):
And so if you have an idea andyou're not necessarily
procrastinating, instead you'reruminating on it, you're
thinking through and you'retrying to give yourself some
time to get more creative withthat, that's not necessarily a
bad form of procrastination.
But, like Adam Grant says,there's a line when reflection
becomes rumination, and whensorry, I meant reflection, not
rumination when I said itearlier.
(29:05):
But the line is when reflectionbecomes rumination and when
planning becomes paralysis.
So if you need to take somesteps to get your plan set, do
it, but don't allow yourself toruminate and don't allow
yourself to become paralyzed bythe thought of actually doing it
.
Seneca reminds us that while wewaste our time hesitating and
(29:26):
postponing, life is slippingaway.
The last solo podcast episode Idid, I talked about how
important time is as a resource,and it's finite, but we don't
treat it as such a valuableresource.
If you think about all thepeople who are on their deathbed
who say, like I wish I had moretime with my family, I wish it
(29:49):
didn't work as much, it'sbecause they're recognizing that
they traded their time formoney at work, which they may
have needed to support theirfamily, but it is a regret, like
they wish they could have donesomething different.
And so time is very important,and you have to understand that
the more that you wait, the morethat you hesitate and the more
(30:09):
that you postpone, that time isslipping away and that life is
slipping away.
And so, if you're going todelay, delay with intention and
not avoidance.
Be smart about it.
Let's wrap up so procrastination, the reasons why we do it.
It's not because we're lazy,but because we're afraid or
(30:32):
unclear or perfectionistic.
And the antidote isn't just tohustle.
It's to have clarity with yourgoals, it's to be courageous and
it's to take small, repeatedactions over a long period of
time.
Now let me leave you withsomething that's been helping me
(30:54):
quite a bit, that I've beendoing at work, and it's very
simple.
It's called eat the frog, whichbasically means each morning,
you write down one thing that iseither your hardest tasks,
hardest task for the day, orsomething you've been avoiding,
and then you do it first.
Just one thing you don't needto clear the entire forest today
(31:16):
, you just need to chop down onetree.
To clear the entire foresttoday, you just need to chop
down one tree.
And I want to ask you toreflect and to think about some
of these things, because what'sone thing that you've been
putting off for a while that youknow deep down, you've wanted
to start, that you've wanted toactually start getting after.
(31:37):
What is that one thing?
Write it down and then, like Isaid, break it down into smaller
steps, set a timer for fiveminutes and then just start.
Because here's another quoteI'll leave you from Marcus
Aurelius you could be good today, but instead you choose
(31:57):
tomorrow.
Don't wait, your life isalready happening right now.
And with that, I appreciate youguys for listening to this
podcast episode.
I hope it inspires you to goafter and achieve something that
you've been putting off for awhile, that you know you've
wanted to do.
And thank you for listening,thanks for tuning in and until
(32:21):
next episode, everybody keepgetting after it.
Thanks, guys.
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