How to Overcome Procrastination

You're listening to the Standing Stronger Podcast. That's right, baby. It keeps getting better. Every day is a great day. It's up to us to make it even better. Welcome back to another season, another episode of the Standing Stronger Podcast. My name is Shannon. And I'm Little Shannon. That's right. She is the better looking of the two people with the same name. I don't think so. Oh, and I wish we were live streaming because your teeth look absolutely amazing. I know. I'm going to just smile for the whole world to see. You can hear the smile coming through her voice right now. And the reason she's smiling and her teeth look so unbelievably beautiful is she got her braces off. Yay!

It was forever, it seemed like, but it really wasn't. It was over two years. And if you listen to our past podcast, you would get the whole journey from beginning to end and everything in between and all that good stuff. Yeah, I'm so glad I did it. Not really because we didn't do many podcasts while you had your braces on. But going forward, we can talk about why it was worth it. Oh, you know, I was like, yes, we did, but we did more of the business training because you were sucking in your spit. Yeah, that's right. I have braces as well. Unfortunately, mine are still on. So if I sound a little liquidy, it's because I have overactive saliva glands. Yes. It's a real thing. So I've been told.

And, oh, I don't think I've ever been a procrastinator until it's something that I'm trying to accomplish, like a goal of whatever I set. I get like to where I over like overwhelm myself to make it happen. So I get frustrated and then I just stop. Right. Well, lots of people, when it comes to something they are trying to accomplish, procrastination is one of the main drivers of procrastination is fear. And it's not necessarily fear of success or fear of failing, but actually fear of success. So it's one of those things where we procrastinate because we want to accomplish something great. However, we're afraid we're going to fail or we're afraid we're going to succeed.

We're going to afraid what people have to say about us. The the imposter syndrome sets in and, you know, we just sit there doing. And one of the biggest things, this office is a great example. It sat absolutely destroyed for months, two months, three months at least because it was overwhelming. There was so much to do. So what we had to do was break it down in simple steps. All right, let's get this corner of the office set up. Then we'll get this corner of the office set up. Then we'll get the charging station set up. Then we're going to get the podcasting station set up. And we took it step by step. And until we did that, because of the overwhelm, we just procrastinated on it.

Yeah, I kind of want to touch base on what you just said about what other people think of us, because this really does ring in my head a lot. And I won't call the person out at all. But if they are listening, which I don't think they are, but if they are, they come across it. Then, you know, I actually think the person quit following me on Facebook. So the story is, especially when I was training for a half marathon, I would do a live stream on Facebook just to help motivate. That's our main goal, obviously, with this podcast is to motivate others to accomplish and realize that we are all going through life together.

We all have our trials and tribulations, but just keep pushing and keep going, keep encouraging each other and just keep swimming. Right. Just, you know, to push through. That was the whole point of get up, get your day started. You've been given this day of opportunity. And after I was doing that, I noticed this person who was, I don't want to say was truly influential. Yes, ma'am. Try editing that faith. Would we like to define influential? No, I got it. I just couldn't get the word out. So but this person was, I'll say the profession, this person was a teacher. So in my mind, like a teacher above everything else should be encouraging to others.

Anyways, been out of school for a long time, this person had followed me and then made a comment on Facebook that said, man, what is everybody going to be a podcaster now? And then she quit following me. And I was like, was that meant directly towards me? Or am I putting that on myself? But I let those words deter me and say, oh, maybe I shouldn't be doing this because who am I? Like that is a that always gets me. And I play these mind games with myself and go, who are you to do this? Who are you to tell somebody they could accomplish this? And who are you? Like, what are you doing? Where? Why do you think? I mean, I just can really tear myself apart inside my mind.

And then I get back up and I fight through it. However, when she made that comment, I took that on myself. It was not like, Shannon, who are you? She did not say that to me. But I took that on myself because I felt like it was directed truly at me. Whether it was or not, I don't know. But that starts a spiral of then falling off the horse and having to get back on, you procrastinate because someone's words, whether, like I said, whether they truly were meant for me or not, someone's words affected me. Yeah, and it affects everyone.

