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