Overcoming procrastination will bring you joy and increase your bottom line.

Procrastination costs entrepreneurs both energy and money and typically results in one of two outcomes:

1. Important tasks are not completed, because they are continually put off until tomorrow. For example, if sales and marketing initiatives do not get done, this affects the amount of money made.
2. The tasks are completed, but at a high emotional cost due to the anxiety and stress caused by the procrastination.

Examine both the internal and external consequences of your actions (or lack thereof) in a particular situation to determine procrastination’s effect on your life and business and whether implementing a process for overcoming procrastination is needed. For example, let’s consider what happens if you procrastinate the writing of a report to use as a free opt-in gift on your website. This report is the key to collecting the email addresses of your website visitors that opt-in. These are the potential consequences:

External – you lose the opportunity to connect with potential customers since you aren’t capturing their email addresses.
Internal – this consequence varies based upon the value you put on the external consequence. In this case, if you desire to grow your email list, the internal consequence could be feeling disappointed in yourself for not following through with the creation of the opt-in gift, feeling hopeless because procrastination is a pattern, or worse.

If the internal consequence leaves you feeling bad about yourself, then it’s time to implement a process for overcoming procrastination. Following the five-step Conscious Transformation Process™ will make overcoming procrastination easier for you. The five steps are:

Announce – analyze your procrastination to gain clarity about why, when and how you procrastinate. You may discover some limiting beliefs that need to be released with the help of a coach or use the Transformations Breakthrough Process™ available on your right in the sidebar. Be sure to let go of those limiting beliefs before you move on to the next steps. However, don’t make overcoming procrastination a procrastination technique that keeps you from doing important work!

Once you’ve analyzed your procrastination patterns, determine how you want to BE when procrastination is no longer part of your life. You may want to be productive, energetic, joyful, timely, relaxed, etc. You can use the free Contrast Brings Clearness tool on my website to help you gain clarity about your state of being as a non-procrastinator.

Align – adopt techniques that help you get back into balance when you notice that you are procrastinating. For example, you might use affirmations, visualization or journaling to return to the state of being you identified in the Announce step.

Act – create a productivity plan of action based upon inspiration, incorporating activities that resonate with you. Some example actions that help with overcoming procrastination include:

Start each day with a plan and goals. Decide one thing that you are going to do to be productive that day and be specific. For example, make 10 calls to set up one-on-one sales appointments between 9 am and 10 am.

Create a productive environment. Work in a place where you aren’t distracted, turn off your Internet, or close your office door. Do whatever makes sense for you to be productive.

Set a time limit. If you are working on a large project, decide to just work for one or two hours each day until the project is completed. Or maybe you just need 15 minutes a day. Choose the amount of time that seems right for you to complete your project on time.

Account - track your daily progress in applying the new actions you selected in the preceding step. Download the Daily Accountability Tracking Sheet from the FREE tools page of my website to help with tracking. In the top columns, write your commitments to take certain actions for overcoming procrastination, such as those listed in the Act step above. Monitor your progress for the days that are listed in the rows.

At the end of your work day complete your daily accountability tracking sheet. This step is not meant to make you feel bad if you didn’t take the actions you specified on the tracking sheet, but is to help you learn about yourself so you can ultimately achieve your goal of overcoming procrastination.

If you don’t keep a daily accountability tracking sheet, you can just as easily think to yourself, I’ll start again tomorrow. But then tomorrow never comes, does it? However, if you keep the tracking sheet, you can learn about yourself; maybe the new action was too ambitious, maybe it wasn’t grounded in your values, maybe you need a coach to help you get into action and hold you accountable; this is your opportunity to really analyze why you aren’t taking the actions and do something about it!

Allow – in order to succeed in overcoming procrastination, you must believe in yourself, detach from the outcome and be grateful throughout the process. Be gentle with yourself and when you notice self-critical thoughts, stop those in their tracks and repeat, repeat, repeat your affirmations to get yourself back into alignment.

Don’t forget to reward yourself for making progress and be grateful along the way.

There’s no quick fix for overcoming procrastination, but if you follow these five steps, you will notice a slow but sure transformation from procrastination to productivity.

This phrase is frequently found in writings about transformation and change.

But just what does it mean?

Experts define it as the ability to trust that your life is moving towards what you want despite outward appearances to the contrary.

That’s a hard concept for me to practice.  I don’t know about you but as a perfectionist, I’ve spent much more of my life attempting to control outcomes rather than trusting that everything is unfolding perfectly.  I’ve been re-active.

Can you relate to what I’m saying?  It always happens during that period when you are not feeling at the top of your game, when your world seems upside down, when something unexpected happens that you label as “bad,” when you feel defeated or when you believe you might be on the wrong path.

However, I noticed that I get my power back and begin to feel much more relaxed about the future when I release the emotion and fear related to the existing circumstance.  How do I do that?  I decide to truly believe that I am a co-creator of my life.
And guess what?  There is a process to being a co-creator.

