Transcript:
Today, I’d like to talk about procrastination, because I have been procrastinating on working on a video. And what I’ve noticed is that I’ve set up certain containers or buckets that I can pull activities from that are all productive. They’re all part of my daily practice as an athlete, as a writer, as a coach, et cetera.
But sometimes I will use these tasks to avoid something that doesn’t feel safe. And when you look procrastination, that’s really what’s going on. We’re measuring ourselves, not consciously, but our identity hardware in the brain is measuring our level of energy, It’s measuring our competence.
It’s measuring how we feel about ourselves in any particular moment. And are we up to the task? Do we measure up or is the task bigger than us? Or is it going to require more energy than we currently possess? So there are two things that I want to look at quickly in relation to procrastination. Number one, set up those buckets of things that are useful.
So when I’m avoiding working on a video, I’m either labeling notes that I have taken, I am transcribing notes, I am organizing those notes, I am working on coaching related activities, I’m responding to clients, etc. I’m going over there and I’m doing pull -ups. All of these activities are important for what I do, but at the same time, at some point, I have to work on a video.
I actually have to get it going. So I’ll use these activities to power myself up and to pull myself out of the identity story of inadequacy. I’m feeling inadequate when it comes to working on a video.
I feel like I have nothing to say. I’m afraid that if I look at the footage on screen, I’m going to realize that, yeah, this is terrible. I’ve got nothing to post.
That’s not true, but that’s how I feel and that’s why I’m avoiding it. I don’t know where I’m going with this vlog, so let me just pretend that it doesn’t exist. So, number one, create lots of buckets to empower other areas of your life that are important.
So I’m never just wasting time. It’s valuable time spent, but in the midst of those activities, hopefully I can generate enough steam, enough momentum, a greater sense of competence or self-efficacy that I can then bring back into the video editing arena, and I’m going to feel somewhat charged up. Like pull-ups over there.
I feel powerful after doing pull-ups, but the secret is never go to max. Just do a few. Stop when it still feels good.
Stop when you feel strong. The moment you start getting weak, you’ve gone too far. Then come back and tackle something that’s a lot easier than a pull-up, like opening your editing software.
Okay, I hope that helps. I’m about to do some video editing. See ya.