PatrickRodriguez.com Blog

Let’s face it, anyone that’s ever set any worthwhile goal has had this happen at least once.

What this is really talking about is taking action, or lack thereof. You’ve set a goal, and it’s something that’s important to you or you would never have set it in the first place, but you find yourself not taking action. You may procrastinate, something else comes up, etc. The individual actions to accomplish the goal always seem to take a lower priority in the moment. So how do we move past that stuck-state and start taking action?

We’re going to talk about two ways to get yourself to take action on your goals when you’ve found that you’re stuck. The first way to get yourself moving is to, Make the Reward Outweigh the Action.

When Setting Goals, Set the Reward

Let’s say that your goal is to loose weight. Let’s also say that you’ve decided to loose 30 pounds by the end of 6 months. You’ve made a realistic goal with a deadline. To accomplish this goal you will need to take actions, AND there are some actions and habits that you will need to drop. Action to do; exercise. Action to drop; snacking on cupcakes. Simple stuff, huh?

When you start this goal, the actions will probably be out of your immediate comfort-zone. The key is to make the reward bigger than the actions necessary to accomplish the goal. Maybe a two-week trip to Hawaii is not a financial option at this time, how about making the commitment that you will take a four-day weekend to go to a local beach and wear a swimsuit? Preplan the entire four days, complete with what clothes you will wear and activities you will do. Or, it can be as simple as scheduling professional pictures 6 months in advance. This will mark the accomplishment of the goal, and a reminder of what can be accomplished with goals. Remember that the details of the reward must outweigh the effort of the actions necessary to achieve the goal.

Underlying Issues: What’s Stopping Me?

A different approach is to find the underlying reason for the procrastination. This is a bit harder to do on your own and that’s why it often helps to have someone to help with this part, such as a Coach, therapist, etc.

By finding, and releasing, the underlying pain of the procrastination (or, self-sabotage) taking the action becomes as simple as any other action in the day, such as brushing your teeth or taking a shower. That doesn’t mean that it becomes any easier, but that there no longer is the mental and emotional drama associated to taking the action.

Doing the action will then be like going to the grocery store. It may not be the greatest thing to do on Saturday night, but it’s something that needs to get done and you go when you need groceries. That’s the beauty of removing the underlying issues with anything; it becomes “no big deal”. Also, by removing the underlying issues, you’re then free to make new goals without the issue popping up and getting in the way again and again.

So the next time you find yourself stuck and not taking action towards your goals, try one these two methods. Set a well-planned reward at the end of your goal. Or pickup the phone and schedule a Trial Coaching Session.

Remember that the key to keeping in action is to keep it simple.

Wishing you all the best,

Patrick

There’s procrastination, and then there’s PROCRASTINATION! I define procrastination as those times when you have something to do but you can’t seem to get yourself in gear to do it. Then suddenly by some miracle, or last-minute deadline, you manage to pull the whole thing together. Or for some people, it never gets done. But is there any area of your life that has become, “Chronic Procrastination”?

Chronic Procrastination Case Study

Richard was facing exactly this issue. When he came to see me Richard stated that he wanted to overcome procrastination. That sounded like a good starting point. I asked him what “procrastination” meant to him, personally. What I came to realize was that this wasn’t some little avoidance in his life. This was something that literally had a grip in his everyday reality. Even the simplest tasks would be put off until a situation would come up that demanded his attention to the task. Dishes would pile up until there were none left to eat on. Trash would be overflowing until it had to be emptied. This is the real problem that Richard was facing.

Working on something that you “don’t” want to do is a very hard goal. After all, how do you know when you’ve reached your goal? There’s not much room to celebrate if you can’t see it or imagine it. With just a little digging, we found that his real problem was that he wasn’t able to keep his word to himself. Now we had a goal, “To have the ability to keep my own word to myself. When I say that I will do something, I then do it.” Great, now we could measure success or failure from that point forward.

Working on the “Core Issue”

We decided to use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to go after the problem. We “tapped” on everything related to this issue of procrastination and not keeping his word to himself. We spent a total of about 20 minutes working directly on the problem.

When we finished I asked Richard to imagine himself doing the tasks he mentioned in the beginning of our session. (Note that these were things that he had been procrastinating for several months, and at the start of the session he could not see himself getting these things done anytime in the near future.)

He was surprised to find that he could see himself doing the tasks to completion and was even able to commit to completing one of them within the next two days. I also asked him to think about another more daunting task but to not tell me what it was. His homework was to give his word to himself that this task would get done.

New Options, New Life

In short, today Richard is a new man. And his wife has noticed the changes as well. She has often commented to him how he will now notice something that needs to get done and he simply does it. Both major and minor tasks are handled with the same attitude.  And when he revealed what was the task that he had kept to himself, even I was shocked that he completed it as promised, to himself.  This involved a massive clearing of septic tank plumbing.  No wonder he had been procrastinating.  I think that I would have too.

Have you been suffering from Chronic Procrastination?  What has been your biggest obstacle? What has gotten in your way and kept you from taking action on your goals?  With a little digging, and a little tapping, your life might change too.

Sometimes it just takes a pen and paper to write out what you’re experiencing, then what you want. Using methods like EFT can also help to remove any emotion keeping you from taking action. Or, contact me to schedule a Trial Coaching Session. We’ll review your goals and what might be getting in your way then lay out a high-level plan on how to get you from where you are now, to living your goals.

Until we meet again,

Patrick

I decided to start blogging because it might be an interesting way for people to get to know more about me and what I do without having to sign up for my newsletters.

I love the Theme of Getting Started. It’s more than just a tag line for me, it’s where I come alive. I love it when I’m working with someone that has a real Burning Desire, or a knowing that they want something, but he/she is plagued by procrastination or just not knowing how to get started. This is where I come alive!

My corporate background as a Senior Technology Project Manager taught me how to think in terms of “projects”. This came so naturally to me that my entire life seemed to be small, managable projects. My specialty in the corporate environment became starting new projects and re-starting stalled projects. I became skilled at asking the right questions and structuring a project in a way that made it achievable in incremental phases.

Now, as a Life Coach, I’m always looking for the Incremental Path. Together with my clients, we look for achievable Phases on our way to the ultimate goal. This makes Goal Setting and Actions simple and straightforward. With this step alone, many people have felt a renewed sense of possibility in achieving their desires.