Step 1: You take control of the one thing that is yours to control  – your desires!  Yes, you are in control of deciding what you want that is different from what you are experiencing.  Get very clear about what you desire, the outcome you want to experience and how you feel about that.

Step 2: Allow the Universe to be in charge of the “how” – the way that your desire will manifest.  Don’t attempt to figure it out yourself, don’t push against the current, don’t resist your existing circumstance, just relax.

Step 3: Take action when you are inspired to do so – go to a certain meeting, call a contact from your past, etc.  When an idea comes to you, act on it as soon as possible.  If you are too busy trying to figure out what to do or resisting what is, you won’t be able to hear the inspiration that is your true guide.

Once I looked at this as a process, I found that I could be grateful for the moment I was experiencing and “trust the process” to bring me through it.  Usually with a “how” that I had never even imagined.

The key is to be mindful and notice when you are resisting or feeling less than excited about your current circumstance.  That’s the time to “trust the process” and focus on Step numbers one and three, with a grateful heart.  And remember, that these challenging experiences are often our greatest periods of growth, learning and expansion.

Trade in control for trust…that’s hard, but if I can do it, so can you!

We are a judgmental lot, aren’t we?  We start with ourselves; most perfectionists are our own worst critic!  But then, we carry the judgments over to others, expecting them to meet the same high expectations we set for ourselves or pointing out where they fall short, like it might make us feel better about ourselves, particularly if they have criticized us.  Not a good step towards creating lasting relationships!

Instead, mindfully practicing releasing judgments makes more room for love and authentic connections.  I was reminded of that on Sunday when I had an opportunity to see firsthand how judgments are cloaked in our own perspective and that maybe the old adage of not judging someone’s thoughts, actions, or opinions until we’ve walked a mile in their shoes, or in my case, driven a mile in their vehicle, makes good sense.

My husband, Fred, and I had to deliver his Ford Expedition to a repair shop about 60 miles south of us; the plan was that I would follow him there and we’d come home together in my low to the ground, two-seat vehicle.  This errand didn’t have to be done on Sunday, but we both preferred that day.  However, on Sunday morning it was raining with the ominous prediction of heavy snow storms due later in the day.  I was reluctant but Fred told me if we left right then, we would be back before the bad weather reached our area.  We headed out with the Expedition in the lead.

After the first five miles, Fred called wondering if I wanted to turn around.  “The roads are fine, just wet.” he said in response to my 60 mile an hour speed.  We’ve only been married five years and I believe my husband is one of the most considerate people I know.  He would have turned around if I said I wanted to do that, but I realized that it was an old fear from an accident that was making me over cautious, so we pressed on.  I got my speed up to 70 miles/hr. and was feeling pretty good about processing that old fear when I noticed that the temperature was falling.

The temperature went from 38 degrees to 27 degrees in about ten miles and the rain turned to snow.  Then slush started accumulating on the road.  I took my speed back down to 60.  Then I saw it – a car in the ditch.  Then, another and another.  Fred called again to see how I was holding up.  He said “the roads are fine.”  I’d heard that earlier, but this time I said “OMG, are you crazy, there are cars in the ditches and my traction control has gone on twice!”  He offered to trade cars, but I was hesitant at first.  I know my car; I’m not used to driving his huge vehicle.  But then I heard the voice of my intuition saying to trade; we took the next exit to make the switch.

Your perspective and another’s perspective of the same experience will typically not be the same – you’re riding in a different vehicle (life). While making the exchange, I couldn’t believe how he kept saying that it wasn’t that bad out.  Cars in the ditch are a red flag for me that it’s bad out; how could he not feel the same way?  I judged him for not relating to the stress I was feeling and for being such a broken record about the roads being fine!

You can’t possibly know how another person is experiencing something until you drive a mile in their vehicle! It didn’t even take a mile for me to realize that driving the big kahuna vehicle was an entirely different experience than driving my car.  The roads weren’t that bad or so it seemed!  I felt stable and secure; no wonder Fred thought the roads were fine.  And guess what?  He never got the small car over 50 miles/hr. throughout the rest of the trip.  I figure he realized that the roads weren’t so fine about the same time as I realized they were!

Next time I judge someone for not seeing my point of view or not understanding where I’m coming from, I’m going to spend more time investigating their point of view.  I might decide to trade!

Many perfectionists believe that the holidays are the most stressful time of year.  Pretty easy to understand why – we must decorate the house perfectly, we must purchase the perfect gifts, we must create the perfect meals…and on it goes.  That’s a lot of pressure!

But it’s self-induced pressure.  Instead we can make this a peace and joy filled holiday by:

1.   Staying in the moment – just think about what’s happening now.  Don’t worry about what’s not done, if your Mother, daughter, or husband will like the gift you purchased, or if the house looks perfectly decorated.  When you feel yourself going into overwhelm, bring yourself back to the moment.  An easy way to do that is to focus on your breath.  Just a few deep breaths and you’ll be back on track.

