Procrastination is power

[Music]

procrastination is power

now you may be thinking why am i saying

procrastination is power

let me explain you this way make a list

of

all the tasks that you are

procrastinating or you are delaying or

avoiding and when you look at the list

of your

tasks you will realize that those are

the tasks

that are actually giving you some sort

of a pain

right now let me give an example of this

okay

you know the whole world is screaming at

you that you should work out and

exercise every single day for your

health and fitness

for your immunity but what happens is

when actually the time comes of

exercising suddenly you remember that

one

video that you have to watch or that one

post that you have to see or one email

to respond

or a phone call to you know reply to

and you do that and you suddenly see

that next two hours have passed and

and then you realize that oh my god i

don’t know what happened

and then you come up with the next idea

and you need your next thing is like you

know what

it’s very late now we have already had a

you know pretty hectic day

and tomorrow is very early day so you

know what let’s keep it together

let’s start it tomorrow isn’t it has it

happened with you before

my god it has happened a lot with me

before

but you know what every time you want to

eat that pastry

or that chips or that cake you will come

up with a perfect

inner monologue and a justification that

why should you do it and you end up

doing it

now do you see what i’m saying right now

here

the things that give you pain you want

to avoid them

and the things that give you pleasure

you want to do them

now why does that happen you may be

thinking that i know

that if i do these little painful tasks

right now

it’s going to be very very good for my

future in fact it’s going to

make me achieve my dreams make me

achieve my goals and i’ll be way ahead

in my game

but you still end up doing nothing about

it

yes or no every time you procrastinate

you beat yourself up

you call yourself lazy and you kind of

give yourself

all those names and labels and say that

you’re really not serious about your

future

look at these people look at that friend

of yours who’s going ahead of you

you what is wrong with you kind of you

ask yourself this question 100 times and

you still don’t have answer to them

you promise yourself that tomorrow is

going to be a new day and you’re going

to be a different person

but when that tomorrow comes you end up

being the same

old person has it happened with you

before well

in my life for a very long time i was

the queen

of the nation of the procrastinators i

was actually

you know very it was very difficult for

me to

complete my homework on time eat my food

on time

reach anywhere on time and you know

every time

i would be you know delaying this task i

would see

people around me looking at me and

looking at me like a loser

i don’t know whether they actually did

or it was my perception about my

about you know them and their life that

i was leading that

every time i would delay or not finish

things on task i would

have these horrible labels for myself

where i would call myself that

i am this big fat procrastinator i am

such a lazy person

i am horrible person i am not capable i

really am not serious i don’t want to do

things and you know what

maybe i’m really not smart enough

and every time i would tell myself that

i will change

and i would give more efforts i would

put in more hard work

and i would end up becoming even worse

than before

my performance became worse and worse

every single day so as a child this

bubbly active girl

unknowingly somewhere because of my

performance and these

labels that i had given myself and these

conversations that were going on inside

me

automatically put me way behind in my

game

and i became a messed up loser as a

child when i was

delaying these tasks or avoiding

completing these tasks

people around me may have said certain

things to me

and you know kind of gave me those

labels that maybe i’m lazy or maybe i

don’t want to do things

or maybe i really am not serious about

those tasks

but eventually i pick these labels or

these conversations

around me and made them my own thoughts

and the more these thoughts became

prominent inside me

the worse i started performing all these

happens

so unknowingly when you are a child

that it becomes difficult for you to

finally understand

whether this is you the person who is

constantly procrastinating

or the person who really wants to

achieve your dreams so there is a

constant

fight going on between two people inside

you

you know what i mean right today i want

to tell you that procrastination is not

your fault

yes procrastination is not your fault

let me and make you understand why am i

saying this

see your brain’s primary function is to

keep you

safe and to keep you comfortable

but every time you want to set your

goals or pursue your dreams

isn’t it outside of your comfort zone

now look at the irony when your brain’s

primary function is to keep you alive

and comfortable

and if your goals and dreams are going

to be outside of the comfort zone

then it’s going to be creating a

conflict between inside your brain

that anything that is painful whether

it’s physical pain or an emotional pain

is an uncomfortable situation for your

brain

and every time you sense this discomfort

or an uncomfortable situation in your

life

your brain is going to feel it as a

threat it’s going to perceive it as a

threat

and it’s going to push it away so the

more you want to go into the

space or the more you want to pursue

things which are giving you emotional

discomfort

or a physical discomfort your brain is

going to automatically push it away from

you

and you will find yourself

procrastinating now

isn’t it a revelation to you because

every time

that your brain is pushing those tasks

away and you are giving yourself that

label that you are lazy that’s not the

truth

your brain is primarily keeping you safe

and alive

now you may be thinking that why would

my brain feel that completing this task

is a pain for me well now is the point

that you need to understand is

every time the task that you don’t like

doing

[Music]

