Fantastic thread!
I'd like to share what were my issues and how I overcame them. Hopefully you can apply the same.
Procrastination - I knew what I wanted to accomplish, I knew what was needed, but still I wasn't doing it. When I was fed with my procrastination, I started noticing what's triggering my procrastination; what's my ritual for feeling like procrastinating. Quickly I realized that feeling overwhelmed and not seeing the end
goal that would pull me towards itself was the trigger.
I felt overwhelmed every time I thought that the task in front of me was too big => chunking it down into smaller steps did a magic for me. It's insanely addictive to cross something from my to do list, so breaking bigger tasks into many smaller ones makes me feel good twice - 1) I actually follow through and 2) I get the reinforcing feeling when I finish something, which makes me more motivated to do even more.
Lack of motivation comes from my detachment of my end
goals. It's completely different to just write an article on some topic and write a spectacular article in order to help people increase the quality of their lives and actually move myself toward my goal. I've always felt that I had a strong will, but from past I know that the will gets weaker and eventually I quit on doing whatever I was doing. I was trying to push myself to my goals. Didn't work. Instead I reversed the movement and now I'm being pulled towards my goals (provided they follow the SMART technique and actually are important to me). By being pulled I don't use my will power.
What's my technique? Visualization! Right before I start working on my business, I lie down in my bed, put headphones on, play a music that supports me (Two steps from hell works like magic) and then I visualize a journey to my end, I feel my emotions when it's completed, I physically smile and fully enjoy the moment of victory, joy, confidence, satisfaction. It takes about 10 minutes (the length of the song) and when I get up I feel like a Hulk
Perfectionism - I wasn't aware of it until my coach pointed it out. It was hard to believe it at first, but the more I watch myself and my actions, the more it was true to me. I consider myself very logical person (I work in corporate IT company) and tend to think things through, so that I can make great decisions and minimize negative impact. Also I want to systematize things, so that in the future I can scale without any big hurdles. And guess what... this is a recipe for disaster, massive procrastination and feeling that it can't be done.
The coach used a superb analogy that helped me to visualize what I was trying to do, but wasn't aware of it until that moment. He said: if your current you wanted to grow for example a cherry tree, what would you do? You'd think about where to plant it on your garden, so that it doesn't grow to your neighbor's garden, other tree or your house, right? Then you'd research what's the best ground for it. Then you'd realize that it takes some time/energy to grow it. But the weather can be super dry or super wet. Some year you can deal with infection and the tree might die. Well, if you look at it this way, maybe it's not worth doing it at all.
What should I do instead? Just think about the most critical things and deal with the rest as it comes (IF IT COMES AT ALL). Make sure the current location is a good fit for the tree, figure out a specific place where to plant it and then just go for it, learn as time passes and most importantly ENJOY THE PROCESS.
If developers were actually waiting to make their applications perfect, would they even release them? No! It's never perfect, right? That's why they use the term MVP to allow themselves to release their applications with the basic functions for which they were created.
It took me some time to change my thinking, but it was definitely worth it. I actually put a quote on my wall to be confront with it on a daily basis - "Seek progress, not perfection".
No business idea, lack of information, information overload - yeah, been there... subscribed to MANY people which would often say the opposite than the others, overloaded me with information on a daily basis (with headlines like YOU NEED TO BE DOING THIS, OTHERWISE YOU'RE HURTING YOUR BUSINESS etc.), promoting gazillion other products, offering trillions of THEONLYSUPERBANDDEFINITIVE GUIDE PDFs etc. For many years I thought this was the right way - soak up as many information as I could, but what was the end result really? I had a pretty good idea about many things - social marketing, video marketing, ppc, seo, ppv, product launch, facebook ads, article marketing, ... but none of that I really applied, which meant that I haven't moved anywhere. I was just reading, jumping from one tactic to another one. From one pdf to another pdf. None of this pushed me closer to my goals.
After a few looong years I realized this was not the way. So I unsubscribed from almost all email lists. I wanted to have only 1-2 people that I trusted and was willing to follow their advice. I bought a course and am following it to the T. No distractions, only relevant information that are in line with the
system presented in the course.
It's mind blowing that by one decision you can resolve 3 problems instantly - having an idea, having a guidance and having the right amount of information at the right time (critical!).
Feeling productive vs. being productive - reorganizing folder structure of my project might feel productive, but actually it isn't. Researching best colors on a webpage to increase user engagement might feel productive, but actually it isn't. I've had MANY of these to make me feel productive. When I looked back though I knew these things didn't take me closer to my goals.
A simple question and honest answers helped me overcome that. Every time I was doing something business related, I'd ask this question "Is this going to help me get closer to my goal(s)?" If yes, great, continue. If not, stop and pick a activity that will. Simple and effective as hell.
If anyone struggles with anything above, feel free to let me know (here or via PM), I'd be happy to share in depth what I've learn in overcoming them and help you out (but you need to be willing to change, otherwise it's waste of our time).