Procrastination Fascination ~ How we can become masters at avoidance!

I’m getting my newsletter content prepared for May 2024, and it’s April 8th 2024.  This task has been on my list of today’s “to-do’s” and was numbered as my #1 to-do.  I’ve now completed all of my daily to-do’s except for, you guessed it, #1!  How did I become so masterful at avoiding to write this blog?!?!  But the bigger question is, how is it that you’re actually now READING this blog, it means I MUST have gotten it done.  How did I do that, you ask?

 

I went back to my old and new friends for help: RSNFG and “1 or more“.  Let me explain and I hope that you’ll be able to take away something that helps YOU get past your next procrastination!

 

Let’s first go back to WHY we might procrastinate.  I love writing and speaking, so why procrastinate?  Because there’s a quiet, seemingly invisible energy exchange that happens when I start to think about preparing for either of these tasks, and in my mind, I’ve already come to the conclusion that this task is a BIG one and will take a lot of effort (whether right or wrong)!  My perception, my minds eye feels that this task is a biggie, so instead of embracing it and getting excited, I shrink back and look to scoop the cat litter box…now there’s a quick “one and done”!

 

The best thing to remind myself here, is to remember to RSNFG…that is to look at this task as a Ridiculously Small No-Fail Goal!  Now, I’ve written about RSNFG several times, and I use them all the time, so why does this particular task trigger me to ignore my well known solution to procrastination and shuffle about in my office moving random piles from here to there?  Because the EMOTION of the task at hand (writing the newsletter content) evoked an immediate response of “hard no” in my mind which has brought you and I here.  So how did I shift to be able to write this blog?

 

Instead of continuing to procrastinate, I didn’t try to push myself forward but instead allowed myself to REMEMBER that I have choices…I’m not locked in to anything!  Heck, I could even have had an AI write this for me now (but I didn’t).  Instead, I gave myself about 10 minutes outside with the dog on a beautiful spring day watching a partial eclipse.  This gave my brain and emotions some space.  This allowed my mind to get out of “hard-no” mode and allowed me to remember that one of my choices is RSNFG!  So, instead of thinking about creating the WHOLE newsletter content, I just sat down and thought about what I wanted the main theme to be for the newsletter and to write the blog.  That seemed a bit too much to do too, so I just stuck with creating the theme for the newsletter (procrastination) and I gave myself a pat on the back and walked away.  Success!  I broke down the bigger, harder, procrastination step into a Ridiculously Small No-Fail Goal that I could accomplish quickly and celebrate…kinda like scooping the cat litter!

 

This accomplishment quickly had me feeling good, and just like Stella, I got my Groove back (see “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”, movie reference, excellent movie…but I digress)!  This got me thinking about all of the other folks out there just like me who also procrastinate, and I wanted to share how I got out of it, so I started in on writing the blog!  Now I’m about half way through and I’m almost literally “on fire”… I know that this blog will get finished and then my reward will be something else fun because, as I already shared, my list of to-do’s for today is already done except for this one task!

 

This brings me to the concept of “1 or more”, and how it relates to RSNFG.  The concept of one or more is best illustrated by one of my clients who shared that they simply couldn’t go gluten free (GF), even though their GI-MAP test showed that they had a high sensitivity to gluten, and they were frankly feeling quite miserable.  If feeling bad health wise doesn’t motivate someone to change, we’ve got to find another way…please bring in Mr. “1 or more”.

 

I shared with her that going GF is not easy, and that everyone needs to find their own best way to sneak up on it.  Once you’re gluten free (if it’s necessary), it’s easy-peasy.  But just like anything new, the task can seem daunting (sound familiar?).  So I shared with her; what if, all she needed to do each day, was just identify ONE food that had gluten in it; this was just any food, not necessarily one she was eating (although it could be), but it could also be the Wendy’s hamburger bun on the billboard.  “Hey, that’s got gluten in it!  I’m 1 and done for today-hooray!”  After about a week of doing this on her own, she started sharing with me all the foods that she was identifying that had gluten (previously, she told me she could never identify any foods and she doubted she ever would be able to – read “TASK TOO BIG”!).  She felt EMPOWERED.  She felt better about her health journey.  But best of all, she felt MOTIVATED to better understand gluten and the foods that made her feel ill.  SCORE!  She’s now a gluten hound, sniffing out gluten wherever she goes, and better yet, has become a gluten substitution expert and no longer feels like she’s missing out on anything…oh, except for her belly aches and other annoying related symptoms, those are gone.  It’s now “easy-peasy” for her and it’s all thanks to “1 and done”!

 

And with that, I’m 1 and done as well as free to move on to my next best thing, which is to go play outside.  All thanks to RSNFG and his pal 1 and done.  I hope this has been slightly entertaining for you, but mostly, that you have a couple of new tools in your arsenal to help you the next time that old codger “procrastination” comes knocking at your door.

 

Onward!