Urgency-Based Motivation: Why You Wait Until the Last Minute… and What to Do Instead

If you’ve ever waited way too long to get ready, start a task, write the post, send the email, or take action in your business — even though you had plenty of time — this episode is going to feel like a hug, a mirror, and a strategy session all at once.

Today, Regan breaks down urgency-based motivation — the habit of needing chaos, time pressure, or adrenaline in order to move — and why so many women unknowingly rely on it to activate themselves in life and business.

Inside this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why your brain keeps waiting for the last-minute panic spike
• How urgency becomes your default activation pattern
• Why this drains your nervous system (and your pleasure)
• The simple neuroscience behind dopamine & motivation
• How to use pleasure-led motivation instead of stress
• Practical tools that help you get things done without burning out
• How to create momentum that actually feels good

This is your invitation to stop depending on chaos…
 and start using pleasure as the fuel that moves you forward with ease, consistency, and a regulated nervous system.

Resources Mentioned:

• Pleasurepreneur Business Audit (Free)
• Make It a Masterpiece: In-Person Immersion
• Pleasurepreneur Mastermind Waitlist
• The 3-Week Accelerator Program 👇👇👇
   

THE JANUARY 3-WEEK ACCELERATOR PROGRAM 

If 2026 is the year you want to feel clear, on purpose, and profitable from the very first month…
This is for you.

High-focus, high-clarity coaching container designed to give you the three things that determine your income and ease for the entire year:
1️⃣ A signature offer that actually sells
2️⃣ A precise understanding of your ideal client
3️⃣ Messaging that lands, converts, and feels good to share

Across our 3 weeks together, you’ll walk away with:

✨ A refined, confident offer you can't wait to sell
✨ A price point that feels aligned af
✨ Deep insight into what makes your ideal client buy
✨ Messaging that show your ideal clients you're the obvious choice
✨ A simple, pleasure-led visibility + sales plan for February
✨ Momentum you can feel in your body - and your audience can feel too

Perfect if you’re ready for:

💛 Direction instead of a million ideas and energy
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💛 A business that feels like it's giving back financially, what you're putting in energetically
💛 A profitable start to the year without the emotional rollercoaster and confusion

If you want clients and momentum before February even begins - this is for you.

Click HERE to join or DM me below if you have any questions.

Connect with Regan:

Instagram: @regan_figg

Transcript

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[00:00:00]  Hello and welcome to the Pleasurepreneur podcast. This podcast will help you create what you desire in your business with pleasure. Whether that be calling in your ideal clients, making more money, or creating a balanced business life blend, I'm your host. Regan Fig pleasure and business coach, published author of a Mother's Pleasure wife and mama to three little Wildlings.

However, you're choosing to listen to this podcast. Ask yourself, how can I make this more pleasurable and do just that? I acknowledge the custodians of the land on which this podcast is recorded and produced, the Wadi Wadi people of Doland. Now let's proceed with pleasure.

Regan: Hello. Hello. Hi all. Oh my gosh. I've got about six podcast episodes to record today. I'm not gonna get six done. No way. but I was like, right, I want [00:01:00] to be organized. A big goal of mine from this year was getting organized. I hired the coach that I work with Beck, the start of this year because she seemed like she could help me get organized and she certainly has.

And so part of that is obviously planning ahead. I work really well. Flying by the seat of my pants. I work really well, just like harnessing the creative effervescence that comes to me. I work really well when I am running late, when there is a sense of urgency, when I have a. Deadline looming. Which makes so much sense.

Like a lot of this stuff, especially what I'm talking about now, like having to kind of be almost running late in order to get motivated and get organized.

So anyway, I have a few 

podcast episodes that I wanna record and I sat there just on my phone now for about 15 minutes, just scrolling reels on Instagram until I had enough lulls that made me go, okay, I can get started recording now. And it's just so obvious to me that it's [00:02:00] because I need a dopamine surge to motivate me to get stuck into some work, and it is just.

The perfect segue into this episode's conversation to this episode. Full stop. This episode is all about urgency based motivation. And you'll know that you have urgency based motivation. When you were maybe nodding along to some of those examples I was sharing before, maybe you wait until you're almost running late before you start taking action.