the you know releases a certain sort of

an emotion inside you or a certain sort

of a feeling that you feel

whether it’s boredom whether it’s

sadness whether it’s kind of like you

know

anxiety or fear or whatever it is your

brain

sees as pain as simple as that and the

brain cannot distinguish between the

physical

pain as an or emotional pain both

physical and emotional pain

is going to be registered in a brain as

something which is

uncomfortable a part of your brain is

always looking out for your survival

and your comfort so the goal that you’re

setting

and if it is uncomfortable your brain

is not going to cooperate with you to

achieve that goal

on the contrary now think about it the

the the task that you complete willingly

and on time or sometimes before time

are the tasks that give you pleasure it

releases certain hormones inside you

which are called as

those hormones those stands for dopamine

oxytocin serotonin

and endorphins these are the happy

hormones

and the moment those tasks when you are

doing those tasks

or maybe when you’re completing those

tasks it releases that dose inside your

body

and the moment that dose is released

your brain gets the message

that this is something that is

comfortable this is something which is

pleasurable this is something which is

you can celebrate

and keep doing it again and again and

again

now there are two ways that you can

solve this problem

if your brain understands pain and

pleasure that’s the language of your

brain

then every time you see yourself

procrastinating

into some task which is so important for

you to achieve your goal for

you to get ahead in your life you must

show your brain

a even bigger pain a future

that may be if you don’t complete this

task on time

then what is that painful future going

to be for you

let let me give an example about this

okay let’s suppose that

if you don’t exercise every day or you

don’t exercise

on that particular day forget about

every day just let’s take it that

particular

day if you don’t exercise that

particular day

it will slowly diminish your immunity it

will slowly make you a weak person

it will slowly make you feel that you

don’t have the strength to complete

other things and go towards your future

so what will your future be

in that case like today if you don’t

work out tomorrow if you don’t work out

if you don’t work out every single day

what is the research saying like what is

the research

says that if you don’t work out every

single day will you get some

cardiovascular diseases or will you have

fall into the diabetes

i’m saying that anything which is more

painful that your brain can see

that can happen to you in future you can

simply show that picture to your

to your brain and tell the brain or

maybe you can write this down and say

that you know

if i don’t do this exercise today after

five years

i may have these problems that’s one way

to show your brain that part of your

brain which is

survival brain which will immediately

kick in and say oh no if this i don’t do

this work

then my survival is at threat and the

brain will focus

on doing that activity on time and there

is another way to look at it is

if your brain learns something with

pleasure

then how can you make your most boring

or the mundane task

simple and maybe fun or if you feel that

there is some task that cannot be

you know cannot be made fun or cannot

have like they are going to be mundane

probably

then maybe you can set up a reward

system where after completing this task

then i am going to do

this fun activity so moment your brain

sees that there is a future that you are

going to have this fun activity where

the doors will be released

and you will feel better it will support

you to finish the task

before time because now the brain is

looking at the pleasurable fun

activity something that you really need

to understand is

you are not a procrastinator you have a

habit of procrastination

and every habit is developed at some

point of time in your life

right if the habit is developed a new

habit

of doing things on time can also be

developed and the most important thing

that you must know

is you are not always procrastinating

let’s be honest with this and look at

the things in your life that you finish

before time or on time i’m sure there

are some things that you definitely do

on time or before time

make a list of those things and now when

you look at those things you will

realize that there is a pattern emerging

in those things

as well now let me show you what is the

pattern that is emerging there

and that pattern is of what you value

the most in your life

yes what you value the most in your life

again let me give an example about this

suppose you value your health a lot

so no matter what how much busy you are

how

difficult your day is you’re still going

to squeeze in the time to work out

because it’s important for you you value

your health

if the relationship is important for you

you are going to make make that time out

for a coffee or a dinner with that loved

one of yours

if you value money then no matter what

you’re going to save some money

you’re going to learn how to invest

money and grow your money

if you value personal growth then how

much ever busy you are

you’re going to watch this ted talk or

maybe listen to a podcast

but you’re not going to allow yourself

to not do those things

that you really really value why because

that gives you pleasure

none of us are permanent procrastinators

we do things that we value

so when i realized this such an

important thing

i literally got that one magic pill

and i started connecting every boring

mundane or the task that i was

procrastinating in my life

with the things that i value for example

i just don’t like working out and

i used to procrastinate constantly on it

that you know

even though i knew that yes it is

important to work out but i just

couldn’t get myself up to do it

or even when i would do it for a couple

of days i would end up not doing for a

week again so

consistency was seriously lacking so

what i started doing is

i realized that what is my most

important thing in my life

what do i value the most that’s my

family

my son i realized that my son loves

adventure sport

and the only way i can go on an

adventure sport

which which will require a certain level

of fitness

and certain level of weight that i must

have

to to pursue those difficult activities

i started connecting the two things

together in my brain

that if i work out every single day and

if i

eat healthy and if i am fit it is going

to help me

connect better with my family i can live

a long healthy life

i can enjoy my life with my family at

the same time i can go on those

adventure activities with my son

and create those beautiful happy

memories

now you understand what i’m saying here

procrastination

is actually a power tool it can actually

show you what is that emotion that you

are trying to avoid

by avoiding that task once you recognize

that

uncomfortable emotion and once you work

through that uncomfortable emotion

you are no longer going to be

procrastinating that task

this is a habit that can be easily

reversed

by simply asking yourself this question

what am i trying to avoid here what is

that

uncomfortable emotion that i don’t want

to face

because that uncomfortable emotion is

that hidden elephant

in that room of your mind

and the moment you recognize it and the

moment you address

it and work through it i guarantee you

you will be free of procrastination and

you will

accelerate your success