Turning Procrastination Into Perseverance
If you want to ensure that you always arrive at your chosen destination and that you are never left stranded alongside the roadside. You must always check your fuel before embarking on any journey and top your fuel as necessary, during the journey.
To guarantee your success; you must do the same for your persistence and perseverance. Ensure that you have enough perseverance and persistence in your tank, before embarking on any journey to meaningful achievement.
This is best achieved, by making sure that you have a crystal clear understanding of the reason why you want to achieve anything in your life. Keep topping up, adding large doses of persistence and perseverance along the way, by constantly reviewing and rewarding your progress.
Perseverance and persistence guarantee success, whilst procrastination is like a thief that sneaks into your life and steals your dreams and sabotages your success. Procrastination is the polar opposite of perseverance and either results in you never getting started or if you do get started, robs you of your passion and commitment to finish.
That wiley thief procrastination sneaks into your life in many different disguises. One of which is the perfectionist that is waiting for things to be perfect before taking any action or that there are too many distractions that are stopping me and my all time favorite, “I Don’t have enough time”.
These excuses that we conjure up to explain our irrational reasons for allowing procrastination to steal our dreams and rob us of our potential has nothing to do with the real reasons why we procrastinate.
The real reasons, why we procrastinate, are mainly based on our innate fear of failure (FEAR – Failure, Expected And Realized). We become paralyzed by FEAR and we do nothing
Whether we never get to start or whether we never get to finish anything, the ultimate outcome remains the same, we remain stuck in mediocrity. You remain overwhelmed by the tasks that lie before you and you are allow yourself to be stopped by the negative vision of what the future holds for you.
This negative picture you create, in which you see yourself being criticized or laughed at, is really only a mechanism that you have created in your head. This helps you to justify your inactivity and allows you to keep doing nothing. It is a really powerful, negative mental tool that you use against yourself all the time.
I want to offer a solution to this dilemma and show you how to turn procrastination into perseverance. This simple process requires using two very powerful principles that foster persistence and perseverance and thereby help you to eliminate procrastination from your life.
Break any dream, goal or desired outcome back into bite size chunks. No matter what you are attempting to achieve, the secret to success and converting procrastination into perseverance is to break the huge ominous task back into manageable, bite size chunks.
Guest Speakers Gauteng Focus your energy on achieving one small chunk at a time. Focus only on what is in front of you at that moment and never expend energy thinking about the entire process that lies ahead of you. Substitute real-time positive thinking about what is achievable right now, for the negative future thinking about how ominous the goal or dream looks and how unachievable the big picture looks.
If you wanted to write a 1000 page novel and you viewed that goal as one large outcome. You would justifiably feel overwhelmed and not want to get started. If on the other hand you decided to write only 2 pages every day for the next 18 months. Would that feel more achievable and is that something you could tackle?
The outcome would be the same after 18 months. You would have written over 1000 pages of your novel, but by breaking the huge goal back into bite size chunks, you will overcome your tendency to procrastinate and you get the task done.
To many people the commitment to keep filling two pages every day for the next two years may also seem overwhelming and unachievable. So what if you set yourself a goal to write two pages for only today. Is that something that feels achievable and believable to you?
The secret is not to look forward at what lies ahead, but to simply complete one small bite size chunk at a time, day after day. When you create the discipline to tackle any big goals, one day at a time you will begin to accomplish things you never thought were possible for you.
The second simple technique for defeating procrastination and turning it into perseverance, is to plan your days in advance. During your planning sessions each evening, write down exactly what you are going to need to do each day and set time aside to carry out these important tasks. I call these time slots, where you devote time to creating the future you want “Meetings with your future”
When you commit to break any large goal into bite size, manageable chunks, you plan your days in advance, writing down exactly what you will do each day and you set time aside to carry out these actions, you have discovered the secret to turning procrastination into perseverance and you can achieve anything and everything you set your mind to.
Author: Guest Speakers Gauteng Andrew Horton
Andrew is one of the best motivational speakers in South Africa. You can trust him to deliver a relevant motivational message that works, every time. He is a straight shooting, grounded and deeply curious teacher that will inspire your team to deliver their best, every day. His credible message will leave all attendees with a practical set of tools and techniques that they can immediately begin to utilize and apply in their lives and careers.
His No. 1 goal when he speaks as one of South Africa's best motivational speakers, is to ignite magic in each person, connect with them so that he can help them renew a vision, inspire someone to find a lost belief or birth a new one, guide them to create a spark or inspire someone to take action so that they can achieve what they desire! http://www.andrewhorton.co.za