I mean, even the President of the United States, maybe apart from Donald Trump, would one time or another say, who am I to be leading the greatest country on planet Earth? You know, it's one of those things where it doesn't matter how high you get. At some point, you're going to look and say, holy cow, who am I to be doing this? But here's a great thing. Who are you to be doing this? You are you. You have unique perspectives. You have unique talents and abilities that people want to know, people want to learn from, people want to be motivated by. So who are you? You are great. You're built in the image of the greatest. So go out there and do great things.

You know, and it's funny when people are like, oh, is everyone going to be podcasters? Listen, one of the things we did was drop the ball on podcasting. Guess what? I bought microphones, mixers, preamps, you know, limiters, gates, all of this stuff six years ago, right? Six years ago, we could be doing it. We could have been doing a podcast consistently every single week, week in, week out for six years. Guess what we didn't do? We didn't do that consistently. So guess what? We never grew a huge audience. And the reason being is simply we procrastinated. We put it off till tomorrow. And now here we are six years later, still with all of this equipment going, we really need a podcast.

I mean, we bought all the stuff. Might as well do it. But we think, who am I? We procrastinate. We put it off. It's something we want to accomplish. We're scared. We're scared of what people think. Therefore, we sit on our hands and we don't get it done. No, and it becomes overwhelming. before it becomes such a job because you have to know how to work this and you have to know how to work that and then you have to teach for this. But the point of all of it is we all have something to offer whether it's a different profession or in this industry or whatever it is. You have value to help others so what's the best way to get it out there?

Obviously in the technology world that we live in it's either social media or you know podcasting directly out to an audience. Yep, I mean we live in the future. I say it all the time. I'm like the Jetsons. All of you older people like us will get you know know that. The only thing we don't have is flying cars. Pretty much all of that stuff we used to dream about and things like that we have. So it makes it easy to actually get your content out there nowadays. If you don't have professional microphones and mixers and all of that good stuff, guess what? You have a phone that records pretty darn good audio that you can create a podcast of your own like on anchor.fm.

Free hosting, everything else. But the point is overwhelm is one of the biggest reasons for procrastination and the next biggest reason is perfection. People don't want to put stuff out there because they want it to be perfect. And what I've learned over and over and over again is perfect or done is always better than perfect because perfect never gets published. So in order to move forward, you have to be okay with less than perfect. And my wife has a good analogy on this that she learned from someone. I can't remember how it goes so I'm going to let you talk about it where that book you read about, was it you? About B grades or something like that? That wasn't you?

Maybe that was something I read. But it's okay to be a B player basically when it comes to getting stuff done because if you're trying to be a 100% student all the time, every time, you're going to sit on your hands, you're going to procrastinate, you're never going to get it done. So it's better to put it out there, let it be a C, D, or an F, and then improve on that, your minimal viable product, improve on that and keep going. I don't know. I automatically switched into like content creation podcast teaching mode instead of procrastination mode. But it all works into everything is, you know, it's okay to not be perfect. It's okay to mess up.

It's okay to fail because failure is your greatest teacher. As long as you learn from those failures, you're always going to come out better. So don't get caught in perfection. Well, and I think the other, again, it goes back to frustration, but it's like you're beginning again and again. Like there hasn't been like true growth. So for me, like one of my goals, you know, I did my half marathon and that was great. A little too far to run, so I don't really care to do that again. But I do, I don't want to say I love running because I don't love running, but I love the way running makes me feel. So it is something that I want to continue to do.

But my goal is let's, you know, I want to run five miles. That's my goal. I don't, just for myself, not in a race, not for anything, just to run five miles. So I set out on the goal, started with I'm going to run one mile. Now the difference from the training for the half marathon to just having this simple goal is the half marathon had to, there was a start time. There was a date attached to that. So that date said like you have to be able to run 13 miles by whatever the date was. And with this goal, I didn't put a date to it. So I was like, all right, I'll just start on my own. I won't worry about finding someone else's training program because I got this. Like I'll just start at a mile.

