Unlocking Your Potential by Defeating Procrastination - Episode #71

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The Peace & Prosperity Podcast is a bi-weekly conversation with Jason Phillips, LCSW, licensed therapist and confidence expert in Raleigh, NC, discussing all things related to self-love and self-confidence, and how we can improve ourselves personally and professionally.

Ever found yourself stuck in a cycle of missed deadlines and mounting self-doubt? You're not alone. On this episode of the Peace and Prosperity Podcast, I share personal stories of battling procrastination and its sneaky ways of derailing our path to success. We peel back the layers of why we so often convince ourselves that there’s always more time, only to find ourselves stressed and scrambling at the last minute. Procrastination isn't just a time thief; it's a confidence killer, and it’s time we face it head-on.

Join me as we unpack the harsh consequences of procrastination, like missed goals and lost opportunities, and the frustrating cycle of playing catch-up. From fitness aspirations to career milestones, putting off our plans leaves us feeling out of sync and unfulfilled. I emphasize the power of immediate action and the importance of planning with intent to break free from this cycle. Tune into this candid conversation, where the focus is on empowering you to recognize procrastination's traps, take decisive action, and turn your dreams into reality. Plus, remember to join our podcast community—like, share, subscribe, and let us know what topics you want us to cover next. Engage with us, send a DM, or leave a review. Let's continue this journey towards peace and prosperity together.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, what's up y'all?
We are back for another episodeof the Peace and Prosperity
Podcast, and today we're goingto be diving into why you need
to stop procrastinating and whyprocrastination is hindering you
from being successful.
Now, this is one of thosetopics that we have to revisit
every now and again, becausey'all know well at least I know

(00:28):
that procrastination issomething that we can fall
victim to, and I'm not going totalk to you and say that I have
not been in that same category,or not even in that category now
, right?
So, those of y'all who've beenrocking with the podcast for a
couple of years now I don't evenknow the date, but there are
times where I've procrastinatedon recording or releasing an

(00:50):
episode.
So what I want to share withyou are what are some of the
reasons why we start toprocrastinate and then like what
do you do about it?
Because it's not just enough toknow, like oh yeah, you're
right, jason, this is somethingI'm doing, let's get into also.
You know how to avoid it.
So when we procrastinate or wewe wait to do something,

(01:14):
sometimes we think that we'regiving ourselves more time, and
there are times where you trulyare, but more often, what you're
doing is you're causingyourself more stress.
I think about when I'm in.
You know when I'm in schoolright now, and there are times
when we have an assignment due,and I know when the assignment
is due.
It's typically a couple ofweeks out, a couple of months

(01:34):
out, but I'll find myselfwaiting until the last minute to
start the assignment.
Now do I do this all the time?
Absolutely not, because I'velearned, particularly I learned
in high school and undergrad.
It was causing me too muchstress.
But even though now it'll sneakup on me but I'll think that I

(01:55):
have more time, but really Idon't.
When I think that I have moretime to do something, what ends
up happening is I cause myselfmore stress.
So we have to stop thinkingthat, oh, I can do it tomorrow
or I can put this off to later,because when later comes, the
time is there, but now we're ona deadline.
So I want you to one realizethat when you put something off

(02:19):
and you say I'll get to it later, you're causing yourself much,
much more stress.
So that's the first thing wegot to get get that out the way.
Second thing that happens whenyou wait, you can easily end up
missing your goals or missingthe mark.
Let's say, for instance, youhave a goal that you want to go
to the gym, or you want to lose20 pounds by X month or whatever

(02:41):
date Okay, but then you wait togo to the gym, you wait to plan
out your meals, you wait tostart walking.
So what happens is by youwaiting and thinking that you
have more time now, you missedthat goal.
And then you start to feel like, dang, here we go again.
No, no, it's not here we goagain.
It's that you waited until itwas too late.

