My story

I was running every day. I was getting stronger and faster after each run. Incrementally my motivation to do other things was visibly improving. I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol for about 4 months.
Over on YouTube you can see I was recording regular short videos on my channel. My new book was self-published on Amazon.
It was spring 2020 and 2019 had been my best year’s earning, but then slowly things began to unravel.

The Virus

We watched with disbelieve as the virus spread from the far east into Europe and the Rest of the World. Governments panicked and succumbed to the doom-mongers; no one wanted a bloodbath on their watch. The UK Government announced their first lock-down.
At first it was a novelty. I could get all those jobs done around the house, that I had never had time to finish. I would have more time to write and work on my YouTube channel. In my day job I switched to using Skype then later Teams and Zoom.
I barely noticed any difference, at first.

But then I dropped some good habits. I stopped running regularly. Well, I thought, the government will only let us go out of the house once a day. The dogs need walking, so that’s my lot. I watched too much TV and started drinking again. As you can see from my YouTube channel and this blog, my content output stopped.

COVID was no excuse, but I’m just telling you how it was. We can all make excuses with hindsight, but at the time I just felt I could let things drop. It doesn’t take long for all the missed commitments to add up to an unhealthy lifestyle.

Why did you stop?

What about you? Why did you stop? Was it an external trigger? Do you want to get back on track?

The Truth

No matter what you think the reason is for falling off the wagon, the truth is you stopped applying the daily vigilance and discipline to whatever you were meant to be doing. The universal law of entropy does the rest. Things tend to break down if we don’t maintain them, whether its gardens, our cars or good daily habits.

Defeating Procrastination and getting back on track

So, enough wallowing, the past is the past, what about the here and now. How can you defeat procrastination and start on the right path? Here are practical ways in which I got back on track and if you are interested, how you too can get going again.

One point to mention though is that these methods should be used to just get you going, to get you out of a funk, to get your engine started so to speak.

Top-down Method

The Top-Down method is great for when you have a mixture of kinds of tasks, from little maintenance types to important larger projects. It goes against all the received wisdom out there on productivity which says – do the most important thing first. Sometimes you just need a quick easy win. This method is the way.

Process flow

The process flow method is good if you have many of the same types of tasks to do mixed in with projects and repeatable tasks. For instance, you might have a list of phone calls to make, emails to send, plus larger multitask projects to complete. Again, it goes against received wisdom, but I reiterate, if you need to get started then sometimes doing something, anything will help.

15 second method

This method works by overcoming our tendency to procrastinate if we have a large project to complete for instance a dissertation or writing a book. Just tell yourself you will just do 5 minutes work. Try it.

Vision

After trying these techniques, if you still can’t make a start, then ask the following questions.
Ask yourself why you want this task competed. Is in line with your values or your purpose?
Is it a task or job that needs completing as part of a larger project? Do you have to do this task, to move you towards a better version of yourself? For example, exercise. If so, all I can say is that you will have to revisit your goal or vision. Write out why it would be worthwhile doing it.
Then ask, what would it look like if you completed this task or project. Doing this mental exercise might cause you to think of a tiny first action. What’s this next action. Just do that.

Quitting vs failure

Have you tried all the above, and more, and you still can’t get going? You’re about to quit.
All I would say is don’t quit just yet. Take a break. This doesn’t have to be a formal thing. Just park whatever it is you want to be doing. Don’t cancel any subscriptions you have, just leave it dormant.
Go about your life until you can get that spark back. This will ensure you won’t fail. If you quit, you fail. If you pause, then it’s just a pause waiting for you to get back on track again.

The post How I got back on track. appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

Having a plan to stay on track is great in theory. However, what if you just can’t get started, no matter how much visualising you do. This is the dreaded procrastination bug. The causes of procrastination are many and varied, for instance the goal seeming too large or too far in the future.
Here you just have to start. Then start again. Then start again. If you have a goal in life that you just can’t get started, whether it is writing your first book or even just tidying the garage, here is a method to help you get going.

15 Second method

The 15-second method is something I adapted from Al Seconda’s method in his book The 15-Second Principle.
Here the idea is to break your goal down, so that the next step is the smallest possible. Ie it only takes 15 seconds to perform. So for instance let’s say you are procrastinating about tidying the garage, your next smallest step might be just to take a roll of black bin bags to the garage. There done. Success.
This is ridiculous I hear you say, how can this achieve anything?
Well without going into psychology too much, your brain doesn’t like threats. A cluttered garage is a big-hairy-arsed, ugly psychological threat.
This causes paralysis – procrastination. However, the simple action of taking the bin bags to the garage is so insignificant as to pose no threat. “Yes, I can allow that”, the brain thinks “no threat”.

So there you find yourself, in the garage, armed with empty bins bags. “Ok I will just put a few throw away items in this bag and call it a day.” Success”. You have started. Carry on if you want to, or stop for today.
The next day’s goal could be to fill one bag with items to throw away. And so on. Little baby steps leading to, eventually, a tidy garage.
Or, what about another example, writing a book? You just can’t get started as its going to take an age to complete. Here the 15-second method works again. Set yourself a goal of just writing for 15 seconds every day.
Now anyone can do that. Obviously once you get to the computer, with your word processing program open, then you might find you write for more than 15 seconds. The point is you started and then you started again.
You keep on starting until you finish.

Motivation

External Motivation

Motivation will be the most powerful thing that will help you to achieve your goal. Your Why or reason for completing your goal should be powerful enough, at the start to get you to do what needs doing.
However, there are different types of motivation. The end result should be motivating. Think of the tidy garage, the completed book or the Marathon medal. Maybe you could create a reward for yourself.
For instance if your goal is to reach an ideal shape and size, perhaps you could reward yourself with a clothes shopping trip, once you have completed the goal.
These are all examples of external motivation.
There is, however, a more powerful motivation. If you can tap into it; you will be astounded at how you will achieve any goal. It is intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is the motivation you derive from actually doing the things that propel you to the goal. If you can get to a stage where the intrinsic motivation exceeds the actual end goal you will have discovered the secret to all achievement – falling in love with the process.
Let’s take our running a marathon example. Let’s say you are a month into your training. You actually start to feel good – no great. Pretty soon, you love going out for your training runs. It starts to become a game to see if you can beat your last time. Soon you will be doing longer and longer runs. Eventually you arrive at race day, fully prepared and ready to achieve your goal.
If you can make a game out of performing the process steps that will take you to your goal, you can reach any goal.

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