The Mindset Mentor - 3 Ways To Stop Procrastinating

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another episode of this podcast. And if you love this podcast, please give us a rating and review however you listen to us. The more positive rating and reviews that we get, the more that those platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts show this podcast to people who have never listened to it before. Therefore, we can impact more people's lives.

Starting point is 00:00:32 And by you giving us a rating and review, it actually pays it forward for us to be found by more people. We grow, podcast grows, more lives are changed. And I would greatly appreciate if you would do that. Today, I'm going to give you three keys, three ways to stop procrastinating. Now, before we do that, I'm going to flip your mind a little bit on procrastinating and what it is, okay? I want you to just answer this intuitively. Answer it as soon as I ask the question. I don't want you to hold yourself back. I don't want you to think about it. You can say it out loud if you want to, if you're in your car. Do you have a problem with procrastinating? Answer it, yes or no. Do you procrastinate more than you would like to? Do you procrastinate on things that really matter to you? Do you have a

Starting point is 00:01:10 problem with procrastinating? Now, I'm not in the car with you. I'm not in the gym with you. I'm not in the shower with you, if you're listening to me in the shower. But I would guess the majority of people are going to say, yes, I have a problem. Like one of the things that's holding me back, one of the problems, the thing that's holding me back the most from the life that I want is some form of procrastination. And I'm actually going to tell you that I think that's bullshit. I don't think that that's true. I was talking with my team members and this was about three weeks ago. And we were talking about the ways that people hold themselves back. And one of the things that was said is, you know, this person that I spoke to on the phone, they had a

Starting point is 00:01:51 problem with procrastinating. And I said, do you think procrastination was a problem? One of my team members was like, yeah, definitely procrastination was his problem. And I said, procrastination is not his problem. Procrastination is the symptom of the problem. Now, what does that mean? Well, if we look at somebody who has, I don't know, some sort of disease, some sort of illness, something like that, that's not the problem. It is the downstream effect of that problem. And so there's a problem, the cause, and then there's the symptom, the effect, this thing that's popping up. So it's like, for instance, I can give you a great example. You know, my fiancee, Lauren, she used to have on her arm, she would get eczema, real bad,

Starting point is 00:02:38 like crazy bad eczema. There was like right on the other inside of her elbow. And it would be so bad, she couldn't stop itching it. And it was like real, real bad. And now you would look at that and you would say, okay, the eczema is definitely the problem, but it's not the problem. That was what happened because of the problem. So she starts learning and learning and learning and learning and changing the way she was eating. She actually found out that gluten and soy were the problem. So the problem was the food that she was eating was going into her gut. It was breaking through the blood barrier and it was actually leaking in and her skin was what ended up getting the brunt of it. Like the part that was beat up

Starting point is 00:03:17 and you could see and you would think to yourself, yeah, her eczema was a problem, but her eczema wasn't the problem. It was that she was eating soy and gluten. She didn't realize that she was allergic to soy and that gluten breaks the blood barrier and allows the soy to get through her gut and into her body. And so not going too deep in the woods, this is a nutrition episode, but you would look at it and think eczema was the problem. Eczema was not the problem. The problem was soy and then the gluten that obviously messed up her gut as well. That was the problem. The downstream effect of her having it was the eczema on her skin. And so when I talk about procrastination, procrastination can seem like the problem, the thing that's holding you back, but that's not it. That is the cause of what you're doing. So let me give you an example.

Starting point is 00:04:00 Maybe you just started a new business. In your new business, you're all excited about your new business. You want to do well, but you're not taking the action that you need to, to grow this business. And so you might say, I might say to you like, what's the problem? Why are you not growing your business? You might say, I'm procrastinating too much. No, no, no. That is the eczema. That is the effect of what's happening. That's the symptom of something else. And what could be, I'll give you an example of what I see a lot with business owners because I coach a lot of business owners, is that the real thing, the reason why they're procrastinating is because there's some sort of fear. And the fear could be, you know, they're not making phone calls to grow their business. Let's say, I'll give you