2.   Being grateful – start by noticing all the little things that make the holidays special.  Sometimes we have trouble enjoying the people in our life when they don’t act like we want them to, so this is a great time to remember what we love about them and be grateful for their presence in our life.  Find 3 – 5 things to be grateful for every day this month.

3.   Incorporating nurturing activities.  As perfectionists we sometimes don’t allow ourselves to relax…we must keep pushing.  Or at the opposite end of the spectrum, we might procrastinate doing projects, but we still don’t nurture ourselves because we think we don’t deserve it.  This month, make time for yourself.  Find a way to take 15 minutes for yourself every day.  I am going to spend mine reading an inspirational book.  What can you do that will uplift your spirit?

eBook

I have a gift for you that will help you create a healthy holiday season.  Would you like to know the top five secrets of people who maintain their weight (or even release some) and make it through the holidays stress-free?  Check out my FREE eBook – Choose to BE Healthy This Holiday Season.   It’s my gift to you; you’ll learn how to create a healthy holiday as well as my system for creating change that you can use all year long!  To get it, just head over to my Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/pattiperfectsays – you can use the link in the column on the right – choose “Like” and you’ll receive the link to the book.  If you are already a fan, then just open the “Welcome” tab on Patti Perfect Says and you’ll see the link.

Wishing you a productive and peaceful holiday season!

Allow yourself to be vulnerable! As perfectionists, we tend to keep our weaknesses or areas of vulnerability hidden from those around us.  We see ourselves through others eyes and don’t want to appear less than…(perfect).   Instead, be authentic and show your vulnerable side.

What you’ll find is that the people who truly love and embrace you will be supportive and happy to see that you are “real.”   The people who are shocked by it, are not the type of folks you want in your life, so let them go.

Share something about yourself with someone today – something you’ve been hiding.  Do it – it’s liberating!

Patti Perfect says: Perfectionists are really hard on themselves!

That’s an understatement, right?  Typically, we punish ourselves for our less than perfectness in a variety of ways, depending on what it is that we’ve done that we judged less than perfect.  Maybe we just keep ourselves from experiencing joy by not letting fun and play into our lives, or maybe we go further and hold ourselves back from experiencing the success that is waiting for us by not taking appropriate actions.   One woman wouldn’t allow herself to dance at her class reunion because she felt her body wasn’t perfect – she wanted to lose 10 pounds!  Unfortunately for many of us, this self punishment has become such a pattern in our lives that we don’t even know what brings us joy or nurtures our spirit.

Patti Perfect says: Time to find out what makes your heart sing and start allowing yourself to do those things.  You don’t have to punish yourself for anything!  Every experience you’ve had, every activity that you’ve done, every failure that you’ve experienced has brought you to this place right now.  How perfect is that?

If you are ready to start nurturing your spirit and experiencing more joy in your life, use the worksheet “What Makes Your Heart Sing?” to discover what brings you joy.  Then make a plan to make those things more a part of your life.  Click on the image below to download your worksheet.

Patti Perfect Says:  “All or nothing thinking will keep you stuck in perfectionism.  Time to think in shades of gray.”

All or nothing thinking is when we see things in black and white, right and wrong, good and bad, with no choices in between.  If our performance falls short of perfect, we see ourselves as failures.  If we eat one cookie, we have been bad, so might as well eat the whole plate of cookies!  Have you been there?

Time to lighten up on ourselves because when we think in extremes like this, our emotions follow our thinking which begins a downward spiral.  How do you feel after eating the plate of cookies?  How do you feel when you focus on the one small mistake instead of the overall good performance?  All or nothing thinking leads to feelings such as, anxiety, guilt, feelings of low self-worth, and disappointment.

You can move past all or nothing thinking by:

1.      Bringing it to your awareness. Being able to say to yourself, “Oh, there I go again, thinking in black and white!”

2.      Noticing your emotions and changing your thinking. Listen for the words you use when you are judging yourself.  Sayings like “I’ll never be good at this.”  lead to emotions that might feel uncomfortable.  That is your clue to change your thinking!  Maybe you will not be the best (another all or nothing word) at it, but you could possibly learn how to do it better.

3.      Think in shades of gray. Practice finding the mid-ground.  One mistake does not mean you can’t ever do anything right.  One cookie does not mean you have blown your eating plan for the day.

Start now to create a new tradition in your life – thinking in shades of gray.  At first, you will need to focus on it daily by setting an intention to be aware of your all or nothing thinking.  Then when you can catch yourself, change your thinking.   Ultimately, your new way of thinking will become ingrained and you will realize that life feels so much better, more calm and peaceful.

As Patti Perfect says:  “Make a mistake today and BE proud of it!”