You Are Postponing Your Success By Procrastinating — Here’s How You Can Do Better.
Keep moving forward.
Many times, people have an idea of how to achieve what they want. They have too many ideas that they don’t know where to start and what exact steps to take.
For example, a person who wants to get fit knows that he needs to exercise. He knows he needs to do push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, squats, and other different kinds of exercise. He has an idea but doesn’t know where to start. He tends to forget that he doesn’t need to do everything. At least not all at once — because once he tries to, he starts to think it’s going to be a big leap.
Everybody fears that. So procrastination begins.
But here’s how you never have to deal with it again.
Never forget.
It’s easy to forget why you started. Even if you want something, you can get lost along the way with distractions. This is why it’s important to set intentions and reflect on them every day.
Ask yourself the following questions before starting your day or before you go to bed:
- What am I doing today / What did I do today?
If you want to become a successful writer, your answer to this is obvious — write. If you keep asking yourself this question every day, you will start to build a writing habit and feel guilty when you skip a day.
2. Am I moving forward? (Does my answer to question no. 1 help me get closer to my goal?
Assess whether you are moving forward by tracking your progress. Are you getting the results that you want? What does a successful writer mean to you? Is it about having a lot of views, earning a lot of money, or knowing that you’re able to help someone?
3. What other actions can I do to get closer to my dreams?
After tracking your progress, think about what other things you can do to achieve your goal. Do you need to write on a different platform to get more audience? Do you need to enroll in a writing workshop so you can improve your skills? There will always be something you can work on.
It’s not as hard as you think.
If being a content creator was as easy as pulling out your phone from your pocket, taking a picture of your lunch, and posting your food on Instagram, you wouldn’t procrastinate, would you?
But if you think being a content creator required sitting on your desk, turning on your computer, connecting your hard drive, looking for your best videos, editing them on adobe premiere (which you still need to figure out how to use), and posting it on youtube, then you’d be so overwhelmed and think that you’ll just do it next time.
You don’t have to overcomplicate things, all you have to do is create a system that will make everything easier for you.
Let’s say on weekends, you need to spend a certain amount of time taking photos and videos. On Mondays, you need to study Adobe Premiere for 1 hour. On Tuesdays, you need to edit for 1 hour.
You see, an hour a day makes a huge difference. It’s a lot easier thinking you only have to do one thing for one hour. It helps you take a straighter path towards your goals instead of having to take too many steps and getting tired too soon.
Slow and steady wins the race.
— Robert Lloyd
You might think an hour a day doesn’t make a huge difference, but it all goes down to progress. The power of compounding works like magic when you do something small every day. As long as you keep taking small steps, you will get to your destination.
Avoid distractions.
Distractions are everywhere, and it’s not easy to ignore them.
They are the most common reason why people don’t get the results that they want.
If you think you are getting to your body goal by spending an hour online shopping for cute workout clothes or the best-looking running shoes, remember that you are not. You are procrastinating and convincing yourself that you are doing something to achieve your goal. But you are not doing the work. What will help you is to use that hour to burn your fats and work out your muscles.
Remind yourself of your intentions every day and build a system that will help you act on small things and you will achieve your goals faster.