And then after a week, I'll go up to a mile and a half, and I'll just keep going up. Well, guess what? I did like a mile for four weeks every week, and I got really good at that one mile. But then I stopped because there is no end goal. I was just, oh, okay, well, all right. Well, now how am I ever going to get to five miles if I don't keep adding to the one mile mark? Just keep swimming. Right. But that is, for me, the frustration. So what is the tip to say how do we stop from beginning again and again and procrastinating? What are our tips here?

Well, the great news, there's a lot of fantastic podcasts out there that are a lot smarter than us that can teach you how to do that because obviously we're still stuck in that. So what are the tips? That's a great question. I think what is for us, what makes us keep going? We come back to it. Right. Well, at the end of the day, you're going to do all right. Not everyone is going to do that. But I think it's difficult for most people because most people get stuck in the mundane, in the routine, and they stop believing. When we're kids, you ask my daughter what she's going to be. She's going to be a dancer, a cheerleader, and a mermaid. Right. That's what she's going to be when she grows up.

And at some point, my daughter is going to say she's going to be a dancer and a cheerleader. She's going to drop the mermaid because someone told her being a mermaid was ridiculous. And then at some point, she's going to drop the dancing and the cheerleading because someone's going to tell her that she isn't good enough to dance professionally or to cheer professionally or you can't make any money or those things. So she's going to stop. Then she's going to make a goal of what's realistic. And what's realistic. And then she's going to get a job, and she's going to get in that job, and then it's going to stop. You know, I hope this isn't for her, but this is an example of most people.

Then they get into their job, they get a secure paycheck that pays their bills, and then it becomes a cycle. They wake up, they go to work, they come home, they watch TV, they go to bed, hopefully at least once a week they get to do it. Then they wake up, they go to work, they watch TV, you know, and the cycle goes over and over and over again, and people stop dreaming. People stop setting goals. People stop moving to the future. The only time they think about their future is during New Year's Eve because that's when it's cool to think about your future. So it's one of those things. What's the tip?

The tip is to stop being mundane, to stop being average, and start looking forward and looking to achieve something because we wouldn't start this podcast over and over and over again if we weren't trying to achieve something. And that's the difference is with us, one of the things that keeps us going is there's always that next level. We know that the climb is the ultimate goal because if you set a goal and you work towards that goal, you're going to hit that goal. If you don't hit that goal, you're in the climb. Once you hit that goal, you're going to set a next goal, and guess what? You're going to start to climb all over again. So it's realizing that the joy in life comes from the climb.

However, in order to get into the climb, you need to have that next goal. And without the goals, you're never going to start. Okay, so I'm going to kind of share with where I'm at right now. And you've done this with a lot of things in our business. But for me, I don't want to say I'm new to the game, but I kind of feel like I'm still new to the game with my mindset and things like that. So for me, making that goal list, writing it out, which I'm a pen and paper person. Shannon is the technology, like use the iPad, things like that. I can write on the iPad and keep it for the rest of my life. So I use a pen and paper and lose it apparently. Yeah, ask her where her goal book is. Right here.

No, not that one. The one I made last time? Yeah. I don't know. So anyways, however it works better for you, you figure that part out. But for me, it is pen and paper, write down what my goal is. Now these things, I make different lists though. I make the short-term goal. I make the long-term goal. Because those goals might change as I achieve my short-term goals. I might say, ooh, okay, well what I wanted to do in October, I can actually achieve that in August and push that October, you know, kind of move things around. But so make that goal list, even if it's as simple as like cooking dinner at home, you know, four nights a week.

That was a big goal for me for a long time because we ate out a lot. Yeah, we're still trying to accomplish that goal. Well, now we don't eat out, we eat cereal. Cereal and okay, kids, hot dogs for dinner it is. I'm just messing with her. Like that's a joke. I'm not belittling her. She's actually doing really good. I'm just joking with her right now. But that was on a goal list before and I did achieve that goal. Yeah, and she did a great job and as a family we've done a great job. And then I would say put an end date to that goal. So that's where I feel like I did fail on my goal list and saying my goal was to run five miles. But when is that goal date up?