Even though you've had so much time to like get ahead and get organized and like you wouldn't have to be rushed or stressed, but you need like a certain element of like, oh my God, I'm almost running late. Or a certain element of like. I wanna say like chaos and stress in order to move, in order to activate yourself, to have enough motivation to get going, to take the action, to do the task to.

This reminds me of 

an experience that I had recently, not just talking about today, trying to get my podcast [00:03:00] done, but not so long ago. And I shared it to my stories and so many of you resonated and were like, hell yes. I know exactly what you mean, Regan. So I was getting ready for a party. Or at least I should have been getting ready for a party.

I had plenty of time. I had showered, you know, I'd done the basic prep. And then like I had all of this time sitting in front of me. And if you follow me on stories on Instagram, you might remember the photo. Actually it was a video of me, like sitting back, literally just feeding myself chocolate cake.

And I had said some version of like, just waiting for there to be enough time to have passed so that I'm almost running late so I can start getting ready. And it resonated with so many of you, like I said, and

you know, not getting dressed, not doing my hair, not putting on my makeup, you know, just sitting there eating cake, fully aware that I need to get moving. And I remember thinking, oh, look at this. Here I go again. I am not getting ready, even though I have plenty of time and asking myself like, why am I.

Eating cake [00:04:00] on my bed right now when I have somewhere to be, when I have something to get ready for. And the answer was obvious.

I was waiting for what's called urgency based motivation to kick in. Right? Like what, what I was talking about before, like waiting to be late or having that time pressure. I was waiting for the clock to get close enough that my brain would have that little spark of adrenaline and it would say like, okay babe, like now you have to move.

You know, I needed that spike that. Internal little dash of adrenaline. Like I said before, I could activate, before I could motivate, before I could like use the time that I had and get up off my bed and get dressed and ready and. In that moment, I recognized that like, Ooh, I really can rely on urgency based motivation to get stuff done, but I know I don't have to.

And I know, as I said, like a lot of you resonated. So I wanna share with you the other things that I do that also help me not [00:05:00] rely on urgency based motivation. It's not the end of the world. It does get us to move and take the steps we need to take, but oftentimes we're waiting for that. As I said earlier, that chaos, that stress, that pressure 

in order to take the action.

You might feel 

inconsistent. Your motivation might feel maybe a bit random. You might procrastinate on things you genuinely want to do until there is just enough pressure right now. Maybe you only. Now, maybe you only take action when you're almost running late. Maybe you don't write the post until you realize it's been a week since you showed up.

Maybe you don't start selling until you're like, shit, I actually need to make some money. Yeah, like this is urgency based motivation and like while it does work, it's not exactly a pleasurable way to run a business, unless of course you find pleasure in, you know, everything needing to be chaotic and stressful in order for you to achieve your goals.

Not fun for our nervous [00:06:00] system right now, because when you rely on. I wanna say like chaos, but it is like time pressure. It is, let's just call it urgency. When you rely on this urgency to activate yourself, you are basically telling your nervous system, like, I need to, I need stress to move. I need panic to prepare.

I need adrenaline to get started. I need to feel stressed in order to. Take action, achieve what I wanna achieve right now. That obviously becomes exhausting. That is not as pleasure entrepreneurs the way we wanna feel. It's not sustainable, right? So today we are going to talk about a completely different way to create motivation.

One that doesn't rely on waiting until you are, you know, metaphorically or literally just sitting on your bed eating cake until the last second. We're gonna talk about how to use your brain's reward system, which is accessing pleasure to activate motivation instead.

So let's talk about why urgency feels [00:07:00] good until it doesn't. Of course. Because like, here's the thing, urgency works, you know, it gives you a hit of dopamine. It pulls your focus in, it snaps your energy online, right? Like you really lock in. It gets you moving. But as you may have felt for yourself, relying on urgency as your main source of MO motivation, like that's where things stop being pleasurable.

When your motivation only turns up, when you're stressed, when you are running out of time or feeling like you're backed into a corner, your nervous system pays the price. You start living in a pattern of like, I need chaos to activate myself. Now, you, you might not be aware of this consciously but if you are like nodding along to this conversation, that might be something that's happening subconsciously.

