Shownotes
Let's face it...procrastination is part of life. And for many women looking to lead themselves it can be a big (unwanted) part of life and business too.
In this week's show, I am talking about the hidden purpose of procrastination to help you understand it in a different light.
I also
- talk about 5 steps you can take to get on top of your real levels of procrastination and learn about the Procrastinator Emotional Survival Pattern®.
- explain some of the sneaky ways procrastination shows up in your business (the less obvious ways).
- clarify why (sometimes) you actually need to procrastinate.
- explain why procrastination is not just about your brain in action.
Enjoy the show! And don't forget to leave a 5 star rating and a written review over on Apple Podcasts HERE
Additional Links from this episode
Adam Grant's Book HERE.
Adam Grant's TED talk HERE.
Free Resources
Take the Emotional Survival Patterns® Quiz
Download the Inside Out® Morning ebook
Receive the Inside Out® Wisdom Series
Suzi's Current Programs
For Suzi's Programs (or to join wait lists), see HERE
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Contact Suzi and her team on the Website.
Who is Suzi Belmont?
Suzi Belmont is a multi 7 figure entrepreneur (15 years), therapist, coach, mental health and psychology expert known for ‘creating seismic shifts in women and entrepreneurs’, causing ‘quantum leaps in their abilities’ and ‘completely transforming confidence’ in her clients. Her work has been described by clients as ‘mind-blowing’, ‘like having a fairy godmother around’, ‘the most extraordinary coach’, ‘pure gold’ and ‘absolutely life changing’.
She blends her 15 years entrepreneurial experience with psychology, emotional intelligence, leadership, energetics, consciousness, early childhood development, trauma, mindset, neuroscience and a touch of ancient wisdom (she can read Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs fluently) to help you understand how you inner world REALLY operates so that you can harness it to create massive success as an entrepreneur.
Transcripts
Hello, I'm Suzi Belmont, and this week I am talking about one of
Speaker:my all time favorite sabotages, which is procrastination.
Speaker:But is it really a self sabotage?
Speaker:Or is something else going on inside that has a hidden purpose?
Speaker:If you want to find out, then get yourself comfy doing whatever
Speaker:you do when you listen to a podcast . This is your time now.
Speaker:Enjoy the show.
Speaker:Okay, let's go.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Suzi Belmont, a multi seven figure entrepreneur with 15 years
Speaker:experience, as well as a psychology expert, qualified coach, and therapist.
Speaker:This podcast is your secret resource to help you grow from the inside out.
Speaker:It's like personal development for entrepreneurs and leaders, all wrapped
Speaker:up in fun, positivity, and motivation.
Speaker:So, pull up your chair and get ready to change your life and
Speaker:your business from the inside out.
Speaker:This is the Inside Out Entrepreneur Podcast.
Speaker:Hello everyone and welcome back to the show, and today I am talking about
Speaker:procrastination and your business because, well, let's face it, it's a
Speaker:big one for so many entrepreneurs, me included I am very, very guilty of this
Speaker:and I'm not gonna hide that at all.
Speaker:I want to show you in the show today how procrastination is not the negative
Speaker:thing that everyone typically says it is.
Speaker:It's not actually always a bad thing.
Speaker:So keep listening to find out more.
Speaker:And before we start, don't forget to hit the subscribe button on the podcast so
Speaker:that you get notified of future shows whatever platform you're on, hit that.
Speaker:You can just hit subscribe there, that's the easiest way to find out.
Speaker:However, those of you who do like to have an email reminder or something like that,
Speaker:go over to my website on the podcast page, and you can sign up to be reminded
Speaker:by email of when there are new shows out.
Speaker:Okay, right, on with the show and back to what I wanted to talk about
Speaker:and get straight to the point because that's kind of the entire point of the
Speaker:show and I can't fluff around talking about something else at the beginning
Speaker:when the very topic of today's show is procrastination.
Speaker:And specifically, procrastination around big decisions, or even small decisions you
Speaker:have to make each day in your business.
Speaker:So, you all know that generally speaking, procrastination is framed as a super
Speaker:frustrating, anxiety inducing, pile of shizzle that seems to take over the
Speaker:inside of your brain and your body where you end up putting things off and then
Speaker:you end up feeling really rubbish about putting the things off because you didn't
Speaker:really want to put them off but you didn't really want to do them either.