(03:03):
So now you're trying to do alot of catch-up work and when it
comes to things like fitness,or even in your career or
relationships, you cannot do thecatch-up work.
So there's no way around doingthe actual work.
So you have to plan for it andultimately, you have to execute.
So I want you to stop, stopwaiting to get started on

(03:24):
whatever said goal is, becausewhen that goal is missed, then
you're going to feel depressed.
You may be beating yourself up,so you may have some self-doubt
.
You may even feel like afailure because you missed that
goal.
Another thing that happens whenyou wait is you end up missing
out on opportunities.
Think about something that youwanted and it was there, but you

(03:46):
weren't ready.
Or you said I'm going to get tothat later.
I know I'm going to get to itlater, I'm going to get to it
later, but when you do get to it, the opportunity is no longer
there.
So this is why I said we wantto take action and not think
that we just have all this timeto get something done.

(04:07):
Hey, peace and prosperity,family.
I want to take a moment to talkabout something vital for all
organizations employee wellness.
I focus on tackling issues suchas low morale, burnout and
helping teams thrive byimproving their employee
wellness.
Here's what some of the pastorganizations have shared about

(04:31):
their experiences.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Jason Phillips has been a tremendous value to our
team.
His session on psychologicalsafety and mental health tools
for leadership has been immensefor all of us.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
The privilege of joining Mr Jason Phillips a
wonderful session aboutpsychological safety and
psychological health.
There are a lot of keytakeaways from his presentation.
I mean he discussed just howleadership impacts team health
and team mental health.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
In was in Jason's session today and I just took
away a lot of invaluableinformation to bring back to my
shop.
If you're interested ininvesting in your team's mental
health, visit jasonlphillipscomor visit the link below and
let's talk about creating athriving work environment for
your organization.
Now back to the episode,Another thing that happens when

(05:27):
we wait we end up hurting notonly ourselves, but we have the.
There's a possibility that youcould hurt certain relationships
in that process because youdon't feel like you're ready.
Maybe your confidence is notwhere you think it should be.
Let me paint the scenario foryou you, in a relationship, you

(05:49):
know this is your person, butyour person wants you to be at a
certain level, or maybe theywant a certain level of ambition
and drive.
That that's that's attractiveto them and you know you have it
in you.
But you, you're a littlenervous, You're scared to
actually be that person.
So now the relationship has alot of ups and downs because

(06:11):
there's been a lot of unmetexpectations or disappointments.
You've let them down becauseyou didn't meet the the bar and
you feel like dang, that's theperson who got away, or this
didn't work out for me because Iwasn't.
You know, they weren't the onefor me, and sometimes that's the

(06:34):
case, but sometimes you justweren't putting yourself in
position to have the thrivingrelationship.
You didn't go out and be theperson that you know you can be
for that relationship to reallythrive.
Sometimes we get stretched.
We get stretched in certainsituations but we are nervous,

(06:54):
we're anxious, we're scared tofail and in our mind we end up
talking ourselves out of thesituation or the relationship
before it really even getsstarted or as it's getting
started.
We'll do what we callself-sabotage.
Y'all know you may have beenthere before and you know, like
man, if I would have onlyexecuted, stepped up to the

(07:15):
plate in this area I hear this alot from my fellas we look back
and there's the whole shoulda,coulda, woulda.
So let's not let that be thecase.
Moving forward, the last thing Iwant to say that happens when
we wait on things, kind ofcircling back to the beginning I
said it causes us more stress.
It also puts more stress on ourhealth, like more physical and

(07:37):
mental stress.
So by you not achieving, or younot let me not even say
achieving by you not takingaction and you procrastinating
on putting certain things inplace, making certain moves and
you're trying to hold it alltogether.
And on the outside it may seemlike you know what.
I can do this, but on theinside you're having headaches

(08:00):
like right tension headaches.
You got these aches and pains.
Your body's breaking down.
You just feel like muscletightness.
All of these things arehappening.
Maybe you have poor sleep.
So, by you procrastinating, onthe outside you look good, but
on the inside you feel terrible,and that is one of the
detriments to you waiting on thequote, unquote, right time, not

(08:23):
taking the action.
So y'all, we got to do a betterjob of actually executing again,
because what's happening iswe're having more stress, we're
missing out on opportunities,we're missing out on personal
goals, so we're not reaching thegoals that we want, Our
relationships are not thrivingand, ultimately, we're not in
the best health when we do that.

