The Dr. Josh Axe Show - How to Defeat Procrastination & Maintain Motivation for Achieving Goals

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

Are you struggling to gain momentum with your goals? Do distractions and procrastination derail your progress?  Tune into this week's episode as I answer YOUR pressing questions on cultivating self-motivation and achieving success!  You'll discover: What makes for a fulfilling, successful life & how to define success in your own terms A beginner's guide to setting and accomplishing realistic, milestone-driven goals Concrete strategies to overcome chronic procrastination, stay focused, and power through self-doubt The keys to maintaining motivation, even with ADD Why mentorship is critical and where to find supportive mentors You'll walk away with a toolbox of tactics for getting (and staying) inspired, building momentum, and maximizing productivity. Don't miss this game-changing guidance to help turn your biggest goals into realities! Want more of The Growth Lab with Dr. Josh Axe? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook Tik-Tok Follow Leaders Instagram Twitter Facebook Email Newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode, I'll be answering your questions on the principles of success. And whether you want to be successful in your health or in your career or in your relationships, whatever it is, I'll be answering those questions today. Also, some of the topics I'll be going through is how do you stay successful despite a condition like ADHD or ADD? Or how do you find the right career path for you? Or how do you stay motivated? I'll be covering all of that and more on today's episode. Also, hey, if you're not subscribed, make sure to subscribe to the podcast and hit the notification bell so you never miss an episode.

All right, first question here, we're going to dive in with. It's how do you define a successful life on a personal level? This is big. How do you define success? I actually think that this is one of those questions that not enough people have been able to answer, or not enough people have just even asked the question to begin with. and I think the default is not what you end up with. I think most people define success as their level of fame,

their level of wealth, their level of comfort or happiness, and that's it. Versus I think the true definition of success should be tied to a few things. One is who you become. I think a lot of times we tie our success is based on what we accomplish in life.

Oh, I made this amount of money. I earned this degree. I got a certain level of recommendation. recognition, whatever it is. I think that's how most people do it. But that doesn't lead to the highest level of happiness. Or, again, a lot of people just, I just want to be happy. What studies show is that if you truly want to be happy

and feeling like you had a successful life, it's based on how much you grow. So if you're constantly growing and getting better in life, if you're growing in character, growing in your unique skill, contributing more and more, If you're growing in those areas, that actually leads to happiness and the feeling of fulfillment, contentment, and success. Versus if you kind of feel stuck in life, like you're not moving forward, that actually leads

to depression and unhappiness and not feeling successful. And so know this, the definition of success, part of it should be tied to who you become, becoming a better you, hiring character, better in your unique gifts and talents, fostering those. And that's it. So focus on those two things. growing your character and growing in skill. Those talents God's given you.

And that's it. So your character becoming more loving, becoming more honest and telling the truth, becoming more compassionate towards others, becoming more discipline, becoming more wise. So growing in your character, and then let's say you have a skill or gift for writing.

You're a great writer, a great communicator, or you're great with hospitality and caring for others. Taking that skill and taking it to the moon, becoming one of the best in the world at that. And so if you can do those things grow in character and skill, now some of this also really, you know, I think it also helps becoming a better parent or a better friend or a better spouse. So for me, my success is tied to a Judeo-Christian worldview. So when I think about what success is from the terms of the Bible, I believe it's loving God,

the degree of which I get better and better at loving God, knowing who he is and, and, and, and, uh, pleasing him and being connected to him. Number two, it's loving people. The more I can love people, bless their life, contribute, help them grow. And then three is making the earth a heavenly place. Taking that original calling God had us taking the Garden of Eden in that little area in Mesopotamia and making the whole world like a Garden of Eden. And so I think if you can think about it in those terms, what does a successful life look like? Where are you loving God? Are you loving people to the highest degree possible? And are you making Earth a more heavenly place, both in the actual physical environment and in sort of that spiritual, emotional, mental kind of state of the world.