It was listed on my short-term goals because I want to have it done, you know, within a six-month period, but I really did not say, like, by my birthday or, you know, however, and maybe I'm not the one to make my training program. Maybe I need to do some research and go back to using a model that's already worked for someone, you know? You've heard that before, like, don't recreate the model, just follow it.

That could be true in what I need to do there, so I need to do a little bit more research to see what works for me, and one thing I just read in Rachel Hollis' book, and this is super important because if you can truly ingrain this in your mind, it'll help you achieve those goals, is that don't break the appointments with yourself. Write it down, put it, that's your, you know, this is what I'm doing today, these are the times I'm doing it, like, write out your schedule. Obviously, things come up in the day and they might deter you, but don't break that appointment, and I do that with boot camp every morning.

It's hard sometimes to get out of bed at 540 in the morning, but I have to tell myself, this is your time. My kids are sleeping, my husband's sleeping, the dog's sleeping, everybody's asleep, and once they get up, any mom knows, like, once you get up, like, your day's going and it's hard to stop because everything else comes on it, but that's my time for me to accomplish something, and I have to remind myself of that ever since I read her book, and I think that's a very good thing to say, is don't break that appointment with yourself. Yeah, that's very...

Well, and what you were just talking about in terms of goals as well, that's actually the acronym for what you were talking about is SMART goals. It's specific, time, smart, M, how do you spell smart? S-M. All right, so specific, measurable, actionable, I don't remember what the R is, and then T, time-bound. Reasonable. Like, reasonable? It might be reasonable. You know, so you want a specific, measurable, actionable, something time-bound goal. We're going to have Faith look that up and put it in there. Yeah, look up SMART goals. We'll put a link in the show notes page of standingstronger.com forward slash whatever this episode is, and you know, that's what she's talking about.

You know, lots of people talked about how that works, and another thing with goals and trying to accomplish goals, how are we going from procrastination to podcasting now to goals? Because we were talking about how to not procrastinate. Right, setting goals one of those ways. So, you know, that's funny. When I was building my business, this is what people would say to me, oh, Shannon, we're praying for you. I'm like, oh my God, thanks, we're praying that you're finally going to get that job, you're going to find what you want to do, and I knew what I wanted to do.

Now, I didn't know exactly what business I was going to run, but I knew I was going to build a business, I was going to work for myself, and I was going to make it happen. So I was going through that process. I come from a very blue-collar family. I didn't know how to run a business or build a business, so I had to learn all of that stuff as I went, spending my own money. And, you know, that was my goal. However, everyone else's goal was for me to get a nice, normal job. Oh, I'll pray for you. Now, just like Post Malone says, all they say is congratulations. It's funny because one of my dad's best friends was standing in our house and he's like, wow, if your dad could just see this.

Not that we have some crazy mansion or something, but we have a nice house. And he said what my mom and dad always said to me. He's like, man, he used to say all the time, these computers are never gonna make you any money. But I knew differently. And that was my goal. My parents' goal was for me to follow in what they thought was safe and good for me, which was to get a normal, nice, safe job. But guess what? Your normal, nice, safe job is never safe. So another tangent that I've gone on, but we gotta wrap this up because we're hitting our time limit. So what do you want to start this rabbitness up with?

I just want to say stop procrastinating, stop being frustrated, stop beginning again and again and finish. Yeah, and a great book is Finisher by John Acuff. He actually wrote a book, I think that said How to Start. So he has a book How to Start and then Finisher because after he wrote the book, I think it's How to Start, he realized that people were starting over and over and over again. And then Finisher was, he followed that up on. It was a great book. So I definitely highly recommend it. All right, so have a great day. All right, thank you guys. If you want more, go to standingshunger.com, standingshunger.com or shannonhair.com.

Now, one of the good things that we should point out here is I'm going to have a somewhat solo podcast. Shannon's gonna have a somewhat solo podcast. Mine's called KLT Authority. We still haven't figured out what Shannon's gonna be called, but you can find those at littleshannon.com and mine at kltauthority.com. So thank you. Have a fantastic day. And as always, hopefully I'll see you on the beaches of the world. Bye.