Breaking The Cycle Of Procrastination As A Leader

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~ Plato

. . .

"It will be easier tomorrow, and there's no need to do the work today"...

A too-good-to-be-true procrastinator's tale for sure!

But clearly, leadership, first and foremost, is about taking on responsibility for ourselves by leading ourselves, and only if leaders show up being credible those they claim to lead will follow.

There is an even better word for "tomorrow" in the Spanish language - "Ma?ana!" which not only means "tomorrow" but refers to the indefinite future and is favourably used to indicate procrastination.

FEELINGS & ACTIONS

Generally, when we have a daunting set of tasks in front of us, it's easy to rationalise passive coping and get the relationship between feelings and actions backwards.

But our feelings follow our behaviours!

We don't feel our way into behaving differently, and we act our way into feeling differently. So passively waiting to feel like doing the work is a good way, never consistently to do the work.

Additionally, we like to tell ourselves that it'll be easier to get it done tomorrow. So, of course, we'll take it easy today.?

Then we'll feel better the next day. And if we wait to start on Monday, we'll definitely have the motivation.

That is so true and always leads to the best results in business...

FAILURE OF FORECASTING

Obviously, the above statement is not true, and it turns out that numerous studies on those assumptions and little stalling beliefs turned out to be a brilliant case of failure of forecasting as we assume that our future selves will think and feel differently than our present selves!

It's the same reason we have a list of essential books set aside to read or a Netflix queue of "serious" - whatever that means individually - films to watch.

Unfortunately, when the time comes to choose what to read or watch, we often end up skimming clickbait articles and gossip, endlessly scrolling social media, and watching something off that already existing queue.

Because we struggle to accurately predict what our future self will think, feel and like, and our self-made forecasts are often overly optimistic.

The general truth and reality is that when tomorrow comes, it's the same person, with the same feelings, with the same list of things left undone.

Except now, the list has grown a little bigger, and we feel even worse!

BREAKING THE CYCLE

But here is the good news for everybody, particularly in a position of leadership or authority in corporate and entrepreneurial business environments, who wants to change...

We can definitely break this vicious cycle by acknowledging that we don't feel like it - and seldom will - and doing it anyway!

Or, we can reinforce the process by telling ourselves that tomorrow will be better, and we can actively give it our best, aka getting into action without further delay or stalling.

Because the actions we take today create the conditions we face tomorrow!

And only by doing the work now can we make tomorrow better!

Evidently, this doesn't just change the landscape of obstacles and challenges we face but also how we feel about taking them on.

And when we take action regardless of how we feel, it shapes our future feelings, as our motivations reflect our past efforts, and we grow to become someone who feels like doing the work right now.

Actions taken "NOW" shape feelings "LATER"!

Doing hard things "TODAY" makes things easier "TOMORROW"!

SELF-LEADERSHIP CHOICE

Ultimately, it is always our choice to pay now or, most of the time, even more later, so we better choose wisely - and to clarify, paying in this context refers to all internal and external things and processes like time, money, emotions and so on.

In every entrepreneurial and corporate business environment, procrastination is irrational and does not help to facilitate leadership to take place.

And it stands for?a leader's tendency to delay making essential and much-needed decisions while executing the less important ones.

Because it won't be easier tomorrow, so do the work today!

That's what healthy, decisive, credible and exemplary self-leadership is about.

. . .

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