Okay. Are you helping it go backwards or making it go forwards? So thinking about like that, that's how I determine success. But really the thing that determines that the most is who you become and how you use your skills towards the greatest good. Okay. So success should be based on growing in character and growing and getting better at your talent. And then also part of your identity fulfilling your roles and responsibilities within your community. So success for me is being a great husband to my wife, making sure she's provided for, making sure she feels emotionally loved and secure, making sure that I know her dreams and I'm helping her accomplish those. Looking at my kids and my role as a father, my role is to help them

understand they have the, you know, they're not going to just live here on this earth for now, but live for eternity. And then me learning their talents, helping them develop what they're great at, looking at their character, helping them grow and live. love, but also discipline in these areas. And so knowing what your roles are, your unique roles, and your responsibilities also. So another thing that I know for myself, my success is based on like my companies. If I have a nutrition company, I have goals that are tied to that of helping the company grow and make, you know, eventually become a billion dollar company actually is one of those goals. And so with that, though, I do.

have a goal, but whether the company ever hits a billion dollars or not, now it's hit 100 million. I'm really proud of that. And other companies I've had have also been, quote unquote, I feel like really successful. But my greatest determinant on if I have a successful life is based on, am I leading well? Do I have character to where I'm working with the individuals of my team, and I am helping them become the best they can be. And I'm helping them, I'm being honest with them and really just sort of brutally honest, but I'm also saying those words, with love, and I'm also helping them. I know that I'm good at communication and marketing, and so helping with that.

So all that being said, how do you define a successful life on a personal level? I think it's, number one, who you become. Are you becoming more and more virtuous? I think that's the greatest way to determine that. Next question, how can I find a career path that is right for me? I'll share this for myself. And actually, I've helped thousands of people do this. number one, you've got to tap into your passion and a problem. Okay, for me, my mom was diagnosed

with cancer early in life. That was a problem. That caused a lot of pain. And I wanted to create a solution for that. And so again, and so I started learning about that, that became a passion of minds. And so I would say identify a problem you're passionate about. Okay. There's a need in the world, there's something that needs to get better and finding that out. Now, you know, here's an example. with a family member and they want to, they're trying to figure it out. And so what they've done is they have started watching other people, seeing what they're doing, watching YouTube videos to see, oh, I like this. I like this. I actually think YouTube can be an amazing training tool to help you find the right career path. Because I think if you can watch videos and watch people perform and do certain

things, your level of interest, I think is an important key in that. Okay. So you're, you know, so listen, I think passion's important. I don't think it's the most important thing. I think, are good at it is actually even more important than passion. But I think you generally want to at least like it okay and not absolutely hate it. But I think knowing a problem and you being good at helping fix that problem, you know, I have a family member who wants to learn about digital marketing. And so what he's doing right now is watching a lot of YouTube videos on digital marketing. He's going through a course that a guy Russell Brunson has put out and some other marketers. And so he's learning everything he can right now and sort of shadowing very.

virtually and trying things out himself, reading books and see. But I would say that it's, what do you really interested in? Like, what do you love learning about? What's a problem you can help solve? That can help you find your career path. Shadowing people, both in person, but also just virtually, YouTube, you can learn a lot on there. And one other tool I really like is using personality profiles. There's a great one by Patrick Lincione. It's called Working Genius. He has a book called Working Genius. So you might also get that book. And so I think, some of those books to help you find a career path can also be good. And so again, but I think taking a personality profile also can help you say you'll probably be best at these types of jobs.

So you might even do a search for personality profiles to help find to help with career path. And there are probably, I would do a few one or two of those profiles to learn what you're good at, I think can also help you find the right path. Next question. Do you have any tips for a newbie goal setter? I do. Number one, make sure it's something that you get excited about, something that matters. And so I think when you set a goal and also write down why it matters, let me give an example. If I were a person saying, I wanted to lose 20 pounds and I wanted to also just get in the best shape of my life. Okay, let's say you wanted to do that. The first thing you should do is sort of imagine what that looks like. You should have a vision around that. Okay, I see myself six months

from now. I lost 20 pounds and I'm fit. I'm active. And also writing, why you're doing it. I want to do that so I can, you know, I can hike and go on a trip to Machu Picchu with, you know, with my family, right? And so whatever it is, but why do you want to be able to do that and then create a vision of that picture of what you want that to look like? That's where I'd start if your goal setter, okay? What is that ideal future? You want to kind of picture, what would that look like and why you want to do it? The next thing you want to do is get really specific. So write down, like a specific, and this is sort of related to a set time and number, it's measurable. So, okay, you want to lose 20 pounds.