Speaker:And then just to add a cherry on the cake, you're often aware
Speaker:that you are procrastinating.
Speaker:But you don't seem to be able to stop it.
Speaker:And yes, if you are the listener who starts your day by, um, tidying your
Speaker:desk or your office or your kitchen, then yep, I am talking to you.
Speaker:You know exactly who you are.
Speaker:But what exactly is going on inside of you when you procrastinate?
Speaker:Is it really a negative thing?
Speaker:Is your brain intending to put you in a place of negativity?
Speaker:Well, let's start there.
Speaker:Because contrary to what most people might tell you, it's not
Speaker:just your mind involved here.
Speaker:It's not just your brain, it's not just your mind, they're different things, but
Speaker:anyway, we'll use the same thing for now.
Speaker:It's your mind and your body.
Speaker:And the way I see procrastination is that it's a normal and natural protective
Speaker:mechanism, rather than a negative habit.
Speaker:So let's try and make that a little bit easier to understand.
Speaker:Imagine it like this.
Speaker:Your body and your brain, from the very beginning, has had to deal
Speaker:with a lot of decisions and events.
Speaker:And some of those decisions and events were really overwhelming
Speaker:and really hard to manage.
Speaker:Some of them were so hard and so overwhelming that your brain and your body
Speaker:learnt to avoid those kind of situations.
Speaker:So, one way of looking at your procrastination is that it's a totally
Speaker:normal response by your body and your mind that just doesn't want to have too much
Speaker:stress or too much overwhelm happening.
Speaker:I mean, it makes a lot of sense, right?
Speaker:We're all led to believe that if we procrastinate, then it must mean
Speaker:that something is wrong with us, that we're not doing things properly, that
Speaker:our body or our brain isn't working well, that we're somehow faulty
Speaker:or broken or not working properly.
Speaker:But I really disagree here.
Speaker:I think your body and your brain are working perfectly when they procrastinate.
Speaker:When you realize that the reason that they are doing this is just to protect you from
Speaker:having more stress, trauma, overwhelm, difficulty, and overwhelm really
Speaker:is the word I want to focus on here.
Speaker:It's like your brain and your body are saying, nah, you've had enough
Speaker:overwhelm with this situation, so we don't want you to go there.
Speaker:Now, it doesn't necessarily mean your brain and your body is getting this right.
Speaker:That's another question.
Speaker:But when you approach it from the angle of this is what it's trying
Speaker:to do, it's trying to help you, you start to get a little bit
Speaker:of a different perspective here.
Speaker:So if your business is causing you to feel a lot of stress and overwhelm, it
Speaker:might simply be that your nervous system is stuck in a place where it doesn't know
Speaker:what to do, so it shuts down, and it tries to protect you from having more overwhelm.
Speaker:It's trying to protect you, not a negative thing, not trying to
Speaker:make you bad, not trying to make you broken or not good enough.
Speaker:One of the ways that your system, your body, can try and protect you from more
Speaker:overwhelm is using procrastination.
Speaker:And procrastination is not really connected, therefore, to the
Speaker:event outside of you, as such.
Speaker:It's not really about the event.
Speaker:It's an inside out response.
Speaker:And this is why we all respond differently to the same kind of stressor.
Speaker:Let's say there's a stress that happens, something happens in business, and
Speaker:for one entrepreneur, one of you, that's not going to do anything.
Speaker:That's not going to cause you to procrastinate.
Speaker:But for someone else, the same thing will cause them to majorly procrastinate.
Speaker:Because it's how their nervous system, that entrepreneur's
Speaker:nervous system, is responding.
Speaker:Depending on how your inner world is set up, how it's wired, how it functions,
Speaker:will dictate how well you can handle outer world stress and overwhelm and
Speaker:how much your inner system takes you into procrastination to deal with that.
Speaker:Or rather, your inner world will trigger this to stop you
Speaker:having more stress and overwhelm.
Speaker:And when you see procrastination in this light, you realise that your
Speaker:inner world is so bloody clever.
Speaker:It's protecting you all of the time.
