Patience...A Forgotten Virtue

On the path to kick procrastination in the butt, Rory Vaden has asked us to answer three important questions.

In the Eliminate stage, it was, “Is this task something I can live without?”

In the Automate stage, it was “Can this task be systematized?”

In the Delegate stage, it was “Can this task be performed by someone else?”

If the answer to those three questions is No, then guess what?  It’s our turn to do something!

But before we jump head first into the task, there is an essential element to consider.

Timing.

Finally, the title of Vaden’s book, Procrastinate on Purpose, starts to makes sense.

Seems counterintuitive, uncomfortable even, but he is challenging us to… wait.

What? Wait?  I thought we didn’t want to procrastinate!

Turns out there is a big difference between avoiding something because it is uncomfortable to do it (procrastinating), and deliberately postponing something because it is not actually the right time to do it (being patient).

Hence, Procrastinating on Purpose. 

Turns out many great minds are on the same page when it comes to patience and timing:

“Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is "timing;"

it waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way.”

​​​​​​~Fulton J. Sheen

“The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.”

​​​​​~Joshua Harris

Or my favorite:

“The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”

​​​​​~Willie Nelson

Patience… sadly lacking in today’s climate of rush, rush, rush.

Patience gives us time to pause, to think, to breathe, to allow what is truly important to rise to the surface, for external conditions to become clear, for our own priorities to become clear.

Patience gives us room to breathe, so we are not madly sprinting from urgent task to urgent task, but instead taking stock of what is truly important, so that when we do take action, we do so in alignment with our spirit. We can be fully present to the task at hand, knowing that we are indeed doing the right thing at the right time, for the right reasons.

Permission to eliminate and the myth of multi-tasking

If you’ve been following along, you know I’ve been sharing my insights from Rory Vaden’s book Procrastinate on Purpose. 

Vaden talks about 5 permissions to procrastinate, the first being the permission to eliminate, or ignore.  He asks us to consider all the things that we are doing, but shouldn’t be doing.

Sounds simple, right?

He shares a long list of likely candidates – revisiting decisions we have already made, attending unnecessary meetings, alternating between activities, watching TV (did you know that, according to A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day, which in a 65 year life span means 9 years!?), gossiping, volunteering too much, and the list goes on and on.

One of the ones that really jumped out at me, and I wager I’m not alone here, is switching between activities, also known as multi-tasking.  I must admit, I’ve been proud of my ability to multi-task. Many of us have - it’s become a cultural badge of honor.

The fact is, according to neurological research, multi-tasking is actually a myth. We are not mentally capable of doing two things at once, we are actually just switching back and forth between tasks very quickly.

Multi-tasking, despite its elevated stature in our hyper-paced society, is stressful and anxiety provoking, harms our creativity and concentration and actually costs us time, energy and efficiency.

I think it’s actually an addiction.  I mean, let’s be honest, how long can we go before checking our email or our smart phone?

So, what’s the answer?

Here are two suggestions that I am implementing:

1. Be the boss of your technology.  I, for one, must admit to being a slave to my cell phone ringer… What if I miss something important?  So here is a radical notion; turn the ringer off for periods of time so you can actually concentrate on what you are doing.
2. Focus on one task at a time; keep doing it until you have completed it before starting another. If you were to peek at my computer screen, you would probably be horrified to see how many screens I have open at once. No more!

I’m already feeling withdrawal pangs…

How about you,  what can you eliminate today so you have time for what really matters?

The myth of “I’m too busy”

You know how it is when you focus on something, and suddenly you see evidence of that thing everywhere you look?

That happened to me with the matter of procrastination. After my recent epiphany on the subject and subsequent commitment to be done with it for once and for all, I was walking through my local library to pick up a book for my mum, when Rory Vaden’s new book, Procrastinate on Purpose, literally leapt out at me from the new books display.

Now why would I want to procrastinate on purpose, having just kicked the darn thing in the butt, I wondered. Well, I was in for an eye-opener and a truly innovative approach to time management.

According to Vaden, truly successful people, of whom he has worked with many over the years, never whine about being too busy. Radical!

“I am just so busy.”  How many times have we all said this, with a sigh of overwhelm and yes, even a touch of pride at our own self-importance.

That was my excuse for so many years.

Until I realized that it really was a self-defeating justification for not doing something important, something that had been quietly calling me for a long time.

And you know what? Everything that is on my plate, I put there, or allowed it to be put there. I made the commitment. I took it on.  I choose to do it.

So, no more whining about how busy I am. I am not a victim. I choose my own priorities. I am in charge of my life.

Tune in tomorrow as we bust open more myths about time management.