Let's say you want to lose, let's even say 30 pounds in three months. Okay, so you want to lose 10 pounds a month over three months. Okay. And so you have a date in mind that's called March 31st. Okay, so you have March 31st that you want to lose that weight by. And so it's very specific. Okay, or you want to run a 5K at that time or do a triathlon or whatever it is. Okay, so it's very, very specific, time-bound.

The next thing you want to do in order to hit your goal is write down a plan of how are you going to hit that goal. So if you want to lose weight, maybe you write down, well, I'm going to eat mostly meat and vegetables. Here's an example of a 14-day meal plan you found online or you got from a trainer or you read in a book. Okay, so you've got a 14-day meal plan. You'll kind of recycle and do over and over for the next three months. And so you got the meal plan to help you do that. And by the way, if you want to lose weight, it's meat and vegetables, meat and vegetables, I've done this a lot with a lot of patients.

helped a lot of people lose over 100 pounds. So you want to have that plan, okay, exactly what you should eat for your meals. And then, hey, you want to exercise. So you're going to go and lift weights three days a week for 45 minutes, and you're going to walk daily. The days you don't lift weights, you'll walk twice a day, morning and lunch for 20 minutes, go out for a brisk walk, and so you know that. And so you got that in place.

Okay, so you got the plan, and you're going to create your habits. And then you're going to plug that in your schedule. Okay, so these three days, days a week, I'm going to do an hour or 45 minutes, and then I'm going to walk at these times and you got your plan. And then I think a little bit of accountability, if you can find a partner to do it with you even some of the times, hey, a partner to walk, a partner to work out, somebody who also wants to achieve a goal and you kind of hold each other accountable. That can also help. But tips for a newbie goal setter, that's what I would do. Visualize that future you

want and why it's important. Be specific, set a specific time, create those sort of systems or habits to where, hey, I'm going to do this, you know, in that plan, put it in your schedule. And I think if you can do that, you'll have a much greater chance of hitting your goals. By the way, you know only 1% of people actually set written goals down? Only 1%. So literally, if you have those written goals, it's one of the greatest things you could ever do to be successful. Next question. I'm a chronic procrastinator, but when I set goals, I set really big ones, so I never end up accomplishing them. Do you have any advice to actually achieve the goals I set?

Well, one is, and listen, some of this question is, my answer is going to be incredibly common-sensical. So very, very common sense here. First would be start smaller, okay? That's it, you know? And by the way, there are studies that show there's a study and I was watching, Andrew Hooberman goes through this, but I went and read all the studies that he went through on this, and that is, when you say there's a really big,

big goal and maybe even tell multiple people that you're going to, you know, you have this big goal, you actually get a little bit of a dopamine hit. And sometimes it actually keeps you from necessarily going and hitting that goal. So my first thing that I want to say to you is, don't tell everyone your goal. Tell one or two people that are going that actually would be part of you achieving the goal and do not tell anyone else. The other thing is don't set big goals. Set the most realistic goals possible. If you don't hit it, then lower the bar, lower the bar. lower the bar until you can finally hit it. But I would say set a easy goal. I'll give an example of this. If your goal is, again, let me give an example here. The lose weight, okay? Let's say you wanted to lose

30 pounds in three months. Let's back that down. Let's try and lose nine pounds in three months. And so you're going to try and lose one pound a week. All right. And so and then, so that's your goal. You want to lose just one about, and actually that'd get you to 12 pounds or more. So, but let's say you want to lose one pound a week rather than try and lose two or three. Okay. Well, what you want to do is say, rather than try to eat every meal perfect, say, I'm just going to change my breakfast, okay, or lunch and I can eat what I want for dinner. So just get it better, a little bit better. And then for the exercise schedule, you know, if you know you're not going to go, if you keep saying, I'm going to go every day for an hour,

we'll try and go two days a week for an hour. and then if you know you need to go on a walk, here's what I would say. Your goal is not to walk 20 minutes. Your goal is to go out and walk for two minutes. That's it. Just go out the door and just start walking. And if you do two minutes, that's fine.