Speaker:The problem, as I just mentioned, that you then have is that this
Speaker:procrastination mechanism kind of protects you by stopping you do what your
Speaker:conscious mind actually wants you to do.
Speaker:And it becomes a battle of your subconscious and your body versus your
Speaker:conscious prefrontal cortex brain.
Speaker:That's the thinking executive part of the brain at the front of your head.
Speaker:And this is a bit of an unfair battle because the way you are built as a human
Speaker:means that the body and the subconscious mind will always beat the conscious mind.
Speaker:It's just quicker.
Speaker:It just gets there faster.
Speaker:I'm not going to go all neuroscience nerd on you here, but I do want
Speaker:to touch a little bit on emotions, because the very core of this
Speaker:is your inner emotional world.
Speaker:Your emotions are not really a part of your conscious mind.
Speaker:You won't find yourself thinking, you know what?
Speaker:You know what?
Speaker:I think a logical, sensible decision today is to procrastinate.
Speaker:That's not really how it works.
Speaker:Your emotions are part of your subconscious world, along with
Speaker:your entire nervous system.
Speaker:And it is these two things working together that impact how much you can
Speaker:resist or beat your procrastination.
Speaker:What you definitely know is trying to beat procrastination and trying to beat
Speaker:that world with your willpower, with your thinking brain, doesn't usually work.
Speaker:And to make it even harder, these parts of your brain and your inner
Speaker:system, your nervous system, are functioning in an automatic way.
Speaker:Your system is making all of these decisions before you're even really
Speaker:aware that the decision is being made.
Speaker:So, if you think of the part of your brain that is involved in logical
Speaker:thinking and decision making, this is the bit I just mentioned behind your
Speaker:forehead, your prefrontal cortex, but then you think about your emotional
Speaker:brain, which is not all in the same place, most people root that in the
Speaker:middle of your head, which isn't the case.
Speaker:Entirely true, but we'll, we'll just go for that for the sake of
Speaker:explaining this really simply.
Speaker:So you've then got two parts of your brain functioning, as
Speaker:well as your nervous system, and they've all got their own agendas.
Speaker:They've all got things that they're trying to do.
Speaker:Your logical brain might be really happy making big
Speaker:decisions to grow your business.
Speaker:That's what it wants to do.
Speaker:It's really good at thinking, it's really good at planning, it's really
Speaker:good at saying, you know what, I'm going to get this stuff done.
Speaker:Meanwhile, your emotional brain and your nervous system are saying,
Speaker:Are you actually kidding me?
Speaker:I'm not going to let you do that.
Speaker:There's no way you're going to go and grow this business because
Speaker:that is not in any way safe.
Speaker:And our job is to keep you safe.
Speaker:Our job is to keep you away from being overwhelmed and stressed.
Speaker:And that stuff that you think you're going to do, all that big decision
Speaker:making and all of that moving forward in your business, uh uh, no, that
Speaker:is going to make you overwhelmed and that's going to make you stressed.
Speaker:And so the emotional brain and your nervous system kind of press the button.
Speaker:procrastination button and boom, all of a sudden you are tidying your office
Speaker:rather than writing your TED talk or your latest course materials or your
Speaker:latest stage presentation, whatever it might be, you're procrastinating.
Speaker:So you are not in fact broken or faulty because you procrastinate.
Speaker:It's not your fault.
Speaker:It's not because you're a useless person.
Speaker:It's not because you're no good at business.
Speaker:It's not because your brain doesn't work.
Speaker:It's not because you've got faulty wiring.
Speaker:It's just your brain and your body working to protect you and
Speaker:keep you safe as it's meant to do.
Speaker:This is what your brain is meant to do.
Speaker:The problem with this is that your brain doesn't have very
Speaker:much of an update feature.
Speaker:Very much of an update settings feature.
Speaker:It can't reboot itself to give it really good new programming.
Speaker:So although neuroplasticity, which is where your brain is just constantly
Speaker:developing and constantly changing, allows your brain to keep developing and
Speaker:learning new things, your core programs won't automatically update themselves.
Speaker:To do that you need to really understand what is happening
Speaker:in your inner emotional world.