I. Yeah, you might start requiring adrenaline to feel ready. You might start depending on, you know, panic to get things done, and your business then becomes a series of self-created emergencies even when you don't want it to. Yeah. A [00:08:00] lot of women in business. Is the only pattern they've ever known for a number of reasons.

So let's talk about the alternative. Let's talk about a much more pleasurable 

way to get things done. A way that doesn't rely on stress or chaos or panic or feeling like you're backed into a corner, a way that doesn't require your nervous system to be on high alert. And that is learning how to use pleasure to activate your motivation, because pleasure creates the same internal surge that urgency gives you, except it feels good.

It is actually sustainable. It supports your system instead of drain set, This is where your brain's reward system becomes one of your biggest business assets, or even just your biggest like party asset so that you can actually get ready for that party on time and not be stressed and leaving stuff at home instead of packing it in your handbag.

So I know this as well, right? So this is exactly what I did a few weeks ago when I was noticing that I was just. Laying on my bed, eating cake, waiting for time to pass, so I would be late. I was like, [00:09:00] oh, yeah, look, I'm doing this urgency based motivation thing again. You know, that feels like the most unconscious, easeful pathway to default into.

So I was like, no, I know I can hack this and I can do it in a way that's not forcing myself to get out of bed eating cake. 'cause that's pleasurable too. Right? So what did I do? I was like, right, I know I want, I want that extra bit of dopamine hit, kind of like. Watching the reels this morning to have a laugh, you know, until I got enough of a dopamine surge that I was like, right.

Actually, let's get stuck into some work. This is why I say like, this is part of the reason why pleasure leads to productivity. I. When we are cup filled, when we're feeling like we have filled up our cup with pleasure it actually gives us energy. It gives us motivation, it allows us to move. So what did I do to get myself off the bed eating cake?

Obviously I finished my cake. That was a requirement. But I know like, ooh, music for me is really good for me to tap into [00:10:00] that, you know, hits those like, I don't know what it is, but it hits those like personal pleasure. I wanna say personal pleasure places. I'm not talking about like physically on my body.

I think it's in my brain, So for me, I'm like, Ooh, I reckon I can stay here finishing my cake, but I'm gonna listen to like a fun party, like wanna start dancing or jogging kind of song. So I started doing that and then I realized, like I remembered like, Ooh, I also have a pot of glitter and I wanna put some glitter on my face.

And like the pleasure of girlhood motivated me and I was like, I love having a dance and moving my body around. I also do love putting on makeup. So even just the anticipation of the pleasure of those things was enough for my reward system to activate itself and motivate me to move. So I didn't even have to do all of those, I think four things.

I didn't even have to listen to the music, put on the makeup, apply the glitter dance around my room. I didn't even have to, but I thought, oh, these are some of the things that I can do that are gonna bring me [00:11:00] pleasure. And as I said, just the anticipation of that activated that dopamine surge enough to motivate me to finish my cake and 

get off the bed and get started getting ready.

Speaker: Okay, I have a match made in heaven for you if you are so ready for big profit and big pleasure in 2026, but you're not quite sure how to make it happen. Well, I have two actually. Now, if your business is feeling harder than it should, if you feel as though your income isn't matching your effort and you know that 2026 is meant to be.

A lot more pleasurable and more profitable, then the Pleasurepreneur Business Audit is for you. It is one of my favorite freebies. It is a private podcast and workbook. It's gonna help you figure out exactly what's clogging up your profit, your pleasure, and your momentum. Make some tiny tweaks now that will make 2026 richer in.

All of the ways you can literally knock it over in under an hour. The Kinky Linky. I will pop down for you in the show notes, and if you wanna go even deeper and have my support to implement [00:12:00] these kind of things into your business, I want you to get inside the. The UN originally titled accelerator program, you'll finish up with not just an offer that you're obsessed with that actually fills your books and your bank account.

you'll also have crystal clarity on who your dream client is, not just who you have called in in the past and how to call them in, and messaging that is so spot on. You become the mentor that they have to hire. Now you will leave this accelerator program with a pleasure led sales plan. You'll leave with on point pricing that feels really fucking aligned for you.