But if you get going and you want to do five or ten or knowing, hey, the ideal is getting up to 45 minutes, then just keep going. So again, I think the goal is even the mini goals get smaller to where the goal is just to get started. So the goal is to literally get your shoes on, lock out the door, walk to the mailbox. That's it. There's another one. You just walk to the mailbox and back. And if you get out there, try and get yourself then to say, okay, I want to go ahead and go

past the mailbox to the neighbors. Okay, well, then now I want to go around the block. Okay, now I want to go around the big block of the entire neighborhood. Okay, I'm going to go and do it a second time now. So that's what I would say is here's the key to overcoming procrastination and is you want to create momentum. You want to just take one single baby step. And then if that feels good, you take another step and another step and another step, but your accountability, you want to hold yourself to walking out to the mailbox every day, once a day.

That's it. And I think if you can have that sort of mindset around your goals, is, hey, I just want to get a baby step in, and that's all you have to do, then that will help you better achieve your goals. If you're a writer, rather than saying, I'm going to try and write a thousand words a week,

say, you know what, my goal is to write one paragraph a week. And if you get that paragraph done and it feels pretty good, then say, okay, I'm going to go ahead and take time and write a second paragraph. So you go ahead, but the big thing is you block the time out on your schedule. You block the time out on your schedule. You do time blocking. And basically you try and if you have a whole two hours fit in,

you only, if you get 10 minutes in, you can feel like that's a success. Or you get one paragraph. But I would say just create micro goals, baby goals, and just start hitting those. And that will create momentum. And then you'll probably start hitting your bigger goals. Next question here. Sometimes I lose motivation for the big goals I have. Do you have any tips for staying motivated? So much of this ties into your purpose, your purpose in life, your identity, who you believe you are. But here's how I stay motivated. One way I do is by creating a vision board. I love doing this. So I visualize my ideal life. I write down why it's important in the difference it'll make in my life. Some people have never done this. Listen, this is such a powerful exercise. Okay, what will losing 20 pounds do for you? well, I'll feel better, I'll look better in a dress or my pants.

Okay, but let's go deeper than that. Did you know, by the way, what I'm going to share with you is statistically accurate, or at least it was accurate about 10 years ago when I looked up this, the last studies on this. If you lose 20 pounds, it cuts your risk of cancer down by 50%. It cuts your risk of heart disease down by threefold. and your risk of diabetes down by threefold. Also, you have way more energy. The chance of you being around for your kids getting married goes up probably,

as we mentioned, those diseases go down, probably up by 150%. So all that being said, and you're going to have more energy, you're going to feel better, you'll be more productive at work, you're going to have more confidence. Write down all of the reasons hitting that goal will improve your life. Okay? And then what I would do is put pictures up around this goal you want to hit, write down all those reasons why it's going to improve your life. Put that in your bathroom mirror, okay, and a few pictures. And if you want to put a vision board, but you just want to have it somewhere you see every day.

The next thing I would say is if you lose motivation is I think if you have somebody who's depending upon you, that motivates some people. So I would write down all the people that are depending upon you. Now, some people that might feel waiting hard for them, but for others it motivates them. So I would say know yourself in that area. The other thing I would say is read a lot of positive motivating stories of other people who lost weight and are doing great. You know, this is where online communities can be great, where if you're around other people who are in the same situation, you are trying to achieve similar goals can help. The other thing I would say is spend time around motivated people who are trying to achieve what you want to achieve. I think being around other motivated people makes you more motivated.