(08:44):
So you like OK, Jason, you randown all the reasons why I need
to execute.
So you're like OK, Jason, youran down all the reasons why I
need to execute.
How do I do it?
I'm going to give you threethings to think about and three
strategies that you canimplement.
One you have to avoidperfectionism.
Even as I'm talking to you now,there are certain things that
probably could be better.
But when we get into theperfectionistic mode or

(09:07):
perfectionism, however you wantto put it we usually get bogged
down.
We start to become reallyparticular about certain things.
Oh wait, this is not right.
Oh, my hair is not right.
Oh, my outfit is not right.
Oh, my makeup is not right.
Oh, my size is not right, myconfidence is not right.
All these things happen, andthen we don't take any type of

(09:28):
action.
So now we become stagnant andthen another day goes by and
another day goes by.
So y'all know we got to avoidperfectionism, because done what
is it Done is better thanperfect and progress Like, just
give yourself credit for theprogress that you're making.
That's the first thing I wantyou to do.
Second thing break that thingdown into smaller goals.

(09:52):
Essentially, I want you toclarify what the goal is.
So, for instance, if you wantto, you know, land that next job
.
But you're thinking, oh, Idon't have the degree.
Okay, what skill do you have toget you closer to that job?
What's?
What are you leaving off ofyour resume?
What are connections that youknow?
Who can you have to get youcloser to that job?
What are you leaving off ofyour resume.
What are connections that youknow?
Who can you talk to?

(10:13):
Who can you get mentorship from?
Let's break it down intosmaller steps, because you can't
get that degree overnight.
But what you can do is lookthrough your contact list and
talk to somebody who can connectyou with somebody who is
already in that spot, or you canconnect you.
They can connect you withsomebody who is already in that
spot, or you can connect you.
They can connect you withacademic advisor or somebody who

(10:33):
can help you get closer to thegoal.
But, like, break that thingdown into smaller steps.
And then, lastly, you have toidentify who is your support
system.
Who is your support system thatyou can rely on so that you
don't procrastinate, Like whocan hold you accountable?
Because one thing I'll say nowI know I talk a lot about having
you know, having a personaltrainer Shout out to Pierre.

(10:56):
He definitely keeps meaccountable and gets me right,
but it helps me notprocrastinate on certain things
that are important to me becauseI know somebody is going to be
checking in with me.
So, yeah, the three thingsagain you can do avoid
perfectionism.
Done is better than perfect.
Break that task down intosmaller goals and have an

(11:16):
accountability partner or,better yet, a stronger support
system.
And if you're lacking in any ofthose areas, now you know this
is where you start, so that youcan enhance your situation and
stop procrastinating.
All right, y'all listen, I knowI this is where you start, so
that you can enhance yoursituation and stop
procrastinating.
All right, y'all Listen, I knowI know you may be thinking all
right, Jason, you talking to meon this one, OK, cool, but now

(11:37):
what you going to do about it?
All right, Peace.
Thank you all for listening toanother episode of the Peace and
Prosperity podcast.
Episode of the Peace andProsperity Podcast.
Again, if you are feeling like,hey, I'm experiencing high
functioning anxiety, don't beatyourself up about it.
It is okay.
We all experience anxiety fromtime to time and I gave you a

(12:01):
couple of things that you can doon your own, but don't hesitate
to reach out to a professionalto better manage what you're
going through.
Ok, and lastly, make sure, ifyou have not like, share,
subscribe to the podcast andsend this out to a friend.
And if you want to hear certainepisodes or have certain

(12:24):
conversations, let me know.
You can shoot me a DM or justleave a review and I will
definitely follow up.
All right, y'all be blessedPeace.