Speaker:You need to increase your emotional intelligence and recode your
Speaker:inner world from the inside out.
Speaker:And this is exactly what I teach in my programs.
Speaker:So if this is something you want to learn how to do, head on over
Speaker:to my website at www.suzibelmont.
Speaker:com and you can see the programs I've got there or you can join waitlists
Speaker:if they're not open at the moment.
Speaker:What I do in my programs will really open your eyes.
Speaker:As to how you really function on the inside.
Speaker:And if you don't believe me go check out some of the testimonials on my
Speaker:website and you can see a whole bunch of previous clients that I work with
Speaker:or current existing clients that I'm working with at the moment who
Speaker:have transformed their business and their emotional life for the better.
Speaker:But what about for you today?
Speaker:Well, what I want to give you today is some easy steps you can
Speaker:take right now to help you handle your tendency to procrastinate.
Speaker:And I do want to emphasize that so much of procrastination is rooted in your
Speaker:nervous system and your emotional world.
Speaker:So for long term change, we need to do work there.
Speaker:But I can't do that on a podcast.
Speaker:I can't do that in 20 minutes.
Speaker:So if you want to go deeper, go and have a look at my website.
Speaker:But for now, the following five steps are really powerful action steps that you can
Speaker:take to start getting a bit of clarity and focus on how much you're procrastinating
Speaker:and what you can do about it.
Speaker:Chances are you do know quite a lot about how much you're
Speaker:procrastinating, but it's what you can do about it that really matters.
Speaker:So step one, step one is kind of obvious.
Speaker:You've got to start becoming more aware of whether and how big
Speaker:your procrastination actually is.
Speaker:The first step is to get really clear on how much or whether you
Speaker:are even procrastinating at all.
Speaker:Now you might be aware that you do it sometimes, but actually it
Speaker:might not be as much as you think.
Speaker:Or you may think that you aren't doing it much, but actually it's
Speaker:happening almost all of the time and completely sabotaging your business.
Speaker:Remember, this is an inner emotional and nervous system response
Speaker:to challenges in your life.
Speaker:But it will show up and you will know that it's there if you regularly find yourself
Speaker:doing various things like the following.
Speaker:I'm going to give you five or six examples.
Speaker:Are you constantly seeking to learn new things?
Speaker:And what I mean by this is, are you procrasti learning?
Speaker:Because it feels safer and easier.
Speaker:i.e.
Speaker:Less stress and overwhelm if you just learn another new thing for
Speaker:your business rather than face the thing that you know you need to do?
Speaker:Are you terrified of doing something in your business and then failing such
Speaker:that it stops you and you procrastinate?
Speaker:Do you try and make the future feel really, really certain before
Speaker:you can commit to the next steps?
Speaker:Because if you're doing this, you're procrastinating and
Speaker:it removes your progress.
Speaker:Do you tend to be a little bit over positive?
Speaker:What I mean here is that you over focus on the positive, but you try and avoid
Speaker:unpleasant or more challenging situations because you don't want to face them.
Speaker:So if you just try and stay super positive all the time, it means you kind of avoid
Speaker:the more difficult, unpleasant things.
Speaker:i.
Speaker:e.
Speaker:you procrastinate.
Speaker:Are you putting up all sorts of barriers that get in the way of you moving forward?
Speaker:Although you might not realize that you're putting these barriers up
Speaker:depending on how self aware you are.
Speaker:But a bit of Suzi tough love here.
Speaker:You are likely subconsciously putting barriers up to delay things
Speaker:if that's what your subconscious and your nervous system wants.
Speaker:If they think that you're going to get overwhelmed and stressed out, then
Speaker:the barriers are probably going up.
Speaker:And you're going to be doing all sorts of things that won't feel like barriers,
Speaker:they'll just, they'll feel random, like tidying up, or deciding that you
Speaker:need to, you know, put stickers all over your notebook before you start
Speaker:working, because that's really important for the day, and actually it isn't.
Speaker:Things like that.
Speaker:Do you feel a little bit disconnected from your future self?
Speaker:For example, you don't really want to have to deal with any issues that your future
Speaker:successful self might have to deal with.
Speaker:This is another red flag about something going on in your inner world.
Speaker:Or do you endlessly just tweak things rather than moving forward?
