How to Avoid Procrastination

How to Avoid Procrastination

In his powerful book Eat That Frog, Brian Tracy gives us this important perspective:

There is a powerful formula for setting and achieving goals that you can use for the rest of your life.  It consists of seven simple steps. Any one of these steps can double and triple your productivity if you are not currently using it.

• Step one:  Decide exactly what you want.
• Step two:  Write it down.
• Step three:  Set a deadline on your goal; set sub deadlines if necessary.
• Step four:  Make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal.
• Step five:  Organize the list into a plan.
• Step six:  Take action on your plan immediately.
• Step seven:  Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal.

Clear, written goals have a wonderful effect on your thinking. They motivate you and galvanize you into action. They stimulate your creativity, release your energy, and help you to overcome procrastination as much as any other factor.

Leading With Purpose

How motivated are you when you have to do something without meaning, without purpose?

Have you ever been in a situation where you are loaded up with “content” but have no “context”? Perhaps it was a list of tasks you had to complete without any perceived value. Or maybe it was a complicated arrangement of activities with no emphasis on the connections holding them together, the “big picture.” How motivating is this?

Leading with passion requires that we lead with clarity and purpose the simple elegance of meaning. To feel passion, we must be in alignment with reason. The reward must be in the work. We must relate with why we are doing what we are doing. We must understand the relationship between cause and effect, a systems perspective linking content with context. Purpose will drive the form, the details and the execution. Meaning will breathe life and motivation into the minutia.

Effective leaders know that a keen sense of purpose is very empowering. It elicits passion. It opens the door to this extraordinary energy of intuition, light, and inspiration. Effective leaders also know that passion is contagious. It catches on. One lit match can light many candles. People feel the energy of passion. The motivation coming from a shared sense of purpose and passion can literally move mountains. It can land men on the moon. It can heal disease. It can bond people for life. 

Take a moment now to contemplate your purpose.

What are you meant to do?