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I've written on this topic many times before, but I am about to update a book I published a few years ago, so everything I put here should be the simplest and most-condensed format.
Overcome Procrastination & Laziness
You're going to die.
You have these goals for the business you want to start; but often times something gets in the way of you actually executing on your ideas. That something can come in many forms, but in the end, it's simply not doing the things you say you're going to do.
You say you're going to do those things someday.
But what if someday never comes? When you wait for someday long enough, you're going to die.
And the last thing you'll experience on this earth is that feeling of regret.
What if you'll be able to look back on a life of growth, satisfaction, fulfillment, and accomplishment. On that day, you'll be able and say to yourself; it was on this one day, today where I decided to actually do the things I always said I was going to do in this life.
And the time is right now...
Procrastination is the killer of all dreams.
I know about procrastination all too well.
You see, I was born into a society where I was always waiting for someone else to give me permission to take action. It started off as a child, when I was told not to do things until my parents told me to do so. Then I was given these deadlines, and I was given permission to act by my teachers, and then by my boss.
I was born into a society where I was never allowed to give myself permission to take that next step. I was always too busy waiting for someone else to give me permission.
Do you see how destructive this is on our journey into entrepreneurship?
When I spent the first 25 years of my life reliant on others to give me permission, it became an unconscious habit to not do anything on my own, unless someone else gave me permission to do so.
So I never acted on the things I needed to do in order to grow my business.
I know logically, this doesn't make sense. But when we are conditioned and trained for most of our lives; logic goes out the window, because this waiting for permission from others lifestyle is ingrained as a habit.
But do you know what was even worse than not acting because you're unconsciously waiting for permission?
Throughout my whole life, when I decided to do things on my own, I was punished for doing so.
A textbook example of training a dog.
My first business was A Dog's Best Friend Magazine, and during that time building that business, I learned a lot about dog training. Plus the fact that my family has five dogs (3 mini horses, one big horse, 7 chickens, and about 20 cats...but that's besides the story).
They say, in dog training, you have to catch them in the act.
Our mind is broken down into three parts:
The first part is the conscious/logical mind, where people can tell you things such as:
The second part is our unconscious mind, and this is the part of your brain that is responsible for your actions and behaviors. So in order to motivate yourself to take action, you're going to have to play into the inner workings of the unconscious mind.
In the part of our mind that is responsible for our behavior, time is not real.
In the part part of your mind that is responsible for you taking action, the time is always right now. If you say you're going to do something in the future, that is throwing it in the category of "it's never going to happen".
You see this all the time when people say they'll go to the gym tomorrow or I'll do these things someday. What most people don't realize is that simply the fact that they are pushing these things into the future, you are removing it from the category in your mind of actually doing it.
In 2013, when I was building my first successful business; I moved into a condo in Scottsdale, Arizona with two other aspiring entrepreneurs. We had a multi-millionaire mentor, who told us to write each other checks for $100.
Before living together in Project Scottsdale (as we called it), we rarely held true to our accountability goals and tasks we needed to accomplish for our business. Unlike the dogs who were successful trained, we never faced that immediate punishment for not taking action.
For weeks on end, I was planning on finishing the cover design for my dog magazine. Despite logically knowing that I would never get my business up and running if I didn't finish it, I never took action on it; because there was no immediate punishment if I didn't, and no immediate reward if i did.
The solution was actually very simple.
I wrote one of my roommates a check for $100, and handed it to him.
I told him that I had to finish designing the cover for my dog magazine by midnight that night, or else he would cash the check, and keep the money for himself. On the flip side of that, if I finished the cover design by midnight, he would immediately hand the check back to me.
Within an hour, I finished the thing I've been procrastinating on for weeks.
The reason why the $100 check method works so well is for three reasons:
At my day job, I sat next to another entrepreneur named Jason. Every day we talked about the businesses we were starting. He started a fitness clothing line, and I was talking about starting a dog magazine. Every single day I used to talk about how I'm starting an online business.
But do you know what?
I wasn't actually starting it.
I went home at night, I stared at my computer screen, I read books on business and marketing, and chatted on Skype with other dreamers like me.
Then, three months later, Jason quit our job because his business just made $100,000. Me on the other hand?
I was just talking about it...and I wasn't actually doing it.
The most embarrassing part is that the unconscious mind can't tell the difference between real and imagined events. And I talked about these things so much, I actually convinced myself that I was actually building a business...when I wasn't.
I was too busy dreaming while Jason was too busy actually putting in the work and making the money.
With the $100 Check Method:
After six months of procrastinating, A Dog's Best Friend Magazine got over 2,000 readers on the first day of being launched; and has since grown to over 175,000 readers. In June 2014, I was making $10,000 per month with my business, quit my corporate job, and have been a self-employed entrepreneur ever since.
Think about you and your life.
Whether it's going to the gym, eating healthy, writing a book, building your business, or whatever it is; you don't feel that immediate pleasure for the hard actions you need to take. It's much more immediately pleasureful to sit around and play video games and eat potato chips.