Speaker:So just constantly changing your website, constantly updating
Speaker:little things that don't really move the needle in your business.
Speaker:And I'm going to stop there because that's enough.
Speaker:These are just some examples of procrastination that
Speaker:might be showing up for you.
Speaker:If you want to get really clear on this, if you're actually thinking, oh
Speaker:my gosh, I'm a major procrastinator, I think, or I'm not sure, I'm not
Speaker:sure how strong my procrastination is, head on over to my website and
Speaker:you can take the Emotional Survival Patterns quiz over there, the ESP quiz.
Speaker:It's over at www.suzibelmont.
Speaker:com and you'll know by the end of that quiz exactly how strong procrastination is
Speaker:in terms of your business and sabotaging based on your inner emotional world.
Speaker:Okay, step number two.
Speaker:Assess how much you can consciously override your subconscious
Speaker:mind and nervous system.
Speaker:Now, step two, this is when you run a little bit of a self diagnostic and see
Speaker:how much you can override these systems.
Speaker:But this comes with a big warning.
Speaker:Because the truth is, it's really hard.
Speaker:Willpower and logic rarely work to beat this inner subconscious
Speaker:core programming inside of you.
Speaker:So, do this by all means, but please don't go and get all deflated if you
Speaker:give this a go and you can't do it.
Speaker:You're totally normal, if that's you.
Speaker:If you can only willpower your way a little bit through a
Speaker:bit, that's completely normal.
Speaker:But just because it's normal doesn't mean that you should just
Speaker:leave it there as a response.
Speaker:If it's not working for you in your business, if you're like, Oh
Speaker:God, why do I always procrastinate?
Speaker:It's driving me mental.
Speaker:You can start to measure where you are.
Speaker:And for some of you, a few really simple steps make a difference at this point.
Speaker:For example, number one, do the hardest job of your day first.
Speaker:Eat that frog.
Speaker:Many of you will have heard of Eat That Frog, and it's where you do
Speaker:the most difficult thing first.
Speaker:Number two, focus on the 20 percent of work in your business
Speaker:that actually moves the needle.
Speaker:This is because procrastination lives in the other 80 percent of tasks that
Speaker:are easier, but don't move the needle.
Speaker:If you think this is where it takes up residence, in the stuff
Speaker:that doesn't move the needle.
Speaker:Number three, work out where you are the bottleneck in your business and
Speaker:delegate or delete tasks that aren't going to move you forward towards your
Speaker:financial goals or your well being, your better well being, well being goals.
Speaker:And then number four, look at your R& R, and this is not your rest and relaxation,
Speaker:but your results versus your routine.
Speaker:How much of your work is focused on results for your, you or your clients?
Speaker:And how much is routine that you're just doing because you've
Speaker:gone into remote control mode?
Speaker:If you notice that you're doing a lot of routine things that actually are
Speaker:not really getting results, reduce the routine and increase the results.
Speaker:So, your step two in the steps that I'm recommending is to get really
Speaker:clear on how much you can actually move forward, just using those four steps.
Speaker:Do the hardest job first, focus on the 20 percent that moves the needle, work out
Speaker:where you're the bottleneck and stop being the bottleneck, and look at your R and R.
Speaker:If you do this, and you still can't move forward, you know
Speaker:that deeper work is involved.
Speaker:But if you can move forward, then you get visibility on which are the stickiest
Speaker:points of procrastination for you.
Speaker:And you can start to eliminate things or change things.
Speaker:And if you can't do that, you start to say, Well, okay, I need to do some deeper
Speaker:work on this stuff so that I can really start to beat this procrastination.
Speaker:And this is where you might end up in my world on one of my programs.
Speaker:Step number three, start to listen to your body rather than your mind.
Speaker:Step three is to move away from your thoughts and actions a little and start
Speaker:observing what your body is doing.
Speaker:How does your body respond when you procrastinate?
Speaker:Now, whilst there isn't time in this podcast to go into a full discussion
Speaker:of nervous system regulation and so on, I can do that in another show.
Speaker:The entrepreneurial nervous system will play a big part in your procrastination.
Speaker:So starting to become aware of what is happening to your body when you
Speaker:procrastinate will help you later on.
