5 Habits That Non-Procrastinators Practice Daily That Most People Don’t
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.”
Start Before You Are ‘Ready’
The number one trap that can cost you years of your life is waiting until you feel ‘ready’ to start with a big goal or project.
Whether it’s starting a business, writing a book, or making a big career change, you’ll likely never feel 100% ready.
Time will never be ‘just right’.
But if you keep waiting until the ‘perfect’ time, you’ll keep waiting for a long time.
As Steven Pressfield wrote in Turning Pro:
“The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.”
Don’t wait until fear, doubt, or uncertainty are gone — because they likely never will be. You have to act despite these fears and doubts.
True courage is not the absence of fear, it’s deciding to act in spite of your fears.
Start that business even if you don’t feel 100% ready.
Begin writing that book even if you don’t feel like a writer.
Make that career shift even if it’s scary.
Remember, the most meaningful things in life are on the other side of fear and self-doubt. Don’t wait.
Don’t Seek Motivation — Build Discipline
If you rely on motivation to work on your tasks and goals, you are bound to fail. As Ex-Navy SEAL and ultra-endurance athlete David Goggins wrote in his book Can’t Hurt Me:
“The only way to truly control your life is through discipline.”
The problem with motivation is that it’s unreliable. It’s a temporary spark of positive emotions that often fades quickly.
For example, we feel motivated when the new year rolls around and we set the resolution to exercise three times per week.
The first few days, you feel highly motivated and easily get all your workouts done.
But after a few days, the initial burst of motivation fades and you have more trouble getting yourself to the gym.
Before you know it, you skip a few workouts and fall back into old behavioral patterns.
That’s because it’s nearly impossible to sustain motivation over the long term. Motivation is a temporary burst of emotions. It fades quickly, which is why you can’t rely on it.
Motivation is a temporary emotion, but self-discipline is a habit you can develop.
Self-discipline, on the other hand, is not an emotion but a habit.
By developing the habit of discipline, we can consistently make choices and take actions that align with our goals, even when we don’t feel like it.
To begin developing the self-discipline habit, do at least one hard thing each day:
- Push yourself in the gym
- Take a cold shower
- Go into the sauna
- Stay off your phone for the first hour of the day
- Do 3–4 hours of deep, focused work
- Read a book for 90 minutes without distractions
Do one hard thing each day to train your self-discipline. The stronger your self-discipline muscles, the better your results in life will be.
Meditate On Your Mortality
As Marcus Aurelius, the well-known Stoic and powerful Roman emperor wrote in his book Meditations:
“Don’t behave as if you are destined to live forever. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good. Now.”
I always thought meditating on your own mortality (which the Stoics call ‘Memento Mori’) was a depressing practice.
But all of that changed when I experienced a cancer scare. My doctors told me I had a bone tumor, and it shattered my world.
Fortunately, after surgery, it turned out to be something else.
Lucky, lucky me.
Nevertheless, it was the first time I was actually confronted with my own mortality.
This emotional rollercoaster taught me one thing:
I will die one day and I don’t know when. Therefore, I should make the most of today and stop wasting time.
As Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations, “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
By reflecting on your own death, you will realize life is too short to waste it on stupid stuff.
- It’s too short to waste it in a dusty, grey cubicle working for someone who doesn’t really care about you
- It’s too short to stare at screens for 10+ hours per day rather than going out into nature
- It’s too short to spend your days grumpy and upset rather than experiencing the joy of life
You don’t know how long you have left in life, so don’t waste your time.
Don’t postpone your dreams and goals, but live fully, spread positivity, and be your absolute best self. Today.
As Martin Luther King once said, “It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.”
Let Small Actions Turn Into Big Actions
As Dale Carnegie famously wrote in How To Stop Worrying & Start Living:
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.”
Even the smallest of actions can turn into big actions because of the power of momentum.
For example, if you don’t feel like going to the gym, start by packing your workout clothes and putting on a high-energy workout playlist.
If you don’t feel like doing 90 minutes of deep work, start by cleaning your workspace or doing just 15 minutes of deep work first.
And if you don’t feel like writing an entire Medium article, start by making an outline of the article instead.
These tiny actions spark momentum — and momentum will drive you to take bigger actions.
As Dale Carnegie wrote, “If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
Simply get yourself to do something small to build momentum. Then use that momentum to conquer big, challenging tasks.
Drop The Victim Mindset — Take Extreme Ownership
Extreme ownership is the mindset that you must own everything in your life and there is no one else to blame for your circumstances.
As Jocko Willink wrote in Extreme Ownership:
“A leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame.”
Most people will find it difficult to take extreme ownership as they’re used to blaming others for their circumstances.
They blame their boss, their parents, politicians, Wall Street, the state of the economy, or the ‘one percent’, for all the bad stuff happening in their lives.
Instead of taking 100% ownership of their lives, most people see themselves as a victim of other people’s actions.
This is the exact opposite of taking extreme ownership.
Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely bad people (and bad circumstances) out there making our lives more difficult.
But if you see yourself as a victim of other people’s choices, you completely hand over your power to them.
You will only be able to change your reality if you accept full responsibility and take complete ownership of your life.
- If you’re broke, accept full responsibility
- If you’re in bad shape, accept full responsibility
- If you’re stuck in a low-paying job, accept full responsibility
- If you’re not happy with your overall life, accept full responsibility
The moment you accept that your life is your responsibility, you regain your personal power. You put yourself back in the driver’s seat of life.
In the long run, it’s your actions, decisions, and habits that determine the results you will get in your life. It’s you vs. you.