“You and I have the same amount of time in a day as Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Michael Jordan or anyone else who has achieved greatness.”

                                                            Rory Vaden

Momentum – full speed ahead

Have you noticed that when you make one significant change in your life, it creates a momentum all of its own? 

You get fed up with the way things are. You’re tired of doing the same thing, and getting the same results.  You’re fed up with your own excuses.

That’s what happened to me when I got to that point where I decided to do something different.  In case you missed my two previous posts, you can read all about how I kicked procrastination in the butt here

You see, I’ve been a closet writer and didn’t even know it!  The more I blog, the more I want to write. The more I write, the more I think about things to write about. The more I think about things, the more deeply I experience and process my own life.

The more deeply I process my own experiences, the more insights I get into my life. The more insights I get into my life, the more I want to share them.  The more I share them, the more I engage with you, my dear readers.

The more I engage with you, the more I realize we are all connected. Despite our unique variations, our individual stories, our different journeys, we share this one human experience, embedded in a living universe in which we are all related in this great web of life.

The more I feel this deep connection and sense of global community, the more I can’t wait to jump out of bed in the morning.

And so it goes….. I wonder what will happen next?

Kicking procrastination in the butt – Part 2

In case you missed Part I,  I’ve been talking about how I finally overcame 10 years of chronic procrastination.

It all started with my answer to this question:

If there is something that you want in your life that you don’t have, what is the ONE thing you could do towards that goal?

Often our big dreams and goals can seem overwhelming.  Perhaps that is one of the reasons we fill our lives with tasks instead of with our life’s purpose. 

Thinking of the one step, the one action we can take towards our goal is a much more manageable way to approach it.

In my case, I picked a rather extreme step. I decided to go on a live radio show, Healing your Life,  with Dr. Chris Michaels.  I’ve been following Dr. Chris’s show for years now, and I have learned so much from the raw, unscripted episodes as brave souls face their fears and overcome their challenges.

If you want to hear my whole 5-week journey on this reality radio show, you can listen in here.

Well, turns out it was just the kick in the butt that I needed. I told Dr Chris about my love for writing, wanting to find my voice in the world, and my idle blog that I rarely got around to writing. After all, I said, I am so busy. My schedule is so erratic as a freelance interpreter and translator. Work, family, my elderly mother, etc. etc.  “Pha! – Excuses!”, he said.

And you know what? He was right.  So he challenged me to get up early, and commit to blogging 5 days a week. So that is what I have been doing.

And all those reasons and excuses for not doing the thing that has been calling to me? They are still there.  They are especially loud when the alarm clock goes off in the morning. But you know what?   I made a decision. I made a commitment. Period.

So that is my secret, really. Make a decision. Choose the one action that you can do to support your decision. And make it public.  No, you don’t have to go on reality radio and bare your soul to the world like I did.  But do find an accountability partner, or some other support system to help you stay on track.

Ready?  What’s your next step? What’s the ONE action you can take towards fulfilling your life’s purpose?

Kicking procrastination in the butt

I’ve been suffering from procrastination for the last 10 years.

It’s true.

I’ve accomplished a lot in my personal and professional life that I’m proud of – but the truth is there is something I’ve been dreaming of, working on, planning to work on for the past 10 years – my grand plan for achieving financial peace, my ticket to global travel and adventure, my vehicle for making the world a better place. 

So after a lifetime of working belly-to-belly as a midwife, health educator, interpreter, translator, consultant, trainer …  I signed up to sell some detox drops with the vision of earning some serious residual income to fund my dreams.

And so I jumped into the world of relationship marketing (also know as multi-level, or network marketing). Yes, I know… images of scams, illegal pyramid schemes, pie in the sky promises, tacky sales tactics come to mind.

Fact is, I learned, relationship marketing is a legitimate and effective marketing approach that works by creating long-term sales relationships based on trust. There are high quality, unique products in this marketplace, and companies with vision and integrity. And there is a world of opportunity for self-development and learning new skills in the process.

The trouble is, even after I finally found my dream products, the companies I trust, and had my own first hand life changing experiences from using the products, I found that marketing wasn’t quite as easy as I thought it would be. So over the years I invested in a whole slew of classes, webinars, educational programs, books, etc. to figure it all out.  And here is where the procrastination came in.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was watching yet another webinar, my sweet supportive husband astutely pointed out ”Honey, it seems like you have been getting ready to get ready to “do the business” for 10 years now!”

I have to admit. It’s true. My dreams of residual income, quitting my day job and changing the world have still eluded me.  That’s when I realized something had to change.

So, what happened? Want to know how I finally kicked procrastination in the butt?

Tune in tomorrow. Here’s a hint: It’s an inside job!