Avoiding Overwhelm
Between 2014 and 2016, I've been a location-independent entrepreneur, where I spent anywhere from 1-6 months living in a different city. I remember in October 2015, I was about to move out of a sublet in Seattle, Washington and I had to pack everything I own in to my car.
I had my computer, my books, my clothes, my bike, and a million other things scattered all across my apartment.
Do you know what I did?
I sat there staring at the million things I had to pack, without picking up the first item and bringing it to my car.
When you have so many things that you need to do, it is the same as staring at all these items laying across the floor, waiting to pack. You get overwhelmed by how much work you have to do, so you never start.
The solution?
Break it down into one simple task.
Write the $100 check - and bring the first book to the car, and then the second, and then the third. After that? The clothes.
By breaking down the larger task of building your business into single action-oriented steps, you remove the feeling of overwhelm, and you're able to have the drive to just get started.
Four hours later, after putting the first book in my car; my car was packed and I made my way through the next leg of my road trip across the United States to Glacier National Park.
Putting it all together:
When you break down your larger goal into specific action-oriented tasks (go to the gym, create the logo for your website, write chapter 1 for your book, etc.), attach the immediate pain/pleasure motivators to them, and provide yourself a specific deadline (which you can't back out of); this is how you tap into your biological drivers where you will consistently take action towards your goals.
Because we all know you want that big reward, but it's these little chunks (day 1 at the gym, day 2 at the gym, chapter 1 of your book, chapter 2 of your book) that are the very things that add up to the bigger goal. Is it not?
When you train the dog, and he gets to the point where he doesn't need the reward/punishment training anymore; he'll eventually be at the point where he does these things anyway. But I was never talking about dogs, I was talking about you...
Because when you do these things, and tap into the part of your mind that is responsible for your behavior; you'll have already effectively cured procrastination and laziness once and for all.
Summary:
In the next chapter, I'll teach you how to discover what actions you need to take, because you'll waste a lot of time and money if you start walking down the wrong path...
Pop Quiz: Who is the only one who will give you permission to write that check now?
Overcome Procrastination & Laziness
You're going to die.
You have these goals for the business you want to start; but often times something gets in the way of you actually executing on your ideas. That something can come in many forms, but in the end, it's simply not doing the things you say you're going to do.
You say you're going to do those things someday.
But what if someday never comes? When you wait for someday long enough, you're going to die.
And the last thing you'll experience on this earth is that feeling of regret.
- Regret that you never accomplished the things you were meant to accomplish.
- Regret that you never got to do the things you wanted to do.
- Regret that you never got to have the things you wanted to have.
- Regret that you never got to be the person you wanted to be.
What if you'll be able to look back on a life of growth, satisfaction, fulfillment, and accomplishment. On that day, you'll be able and say to yourself; it was on this one day, today where I decided to actually do the things I always said I was going to do in this life.
And the time is right now...
Procrastination is the killer of all dreams.
I know about procrastination all too well.
You see, I was born into a society where I was always waiting for someone else to give me permission to take action. It started off as a child, when I was told not to do things until my parents told me to do so. Then I was given these deadlines, and I was given permission to act by my teachers, and then by my boss.
I was born into a society where I was never allowed to give myself permission to take that next step. I was always too busy waiting for someone else to give me permission.
Do you see how destructive this is on our journey into entrepreneurship?
When I spent the first 25 years of my life reliant on others to give me permission, it became an unconscious habit to not do anything on my own, unless someone else gave me permission to do so.
So I never acted on the things I needed to do in order to grow my business.
I know logically, this doesn't make sense. But when we are conditioned and trained for most of our lives; logic goes out the window, because this waiting for permission from others lifestyle is ingrained as a habit.
But do you know what was even worse than not acting because you're unconsciously waiting for permission?
Throughout my whole life, when I decided to do things on my own, I was punished for doing so.
A textbook example of training a dog.
My first business was A Dog's Best Friend Magazine, and during that time building that business, I learned a lot about dog training. Plus the fact that my family has five dogs (3 mini horses, one big horse, 7 chickens, and about 20 cats...but that's besides the story).
They say, in dog training, you have to catch them in the act.
- When the dog does something you don't want them to do; you (immediately) punish them.
- When the dog does something you want him to do; you (immediately) reward them.
Our mind is broken down into three parts:
The first part is the conscious/logical mind, where people can tell you things such as:
- "You have to take action."
- "Just do it."
- "You're going to be fat/broke/lonely if you don't _______."
The second part is our unconscious mind, and this is the part of your brain that is responsible for your actions and behaviors. So in order to motivate yourself to take action, you're going to have to play into the inner workings of the unconscious mind.
In the part of our mind that is responsible for our behavior, time is not real.
- The past is not happening.
- The future is not happening.
- The only thing that is happening is what is happening right now.
In the part part of your mind that is responsible for you taking action, the time is always right now. If you say you're going to do something in the future, that is throwing it in the category of "it's never going to happen".
You see this all the time when people say they'll go to the gym tomorrow or I'll do these things someday. What most people don't realize is that simply the fact that they are pushing these things into the future, you are removing it from the category in your mind of actually doing it.