Speaker:For example, when you're faced with really difficult tasks in your business, are you
Speaker:typically falling into fight or flight?
Speaker:Fight might show up by you pushing it away and resisting doing it, or arguing
Speaker:with someone about why you need to do it, or doing anything that you can think
Speaker:of to fight it off, to get rid of it.
Speaker:Flight might be actively running away from doing the work, so that
Speaker:you are avoiding it completely, removing yourself, hiding from it.
Speaker:This would reveal that your sympathetic nervous system is online, and you will
Speaker:have certain physical markers of this.
Speaker:As your body starts to prepare you, when your sympathetic nervous system
Speaker:comes on, that's your fight or flight system, comes online, your body
Speaker:starts to take action to prepare you.
Speaker:So you might notice, if you're really tracking your body, and, and maybe keep
Speaker:some notes about this in a journal, so you can really see, You might
Speaker:notice things like your heart rate increasing when you think about the
Speaker:difficult tasks that you're avoiding.
Speaker:You might notice your skin go a little bit pale.
Speaker:You might notice a dry mouth or tense muscles, particularly around
Speaker:your neck and your shoulders, like hunching up your neck.
Speaker:This is something I do a lot and I have to kind of recognize when I'm doing that.
Speaker:Because it often means I've started to go into that fight or flight state.
Speaker:It's common.
Speaker:You're not unusual if you do this.
Speaker:So take a moment to pause and notice, is this how your body is responding?
Speaker:Alternatively, your body may go beyond fight or flight.
Speaker:It may go past that.
Speaker:It might be like, I can't fight this and I can't run away from this.
Speaker:And so it goes into a bit of shutdown.
Speaker:It goes into a freeze mode.
Speaker:And this is the more typical home of procrastination.
Speaker:Here, you want to be looking out for things like your body
Speaker:feeling a little bit colder.
Speaker:a lower heart rate or feeling a little bit numb or spaced out, you're
Speaker:kind of staring at the wall and you realize after five minutes that
Speaker:you're still staring at the wall.
Speaker:You might notice that you hold your breath or you breathe really lightly and
Speaker:you have a sense of dread or foreboding when you think about doing the task.
Speaker:When you're in this freeze state, your nervous system is literally slowing
Speaker:down and your inner world is setting you up to ensure that you don't feel
Speaker:the emotional stress and overwhelm by responding with procrastination.
Speaker:It's like the little procrastination button gets pressed.
Speaker:So at this stage in step three, just try to observe and become
Speaker:aware of these bodily responses.
Speaker:It's going to tell you so much about how you're responding
Speaker:inside of you, which will help you unlock what's really going on.
Speaker:Step four, this one is about having a bit of self compassion.
Speaker:So self esteem has kind of been put to one side.
Speaker:A lot of people don't really approve of the self esteem thing, and it's
Speaker:more about having self compassion.
Speaker:And step four is to accept that you can't fully eliminate procrastination.
Speaker:Again, a little bit more of Suzi tough love here, which is to really make
Speaker:it clear that procrastination is a normal and fairly natural process.
Speaker:Your body, your mind, your nervous system are actually trying to help you.
Speaker:But a bit like listening to your sat nav in your car talk to you in Japanese,
Speaker:if you don't speak Japanese this is, there's a breakdown in communication
Speaker:between your conscious world, your outer world, and your inner subconscious world.
Speaker:Now you don't want to get rid of all of these inner subconscious responses
Speaker:because actually they do a really important job in keeping you alive.
Speaker:For example, there are times when you need to fight or you need to flight
Speaker:when you're in a dangerous situation.
Speaker:And at times, for example, if you can't get out of a dangerous situation, you
Speaker:need to be able to freeze because that will give you the best chance of survival.
Speaker:And ultimately, what you'll end up needing to do is work with your
Speaker:system once you understand it to update it so it starts to respond
Speaker:with the right response internally.
Speaker:That's how you start to manage procrastination so that it doesn't
Speaker:cripple you in building your business.
Speaker:And that's what I do, as I've mentioned over on my programs.
Speaker:But in the meantime, allowing yourself, giving yourself permission to get a
Speaker:really good understanding of what is happening will get you some of the way.
