Unlocking Your Potential by Defeating Procrastination - Episode #71

The Peace & Prosperity Podcast is a bi-weekly conversation with Jason Phillips, LCSW, licensed therapist and confidence expert in Raleigh, NC, discussing all things related to self-love and self-confidence, and how we can improve ourselves personally and professionally.

Ever found yourself stuck in a cycle of missed deadlines and mounting self-doubt? You're not alone. On this episode of the Peace and Prosperity Podcast, I share personal stories of battling procrastination and its sneaky ways of derailing our path to success. We peel back the layers of why we so often convince ourselves that there’s always more time, only to find ourselves stressed and scrambling at the last minute. Procrastination isn't just a time thief; it's a confidence killer, and it’s time we face it head-on.

Join me as we unpack the harsh consequences of procrastination, like missed goals and lost opportunities, and the frustrating cycle of playing catch-up. From fitness aspirations to career milestones, putting off our plans leaves us feeling out of sync and unfulfilled. I emphasize the power of immediate action and the importance of planning with intent to break free from this cycle. Tune into this candid conversation, where the focus is on empowering you to recognize procrastination's traps, take decisive action, and turn your dreams into reality. Plus, remember to join our podcast community—like, share, subscribe, and let us know what topics you want us to cover next. Engage with us, send a DM, or leave a review. Let's continue this journey towards peace and prosperity together.

To stay connected with Jason and learn about coaching, connect with Jason on social media:

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Visit Jason's website for a consultation:

Website -https://www.jasonlphillips.com

To book Jason to speak to your team or organization:

https://peaceprosperitycoaching.hbportal.co/public/660d8068c9d2d600253b215b/1-Inquiry

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

All right, what's up y'all? We are back for another episode of the Peace and Prosperity Podcast, and today we're going to be diving into why you need to stop procrastinating and why procrastination is hindering you from being successful. Now, this is one of those topics that we have to revisit every now and again, because y'all know well at least I know that procrastination is something that we can fall victim to, and I'm not going to talk to you and say that I have not been in that same category, or not even in that category now, right? So, those of y'all who've been rocking with the podcast for a couple of years now I don't even know the date, but there are times where I've procrastinated on recording or releasing an episode. So what I want to share with you are what are some of the reasons why we start to procrastinate and then like what do you do about it? Because it's not just enough to know, like oh yeah, you're right, jason, this is something I'm doing, let's get into also. You know how to avoid it.

Speaker 1: 1:09

So when we procrastinate or we we wait to do something, sometimes we think that we're giving ourselves more time, and there are times where you truly are, but more often, what you're doing is you're causing yourself more stress. I think about when I'm in. You know when I'm in school right now, and there are times when we have an assignment due, and I know when the assignment is due. It's typically a couple of weeks out, a couple of months out, but I'll find myself waiting until the last minute to start the assignment. Now do I do this all the time? Absolutely not, because I've learned, particularly I learned in high school and undergrad. It was causing me too much stress. But even though now it'll sneak up on me but I'll think that I have more time, but really I don't. When I think that I have more time to do something, what ends up happening is I cause myself more stress. So we have to stop thinking that, oh, I can do it tomorrow or I can put this off to later, because when later comes, the time is there, but now we're on a deadline. So I want you to one realize that when you put something off and you say I'll get to it later, you're causing yourself much, much more stress. So that's the first thing we got to get get that out the way.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Second thing that happens when you wait, you can easily end up missing your goals or missing the mark. Let's say, for instance, you have a goal that you want to go to the gym, or you want to lose 20 pounds by X month or whatever date Okay, but then you wait to go to the gym, you wait to plan out your meals, you wait to start walking. So what happens is by you waiting and thinking that you have more time now, you missed that goal. And then you start to feel like, dang, here we go again. No, no, it's not here we go again. It's that you waited until it was too late. So now you're trying to do a lot of catch-up work and when it comes to things like fitness, or even in your career or relationships, you cannot do the catch-up work. So there's no way around doing the actual work. So you have to plan for it and ultimately, you have to execute. So I want you to stop, stop waiting to get started on whatever said goal is, because when that goal is missed, then you're going to feel depressed. You may be beating yourself up, so you may have some self-doubt. You may even feel like a failure because you missed that goal.

Speaker 1: 3:37

Another thing that happens when you wait is you end up missing out on opportunities. Think about something that you wanted and it was there, but you weren't ready. Or you said I'm going to get to that later. I know I'm going to get to it later, I'm going to get to it later, but when you do get to it, the opportunity is no longer there. So this is why I said we want to take action and not think that we just have all this time to get something done. Hey, peace and prosperity, family. I want to take a moment to talk about something vital for all organizations employee wellness. I focus on tackling issues such as low morale, burnout and helping teams thrive by improving their employee wellness. Here's what some of the past organizations have shared about their experiences.