Ethical bio-psychology. You can actually use messaging that makes you the obvious choice. And of course, most importantly. A sense of excitement and momentum that you can feel in your body before you even start selling. We are not relying on external sales metrics to feel good and create momentum in 2026.

Now, we kick off the accelerator program on January 12. It's a fraction of my mentoring price. And again, check out the show notes for [00:13:00] details and let's make 2026 the year. You are the badass that gives yourself the support and the results that you want.

Regan: So let's break this down 

really simply as to how this reward system actually works so that you are aware of this the next time you are relying on that urgency based motivation so that you can actually start taking action, taking steps with natural, real true motivation and momentum than waiting for the stress and the time pressure.

Your brain loves rewards. Yeah. It loves the anticipation. It loves novelty and delight and satisfaction and pleasure. Yeah. When your brain senses something enjoyable is coming, it releases dopamine. Yeah, so we talked about that before. That's the neurochemical that's responsible for motivation and focus and movement and follow through.

That is. The resource that I and my clients rely on heavily to do all the [00:14:00] heavy lifting, for us to create that natural, energized desire and motivation to have us achieve our work in a way that feels so good and easeful and not exhausting. So when you add micro pleasures or the anticipation of pleasure to the things that you need to get done, your brain activates without needing.

Without needing the chaos, without needing the time pressure, or the urgency, right? This is why pleasure led motivation works. So I wanna give you some examples that you can imagine or that you can play with yourself and use them yourself. I want it to be practical because I know that we all like those real life examples.

It can take some of the heavy lifting off our brain. So I've come up with a bit of a list of ways that you might like to hack your reward system so that you don't have to rely on urgency or stress or chaos. Number one. I want you to pair the task with something pleasurable. So like me getting [00:15:00] ready for the party, I was like, okay.

So music, makeup, glitter, dancing. So this might look for you, this might look like for you lighting your favorite candle, music that makes you feel alive, a cozy space. Or like somewhere with a really beautiful view that makes you kind of like, ugh, like feel really good. Your brain will start associating the activity with good feelings.

Yeah. That will create that dopamine surge and help motivate you to get it done. Number two, add tiny rewards. Yeah. So when I finish this podcast, I'm gonna make myself a delicious coffee. Or email or piece of content or reel or whatever it might be. It could be after I go live.

I'll sit in the sun for five minutes. Once I have finished whatever it is that's on my list, I'm gonna take myself for a swim down the beach. Yeah. Anticipation leads to dopamine. Number three, create a pleasure ritual before. So that could be a slow [00:16:00] breath, that could be a stretch, that could be grounding movement, that could be pleasurable movement, dance, a little self touch.

What this does is that it then helps your system to learn that when I do this, I feel good. So let's go. You know, what else did I talk about? Novelty number four, novelty work somewhere new, play a different playlist, change the environment. Novelty, naturally spikes your dopamine. This is what 

motivates human development so. For us to progress as a species, we need to experience variety. We need to consume a variety of foods, interact with a variety of different environments, and people have a variety of different mates. I don't know. And so therefore, variety or novelty is rewarded in our brain to motivate us to get that variety.

So make it variety. Focus on novelty that's gonna help to spike that dopamine. We've got three more. Number five, [00:17:00] of course, like make it fun on purpose. You might like to gamify it. My middlest child, he gamifies everything and the motivation he has to finish emptying the dishwasher to beat the timer on the microwave is pretty impressive.

So you might like to create a three minute challenge or. Put on a podcast that makes you laugh while you do the thing or put on some music so you can dance to it while you do it. You know, like set a timer and gamify it like I talked about. Two more. Now is number six. I want you to celebrate your micro wins like every little.

I did it like every little. Yes, I did it. I achieved that. I finished it anchors your motivation. This is why it feels really good to like. Tick off a list, you are actually physically rewarding yourself. Something else you can do to actually celebrate those micro wins is to have some kind of a physical representation of that.

So yes, like ticking the list. It could also be like dropping little pebbles into a jar. Yeah, if there could be many of different [00:18:00] ways that you can really. what's the word I'm looking for? Symbolize those rewards. And then the last one that you might like to play with is connect the task to your deeper desire.