There's a study at Duke University that found when you spend time with disciplined people, you become more discipline yourself. That's the key. Spend time around other motivated people that have goals and that will make you more motivated. Here's the other thing. Don't necessarily put all your focus on the big, hairy, audacious goal at the end. Focus more on the habit, that daily action and just following through. So the goal is not to hit this giant big goal.

You can look at it. You can have it up there. But the bigger thing is your daily goal is if you're a writer, to write one paragraph. And if you can do one, then try and do two and then try and do a whole chapter, whatever it is. So I think you have to have those breaking out into many goals. And the thing is, at the very least, I just want to accomplish this micro goal. And then if you can get that done, move on to the next thing. Next question here. What are some ways to stay motivated and focused on success for someone with,

with ADD or ADHD. And by the way, I'm the person that was diagnosed with ADD and ADHD since I was, since I was in elementary school. I got prescribed Ritalin. I got prescribed Adderall. And so I understand where you're coming from and wanting to stay motivated. The biggest thing that has allowed me to be motivated is, let me go through three things. One thing is, I'm spending time on the things I'm interested in.

And so in the things I know I'm good at. And so that is incredibly helpful. you can really spend time on something that you are interested in. Now, that's not always an option. But if it is in your work, then that's going to be very helpful. The second thing would be, I exercise. The more that I exercise and work out, the more it sort of calms my nervous system. And I get actually a good kind of tired to where then I can kind of not be hyperactive and running around. And I can actually focus on what's in front of me. So I would say exercise, working out, time outdoors, going on walks. That is going to actually.

help you focus better. The number three is nutrition. Eating a diet that's mostly meat and vegetables, low glycemic, so you're not having those blood sugar spikes. So meat, vegetables, a little bit of healthy fat, and then certain nutrients like fish oil, ginkobeloba, lion's main mushroom, B complex vitamins, those are all going to help ADHD. So you can take a neutropic supplement or drink, but those are all going to help with ADD. But those would be the best tips, I would say, is that and also sort of time block, you know, have it where, okay, I'm going to focus on this for one hour, but then I'm going to take a 30-minute break, and then I'm going to focus an hour, and then I'm going to take maybe, you know, 20 minutes and walk around and get back to it.

But I would say that those are some things that would help, and those are some things that have really helped me and being successful despite, you know, an ADD or ADHD diagnosis. Next question, how important is mentorship? Where can I find good mentors? Well, one, I think mentorship's incredibly important. I believe for myself, the reason I've been able to be successful in my career and building multiple million dollar companies in one over 100 million, the reason I feel like I've got a great relationship with my spouse and kids and I've been successful in my health and a number of things. Most of these do to mentorship.

It's the single greatest factor. Now, I've read books and I have earned degrees and I've done a number of things. but by far the bigger thing, the reason that I've been successful is mentorship. And so going back to mentorship, I would say, you asked how important is it's the most important thing for success, in my opinion. The next thing is, where can you find good mentors? Here's a few different places, and it depends on what you want to be successful in or what you want to be mentored in. One place would be conferences. I think you can go to conferences, meet people, get connected, and get around some good mentors or people who are more iron sharp.

and Zion, maybe just a little bit ahead of you, I think at conferences and seminars. And so go to a growth seminar, go to a leadership seminar, go to a spiritual growth seminar, but go to those conferences. The other thing is join a mastermind group. Mastermind groups or coaching groups can help create that some level of mentorship. Another thing, if we're talking about spirituality, I would say church. You know, I would say a synagogue. I would say a place of spiritual development is a good place to go and be able to, if you want to grow spiritually, go and plug into growth groups, those sort of things. But I want to share it. The biggest for me has actually been through a network of friends. That's where I found mentors. It's through friend networks. I'll give an example of this.