Starting point is 00:04:42 an even better example. I want to put some context to this, right? Let's say that this person has a landscaping business and they're procrastinating, knocking on doors to give out their cards to talk to people because I know around here, there's always landscaping guys that knock on doors and they're like, hey, you know, if you need landscaping done, here's my card. So maybe the person's like, I'm procrastinating. My business, my landscaping business isn't growing because I'm procrastinating and I'm not knocking on doors. None of that is the issue. The issue, that's the downstream effect of the business not doing what you're not, them not doing what they're supposed to in the business. The actual problem might be that they're afraid of somebody

Starting point is 00:05:17 rejecting them, that they're afraid of somebody saying no to them. They're afraid of somebody saying, get off my fucking property. That's what their actual problem is. And the procrastination is just the downstream effect of that. That's what it truly is. Making sense? And so growing the business, the procrastination seems like the problem, but the real problem is what's behind all of that, which is the fear. And so if you have procrastination, before I give you the actual three steps, the real question I want you to answer is what is the fear behind your procrastination that's holding you back from taking the action that you need to in order to create the life that you want? What is the actual thing behind the procrastination that's holding you back? What's the fear that's back there? So that's what I got for you on the procrastination.

Starting point is 00:06:04 It's something to think about. So let's dive into it. When we talk about procrastination, really what it comes down to is you can still feel that fear. So if we go back to the fear of people saying no to you when you're knocking on doors, you can still knock on someone's door and be filled with fear the entire time. So having a fear does not mean that it's impossible to take the action that you need to in order to grow your business or whatever it is that you need to do that you're procrastinating on. You can be filled with fear and still knock on those doors. The key is discipline. That's what it comes down to. What is the discipline that you need to create? Because the fear will naturally start to subside. Before you knock on your first door, you're going to have a ton of fear. But when

Starting point is 00:06:45 you've knocked on a thousand doors, that fear has subsided. It might still be there, but it's nowhere near what it used to be, right? And so the key is discipline to take the action that needs to be taken. And there's two parts to discipline. Number one is starting and number two is finishing. Number one is starting and number two is finishing. Okay. So key number one is to not negotiate with your mind. How often are you on the couch and you don't feel like moving and you're like, oh yeah, I don't feel like doing this. I don't give a damn if you feel like doing it. If you said you were going to do it, you need to get it done. The other day, I feel like I give you guys examples of me in the gym all the time. I always have a mental resistance towards working out and I'm trying

Starting point is 00:07:29 to get better at it. I still struggle with it, but the thing that always gets me through it is just doing the movement, just getting my body moving because motion creates motion. More movement creates more movement. Another thing that motion creates is emotion. And so if you're sitting on the couch and you've been sitting for a while, it makes it, you know, your emotions are down, your blah, your emotions are usually going to follow your body a lot of times. And so motion creates emotion. And so if I, if I'm like, you know what, I was supposed to go work out. I don't feel like working out. I don't know about that. It's kind of late in the day. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow. All of this stuff. Then my brain will start to go down that route. But if I'm like, you know what? Screw it. I'm just going to go do some jumping jacks in the gym.

Starting point is 00:08:12 I'm going to go do some jumping jacks. What am I going to do? So I go to my garage. I do some jumping jacks because I got a gym out there. Do some jumping jacks. My body starts moving. I start feeling a little bit better. I'm like, you know what? Screw it. I'll do 15 pull-ups. I do some pull-ups. I do some jumping jacks. And I start to force my body. My emotion starts to go from, yeah, I don't know. I'm lazy. It's not really the day. I'm not really feeling good today. My stomach hurts. The other day when I had this happen, the thing was I actually had a really, really bad stomach ache. I must have eaten something that was bad the night before. And I was like, I don't feel like my body can do this. I'm not really good at it. And then literally I was like, I'm just going to do motion. I'm just going to do motion. It's going to, whatever it is, it was on Saturday. I put