So when your mind remembers why the task matters, your body's gonna join in. so these are tiny shifts, but they change so much and they're really great tools to have in your tool belt. They're really great options so that we're not relying on that sort of chaos and stress and time pressure 

to motivate us to move.

So I want 

you to start noticing when you are using urgency as your activation source, as your motivation Kickstarter, and then I want you to play with replacing that urgency with pleasure. Because when you learn to activate your motivation through pleasure, instead of time, pressure, chaos, stress, getting yourself back into a corner feeling your whole business is gonna change, and your nervous system will change.

And how [00:19:00] you feel about your, your business will change. And because here's the other thing too. If we are associating our business or achieving with. Stress and panic and chaos and nervous system dysregulation, we will sabotage ourself from creating that success. Whereas if we can start to maybe sprinkle in a few other of those exercises or practical practices I've suggested where you can sprinkle in a little bit more of that pleasure to activate the reward system in your brain to.

Have you then start associating with associating, achieving with pleasure, your body, your nervous system, your subconscious, you are actually gonna be drawn to more achievement because it is associated with pleasure. So, like I said, start noticing where you're using urgency as your activation source and play 

with replacing that urgency with pleasure.

You will stop relying on [00:20:00] chaos. 

You will be way more efficient and your energy will be so much more consistent. Your nervous system is going to be so much more regulated and you're gonna step away from creating. In a stress response. Yeah. So if you are listening to this and thinking, yeah, actually I really want to be drawn to achieving all the things that I wanna achieve, I actually really want to create like natural momentum to take action in my business and to even maybe do tasks that I'm, I don't find super motivating.

If you are wanting to be drawn to doing things that regulate your system, your nervous system, and actually have you feel good and achieving, not in spite of. Pleasure and enjoyment and a regulated nervous system, but because of it, you need to come talk to me about working together. You can fill in an application form to work with me one-on-one.

You can't look, there's so many options. It is the end of the year, and I have just. [00:21:00] Looked at a whole bunch of different ways that people can work with me next year. So we've got one-on-one you can apply to Work with me one-on-one. You can put your name down on the wait list for the Pleasurepreneur Mastermind.

You can join me for the Make it a Masterpiece in Person Immersion. That's actually happening in February. So if you are jumping in early, you'll get some early bird rates and what's coming up. The soonest is January 12. I am going to be running a three week accelerator program. Look, I couldn't come up with a better, more original name, and that's okay because this is just for a very specific person who wants to really start the year off super clear with very.

Good focus and direction, knowing exactly what it is they're offering, like really defining and refining your offer or offers so that you have one that lights you up that feels so good that you cannot wait to sell. And you know who you are selling it to. So you are really [00:22:00] dialing in on who your ideal client is on how to speak to them, how do you actually have messaging that talks to them and resonates with them.

And then obviously sharing that messaging so that it converts to sales. So it converts to actually you getting to help. Those clients and create the results that you know you can help them with. And then finally, the last piece in this three week accelerator program is really putting together a personalized strategy for you to sell your pleasure infused signature offer to your most ideal adoring, not adoring, but like you adore working with them, clients.

The 

last part is about learning how to sell that signature offer that you cannot wait to sell because you're gonna love it so much, you cannot wait to sell it, which means you'll actually do better at selling it and convert so many more sales because you can't wait.

To your most ideal client with messaging that is precisely what speaks to them and is clear and draws them into you and has them jumping [00:23:00] into your dms without feeling like you've done any work. You'll be learning how to sell that offering to that ideal client with the messaging that we put together.

So it is a, as I said, an accelerated program. It is three weeks to get you so clear on what it's your, what it is that you're selling, who you are selling to, and how you're selling. It with pleasure. So you're set for the rest of the year. Yeah. You'll walk away with a personalized strategy. You will be so clear on those three things.

You'll feel so in control and certain and have such great direction and focus. Ready to kick off and start the momentum and income and clients and impact rolling in come February. So. You'll find a link to that in the show notes. but do ask me like, come and jump into my dms. I love having conversations with you guys.

So jump into my dms. Let's talk about what would be the right fit for you, and yeah, let's explore those in the dms. All right, my loves. Bye for now. I'm gonna pick up children from school. I hope you are having the [00:24:00] most pleasurable day, I will be speaking with you here sooner or later. Bye.