Speaker:As I always say, awareness is so powerful.
Speaker:One other important thing to mention here is that there is a fair bit of
Speaker:psychological research these days to show that procrastination is
Speaker:good for entrepreneurs generally, and even more, that it can improve
Speaker:your productivity and happiness.
Speaker:And if you're interested in learning more about that, there's a great
Speaker:book by Adam Grant, I think it's Adam Grant, which talks about the
Speaker:benefits of strategic procrastination.
Speaker:And he argues that procrastination allows time for non linear ideas
Speaker:to marinate, and that can lead to unexpected insights and solutions.
Speaker:So I think there is some truth to this that, again, there is another
Speaker:reason why you don't want to entirely lose your procrastination ability.
Speaker:Because, as an entrepreneur, you may be typically used to taking
Speaker:really fast action and really quick decisions and always on the go
Speaker:and always seeing opportunities.
Speaker:But actually sometimes you want to be able to just pause and go wait a second.
Speaker:Do I want to take all of these opportunities?
Speaker:Maybe I need to let this marinate a little bit.
Speaker:Maybe I need to think this through.
Speaker:So, don't always see procrastination as a bad thing.
Speaker:There are at least two good reasons that I've just gone through
Speaker:on the podcast examples there.
Speaker:And for those of you really interested in reading more about the
Speaker:benefits of procrastination, I will link that book in the show notes.
Speaker:Step number five, know that when you work on your inner world, your
Speaker:outer world will start to change.
Speaker:So this last step brings it all together.
Speaker:By realizing that it's working on understanding your emotions,
Speaker:your emotional intelligence, your consciousness, and so on, that is where
Speaker:you will really change your approach and your progress with procrastination.
Speaker:So to recap on those steps, so you've got them all neatly to hand
Speaker:before I finish today, step number one, really get clear on whether
Speaker:you're You have a primary emotional survival pattern of procrastination.
Speaker:As well as just recording yourself and noticing yourself, as I already
Speaker:mentioned, you can pop on over to the quiz, the ESP quiz on my website, and that
Speaker:will analyze your personality and your behavioral patterns and tell you where
Speaker:on a scale procrastination comes out.
Speaker:Step number two, gently run a self diagnostic and see whether
Speaker:you can consciously override your subconscious mind and nervous system.
Speaker:And you'll remember the four little points.
Speaker:If you get any traction, which don't give yourself grief if you don't,
Speaker:because it's nearly impossible to override your subconscious, but
Speaker:if you get some traction, number one, focus on the hard job first.
Speaker:Two, focus on the 20 percent of work in your business that
Speaker:actually moves the needle.
Speaker:Three, Delegate or delete tasks and eliminate you as a bottleneck.
Speaker:And four, look at your R& R.
Speaker:In other words, your results versus your routine.
Speaker:Reduce the routine and increase the results.
Speaker:Step number three, start to listen to your body rather than your mind
Speaker:so notice what your body is doing when you start to procrastinate.
Speaker:And step number four, accept that you can't fully eliminate it.
Speaker:And there's a reason why you can't fully eliminate procrastination.
Speaker:So don't try and just get rid of something that you're supposed
Speaker:to have in the first place.
Speaker:And then finally last but not least step number five, know that when you
Speaker:work on your inner world, your outer world will also start to change.
Speaker:And wherever you end up, let me know how you get on.
Speaker:You can reach me on all of my socials anytime, as you know, or you can
Speaker:email me at support at suzibelmont.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:Finally, you know how much I love connections, so if you have enjoyed
Speaker:today's show and you want me to produce more podcasts like this, then don't
Speaker:forget to A, subscribe to the show, But B, don't forget to go and leave a
Speaker:testimonial over on iTunes because it really helps me having that connection
Speaker:back from you and understanding whether you're enjoying things or not.
Speaker:All right, that's all from me today.
Speaker:And next week's episode is a really good one.
Speaker:You're going to love this one.
Speaker:It's all, I'm not, I'm not going to tell you.
Speaker:I'm not going to tell you.
Speaker:It's just really good.
Speaker:And I will see you next week.
Speaker:Thank you for being with me here today and see you in the next episode.