Starting point is 00:08:50 on college football. I was watching on the TV that was in the garage, watching it. I started like moving. I started moving and my body and my brain started catching up with each other. Like, okay, I could do a little more. Okay. I could do a little more. Okay. I do a little more. But the thing was, I told myself I was going to work out on Saturday. I told myself I was going to do it. There was a part of me that was like, don't worry about it, dude. Just go do it tomorrow. Then there was another part of me that was like, get the fuck up because you said you were going to do it. And when I say don't negotiate with your mind, it is if you have made a plan to do something, if this is part of what you told yourself you're going to do, do not negotiate with your mind. Do it because you said you were going to do it. That's what's important. Too many

Starting point is 00:09:31 people say they're going to do something to somebody else and to themselves, and they don't follow through. And whenever you do something, the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. If you do not do something that you say you're going to do, you are now starting to become the person who doesn't do what they say they're going to do. And if you continue to keep doing that, your life, you're going to be downstream of that one year, two years, three years, five years down the road. You're going to see, you will get the results. Life will always give you the results of the action that you've taken in the future. I'm sorry, in the past. It will always give you the results of the actions that you've taken in the past. You will in five years get the results

Starting point is 00:10:05 that come from somebody who decides to skip workouts, someone who decides not to knock on the door, someone who decides not to make the phone call, somebody who decides not to read the books. You will become the person that you're going to become based off of the actions that you have taken in the past, which means five years from today, that past is right now in this moment. So if you said you were going to do it, do it. Do not negotiate with your mind because your mind will always try to talk you out of doing anything. That's the first thing. Hey, today's program is brought to you by Athletic Greens, the health and wellness company that makes comprehensive daily nutrition really,

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Starting point is 00:11:15 one convenient daily serving. So make your nutrition easy. Go to athleticgreens.com slash dial and Athletic Greens is going to give you an immune-supporting free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs for their first purchase when you visit athleticgreens.com slash dial today. Again, simply visit athleticgreens.com slash dial to take control of your health and give AG1 a try. Number two, finish what you start. Everyone is great at starting. People are always like, yes, I got a new, I'm going to start a new company. I'm going to start this sticker company on Etsy and I'm going to become a millionaire and I'm going to make some pretty designs. It's going to be so much fun. It's going to be great. It's going to be stuff like, hey, heart, heart, heart, love everybody, heart, heart, heart. I mean, everyone's got their bumper stickers on the back of their car. They're all excited and they start.

Starting point is 00:12:02 They're good at starting and then they're just terrible at finishing. Become somebody that is really good at finishing whatever you start, no matter what it is. I'll give you an example. You decide to start cooking. Guess what you're going to need to do? You're going to need to wash all those pots and pans. Don't leave them for tomorrow. Get them done today. Wash them. Finish the act of cooking. Finish the act of eating. Even if you just take a hot pocket, you know, I hope you're not eating hot pockets. Take a hot pocket, you throw it on a plate, you put it inside the microwave, you eat it. You got to do something with that plate. You could put it in the dishwasher. Couldn't you? You could wash it. Couldn't you? Or instead of doing that, you could leave it inside of the sink. Just be the person that gets better at finishing things. You know, when you get out of

Starting point is 00:12:50 bed, you wake up, finish the act of sleeping and make your bed. When you do your laundry, I'm preaching the choir on this, I'm preaching to myself, I always throw stuff inside of the dryer, forget about that shit for like a week, right? When you throw stuff in the dryer, this thing that I'm working on personally, when I throw some stuff in the washing machine, when I throw some stuff in the dryer, finish the act of laundry. It's the little teeny tiny things.

Starting point is 00:13:15 You know, if you decide, hey, I'm going to try on some clothes for tonight and going out, and you try on outfit one, you try it out for two, three, four, five, and you look back on your bed, do you have a bunch of clothes that are sitting on your bed before you leave? Take two minutes, two minutes, and become the type of person that finishes the act of trying on clothes. You take all those

Starting point is 00:13:32 clothes you decided not to wear and put them inside of your closet on a hanger. Put them away. It's just what you should do. Become better at finishing. Finish what you start. Make breakfast. Make breakfast. You eat it. You wash it. You put it away. Be done with it. If you don't have discipline, it's because you've trained yourself not to have discipline. So if you want to train yourself to have more discipline, train yourself to be the type of person who finishes what they start. And the way that you train yourself to be the type of person who finishes what they start is to start finishing things that you start. And you will start to become that person.