I, you know, when I was writing my first book, I was connected to a ministry called Mercy Multiplied and Nancy Alcorn. And so I was just serving that ministry. And Nancy said, hey, I said, I'm writing a book. Do you know any good influencers or people who could kind of help mentor me and how to write this book? And she said, well, I know Jordan Rubin. I said, would you see if Jordan would just jump on with me for one hour. I'll be incredibly respectable all of his time. I just would love to ask him some questions. So I got on with Jordan, ask questions at the end of the call. I said, hey, could I, could we do this again sometime? I'm really looking for, I would love to contribute to what you're doing. But I also would really love to learn from you. Anything you're ever doing, let me know. I'll show up and I'd love to learn. showing up things that Jordan was doing and then Jordan became a good friend, a mentor, and then even now a business partner, all that being said, I really think with mentors, friend groups are the best. And by the way, this is true with a lot of people. I met Michael Hyatt and people like Donald Miller and certain pastors all through friend groups that have mentored me and people in business that have mentored me. So I would say those friend connections. And here's the

other thing. If you ever have an opportunity to be around a mentor, you want to walk in there with a incredible level of humility and incredible level of initiative. So go in there with those questions you're going to ask. Okay. Go in and let them know, hey, I want to let you know, I read this that you did. I've already seen you this. So let them know that this person, I've already studied them. I've already seen what you've done. And like when I wanted a call with Jordan Rubin, I said, Jordan, hey, I know you just wrote the maker's diet and you've had so much success with Garden of Life. Can I ask you a few questions? He said, yeah, I'd love that. And I asked him really just intently, these questions, and then I went and took massive action on those things that he shared with me

that I should do. And I think because I was so diligent and being faithful to the advice he'd given me and coming back and showing him, I'd done it, he wanted to give it more. I mean, when you're a mentor and you have somebody that you give advice to and they go and take 100% action on it, and they've improved in a certain way, and then they come back and ask you a question again, you're so excited. I'm always so excited to bless and encourage and advise and contribute to what that person is. doing. So I would say if you want to find good mentors, ask through friend groups. And don't be, listen, if you want to learn about psychology or health, okay, let's use health as an example, you know, don't try and immediately go to now, unless you're incredibly affluent in the world of

health, like, oh, I'm going to try and go and have Bonnie Harri or Ben Greenfield or Andrew Hooverman or Max Lou Gevere. And that's the first person I'm going to go and ask for mentorship. I would say, Instead, go and ask for that micro-influencer that's into health, go and get connected to them, learn everything they can do. So rather than trying to go to step 10 when you're at step one, try and go to step two, three, or four. Okay, don't try and all of a sudden leap up to here. Now, you can try, but it always, it doesn't, let me say, you can try, but it doesn't

always work out. Try and find a mentor who's just even a little bit ahead of you. And then maybe you find another mentor for the next year if you surpass them and their advice and their wisdom or where they're at when you've learned everything you're. can learn. But I think conferences, mastermind groups, coaching, I think church, I think friend groups especially are the best places to find mentors. And let me say, you can also to a degree be mentored without meeting with that person in person. I'll give an example of this. I feel like I've been mentored by John Maxwell and Jordan Peterson. Okay. And John Maxwell, I've probably read 30 of his books.

I've taken notes on it. I've gone to his conferences. I've been, fortunate enough to meet him in person, but I've never been able to sit down with John and have him mentor me in that way on a regular basis. But I feel like because I've watched so many of his videos, attended his seminars, and read his books that I have been mentored in a way. And by the way, I've had people say that to me about maybe their health. Like, hey, Dr. Axis, you've been my, people have said this to me and I've never sat down with them as a clinician. But I've had a lot of people, when I say a lot, I'm talking about hundreds of people tell me this in person. Doctor, actually, you're my doctor. And part of me is like, well, I've never actually

sat down and advised you, but by reading my books, watching my videos, all those things, they feel like I have been that person for them. So listen, I think it's important to both have mentors that are virtual that you can learn from from afar, but also have in person. So I would say write down, who are those people virtually that you want to learn from to mentor, mentor you, and read and watch everything they've ever put out, taking notes, learning that way, listen to their advice, and then have people in person, whether it's one person or multiple, that you're mentored from as well. So that's the way I would think about mentorship in that way. Hey, so I hope you've enjoyed this segment on how to be successful in principles of success.

You know, each and every week I'm going to continue to cover these topics, not only on how to improve your health, but how to grow yourself and your wealth and take your career and relationships and spirituality to the next level.