- Future = Not Happening
- Past = Not Happening
- Right Now = Happening
In 2013, when I was building my first successful business; I moved into a condo in Scottsdale, Arizona with two other aspiring entrepreneurs. We had a multi-millionaire mentor, who told us to write each other checks for $100.
Before living together in Project Scottsdale (as we called it), we rarely held true to our accountability goals and tasks we needed to accomplish for our business. Unlike the dogs who were successful trained, we never faced that immediate punishment for not taking action.
For weeks on end, I was planning on finishing the cover design for my dog magazine. Despite logically knowing that I would never get my business up and running if I didn't finish it, I never took action on it; because there was no immediate punishment if I didn't, and no immediate reward if i did.
The solution was actually very simple.
I wrote one of my roommates a check for $100, and handed it to him.
I told him that I had to finish designing the cover for my dog magazine by midnight that night, or else he would cash the check, and keep the money for himself. On the flip side of that, if I finished the cover design by midnight, he would immediately hand the check back to me.
Within an hour, I finished the thing I've been procrastinating on for weeks.
The reason why the $100 check method works so well is for three reasons:
- I felt that immediate pleasure for taking the action I needed to take (check handed back to me).
- I felt that immediate pain for procrastinating (my roommate cashing the $100 check)
- Handing a trusted accountability partner the check puts it outside of your control, so there is absolutely zero way to back out of the punishment if you procrastinate.
At my day job, I sat next to another entrepreneur named Jason. Every day we talked about the businesses we were starting. He started a fitness clothing line, and I was talking about starting a dog magazine. Every single day I used to talk about how I'm starting an online business.
But do you know what?
I wasn't actually starting it.
I went home at night, I stared at my computer screen, I read books on business and marketing, and chatted on Skype with other dreamers like me.
Then, three months later, Jason quit our job because his business just made $100,000. Me on the other hand?
I was just talking about it...and I wasn't actually doing it.
The most embarrassing part is that the unconscious mind can't tell the difference between real and imagined events. And I talked about these things so much, I actually convinced myself that I was actually building a business...when I wasn't.
I was too busy dreaming while Jason was too busy actually putting in the work and making the money.
With the $100 Check Method:
After six months of procrastinating, A Dog's Best Friend Magazine got over 2,000 readers on the first day of being launched; and has since grown to over 175,000 readers. In June 2014, I was making $10,000 per month with my business, quit my corporate job, and have been a self-employed entrepreneur ever since.
Think about you and your life.
Whether it's going to the gym, eating healthy, writing a book, building your business, or whatever it is; you don't feel that immediate pleasure for the hard actions you need to take. It's much more immediately pleasureful to sit around and play video games and eat potato chips.
Avoiding Overwhelm
Between 2014 and 2016, I've been a location-independent entrepreneur, where I spent anywhere from 1-6 months living in a different city. I remember in October 2015, I was about to move out of a sublet in Seattle, Washington and I had to pack everything I own in to my car.
I had my computer, my books, my clothes, my bike, and a million other things scattered all across my apartment.
Do you know what I did?
I sat there staring at the million things I had to pack, without picking up the first item and bringing it to my car.
When you have so many things that you need to do, it is the same as staring at all these items laying across the floor, waiting to pack. You get overwhelmed by how much work you have to do, so you never start.
The solution?
Break it down into one simple task.
Write the $100 check - and bring the first book to the car, and then the second, and then the third. After that? The clothes.
By breaking down the larger task of building your business into single action-oriented steps, you remove the feeling of overwhelm, and you're able to have the drive to just get started.
Four hours later, after putting the first book in my car; my car was packed and I made my way through the next leg of my road trip across the United States to Glacier National Park.
Putting it all together:
When you break down your larger goal into specific action-oriented tasks (go to the gym, create the logo for your website, write chapter 1 for your book, etc.), attach the immediate pain/pleasure motivators to them, and provide yourself a specific deadline (which you can't back out of); this is how you tap into your biological drivers where you will consistently take action towards your goals.
Because we all know you want that big reward, but it's these little chunks (day 1 at the gym, day 2 at the gym, chapter 1 of your book, chapter 2 of your book) that are the very things that add up to the bigger goal. Is it not?
- Reward yourself each step of the way.
- Give up control, so you have no way of backing out of the punishment for procrastinating, and write that $100 check.
When you train the dog, and he gets to the point where he doesn't need the reward/punishment training anymore; he'll eventually be at the point where he does these things anyway. But I was never talking about dogs, I was talking about you...
Because when you do these things, and tap into the part of your mind that is responsible for your behavior; you'll have already effectively cured procrastination and laziness once and for all.
Summary:
- Utilize the pain/pleasure principles.
- Break your larger goals down into specific tasks to avoid overwhelm.
- Create specific deadlines.
- Use the immediate pain and immediate pleasure principles, and
In the next chapter, I'll teach you how to discover what actions you need to take, because you'll waste a lot of time and money if you start walking down the wrong path...
Pop Quiz: Who is the only one who will give you permission to write that check now?
- Your parents.
- Your teachers.
- Your boss.
- You.
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