Starting point is 00:14:06 Number one, you fast forward 60 days, 90 days, 365 days, you are the type of person that finishes what they start. Okay? Number three, third tip, do more than you said that you would. Do more than you said that you would. I remember this story and you might've heard this story before, but I'll remember this prior to the day I die. I was at Gold's gym. I remember where I was in Austin. I was at the Gold's gym that was on the corner of 35. And, um, what is that road? For those of you guys that are in Austin, William Cannon, that's what it is. William Cannon in 35 when I lived down there. I remember being at the gym and I was there. We were doing a workout and I was doing 10 minutes on the treadmill to get my body warmed up, to get my

Starting point is 00:14:50 heart pumping and everything. I was at a 10% incline and my goal is to do 10 minutes. I remember I got to the nine minute and 50 second mark and I was about to hit the stop button and it was like this light bulb popped up in my head and I was like, oh, hold on. I said I was going to do 10 minutes and I'm about to stop at nine minutes and 50 seconds. And if I stop, nobody on earth but me will ever know that I stopped 10 seconds short. But you know who will know? Me. And if I'm coming up 10 seconds short on this, the way I do one thing is the way I do everything. I'm probably coming up short in all areas of my life, a little bit in my relationship, a little bit here, a little bit here, a little bit here.

Starting point is 00:15:33 And so if I want to be a type of person who does well and finishes things, what if I'm not just a type of person that finishes things, but goes a little bit extra? I was about to be the person, and James Clear says it, every action that you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. If I stop a little bit short, I am voting for being the type of person who comes up a little bit short in anything that they do. So I was like, I got to go a little bit further. I'll go for 10 minutes and 30 seconds. It was only an extra 40 seconds. But you see how you start to reprogram yourself as to who you are?

Starting point is 00:16:08 If you say you're going to do one mile, do 1.1 miles, do 10% more. If you say you're going to do 10 reps, do 11, do 12. See what you can do. If you say you're going to make 50 phone calls, make 52. Just do a little bit more than you say you're going to do. And if you do this, go back to that quote, every action that you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. If you have action, action, action, action, action over and over and over again, and the majority of them are over and above what you said you were going to do, you are going to start to build yourself into the type of person that goes a little bit above on every single thing that you do. Same way that when you finish something, you start something

Starting point is 00:16:44 and you finish it, you are voting for the type of person you wish to become. And so you have to realize if you want to get past procrastination, ultimately what you're doing is you're training your mind to start and to finish and to not negotiate with your mind and to get things done. This won't happen right away. It's not going to be a complete reprogramming, but I promise you, I've been working on myself for 16, 17 years now. I am not the same person that I was back then because I'd see these little teeny tiny actions, these consistent things that I tried to do all of the time. And I'm not perfect in any sort of way of doing that. I fuck things up all of the time. I hate when people are like, Rob has to have his entire life figured out. He's got to have it together. No, guys, I'm just bumping into shit

Starting point is 00:17:23 in the dark is the way I feel like I'm doing in life. But I'm doing, I at least have a little bit more light than I used to and I'm bumping into less walls than I used to, right? You have to decide, number one, you have to figure out what fear is behind my procrastination. And then you have to go through these three steps. Number one, don't negotiate with your mind. Number two, finish what you start. And number three, don't just finish what you start. Start getting better at doing more than you said you were going to do. And if you do that, ultimately, procrastination is not going to be a problem for you in a year, two years, three years, but it just takes consistent action of you doing what you need to do. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode,

Starting point is 00:17:59 please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in it. Rob Dial Jr. R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. If you're at the gym and you go a little bit further, you do some extra reps, you lift more, whatever it is, tag me in. I want to see what you guys are doing out there. I always look through all my Instagram messages. I'm not able to respond to everybody because I get a ton of messages, but I promise you I am seeing everything that you guys are sending in. So with that, I'm going to leave it the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.

The Mindset Mentor - 3 Ways To Stop Procrastinating

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