Speaker 2: 4:32

Jason Phillips has been a tremendous value to our team. His session on psychological safety and mental health tools for leadership has been immense for all of us.

Speaker 3: 4:45

The privilege of joining Mr Jason Phillips a wonderful session about psychological safety and psychological health. There are a lot of key takeaways from his presentation. I mean he discussed just how leadership impacts team health and team mental health.

Speaker 1: 5:03

In was in Jason's session today and I just took away a lot of invaluable information to bring back to my shop. If you're interested in investing in your team's mental health, visit jasonlphillipscom or visit the link below and let's talk about creating a thriving work environment for your organization. Now back to the episode, Another thing that happens when we wait we end up hurting not only ourselves, but we have the. There's a possibility that you could hurt certain relationships in that process because you don't feel like you're ready. Maybe your confidence is not where you think it should be. Let me paint the scenario for you you, in a relationship, you know this is your person, but your person wants you to be at a certain level, or maybe they want a certain level of ambition and drive. That that's that's attractive to them and you know you have it in you. But you, you're a little nervous, You're scared to actually be that person. So now the relationship has a lot of ups and downs because there's been a lot of unmet expectations or disappointments. You've let them down because you didn't meet the the bar and you feel like dang, that's the person who got away, or this didn't work out for me because I wasn't. You know, they weren't the one for me, and sometimes that's the case, but sometimes you just weren't putting yourself in position to have the thriving relationship. You didn't go out and be the person that you know you can be for that relationship to really thrive. Sometimes we get stretched. We get stretched in certain situations but we are nervous, we're anxious, we're scared to fail and in our mind we end up talking ourselves out of the situation or the relationship before it really even gets started or as it's getting started. We'll do what we call self-sabotage. Y'all know you may have been there before and you know, like man, if I would have only executed, stepped up to the plate in this area I hear this a lot from my fellas we look back and there's the whole shoulda, coulda, woulda. So let's not let that be the case.

Speaker 1: 7:23

Moving forward, the last thing I want to say that happens when we wait on things, kind of circling back to the beginning I said it causes us more stress. It also puts more stress on our health, like more physical and mental stress. So by you not achieving, or you not let me not even say achieving by you not taking action and you procrastinating on putting certain things in place, making certain moves and you're trying to hold it all together. And on the outside it may seem like you know what. I can do this, but on the inside you're having headaches like right tension headaches. You got these aches and pains. Your body's breaking down. You just feel like muscle tightness. All of these things are happening. Maybe you have poor sleep. So, by you procrastinating, on the outside you look good, but on the inside you feel terrible, and that is one of the detriments to you waiting on the quote, unquote, right time, not taking the action.

Speaker 1: 8:25

So y'all, we got to do a better job of actually executing again, because what's happening is we're having more stress, we're missing out on opportunities, we're missing out on personal goals, so we're not reaching the goals that we want, Our relationships are not thriving and, ultimately, we're not in the best health when we do that. So you like OK, Jason, you ran down all the reasons why I need to execute. So you're like OK, Jason, you ran down all the reasons why I need to execute. How do I do it? I'm going to give you three things to think about and three strategies that you can implement. One you have to avoid perfectionism. Even as I'm talking to you now, there are certain things that probably could be better. But when we get into the perfectionistic mode or perfectionism, however you want to put it we usually get bogged down. We start to become really particular about certain things. Oh wait, this is not right. Oh, my hair is not right. Oh, my outfit is not right. Oh, my makeup is not right. Oh, my size is not right, my confidence is not right. All these things happen, and then we don't take any type of action. So now we become stagnant and then another day goes by and another day goes by. So y'all know we got to avoid perfectionism, because done what is it Done is better than perfect and progress Like, just give yourself credit for the progress that you're making. That's the first thing I want you to do.

Speaker 1: 9:48

Second thing break that thing down into smaller goals. Essentially, I want you to clarify what the goal is. So, for instance, if you want to, you know, land that next job. But you're thinking, oh, I don't have the degree. Okay, what skill do you have to get you closer to that job? What's? What are you leaving off of your resume? What are connections that you know? Who can you have to get you closer to that job? What are you leaving off of your resume. What are connections that you know? Who can you talk to? Who can you get mentorship from? Let's break it down into smaller steps, because you can't get that degree overnight. But what you can do is look through your contact list and talk to somebody who can connect you with somebody who is already in that spot, or you can connect you. They can connect you with somebody who is already in that spot, or you can connect you. They can connect you with academic advisor or somebody who can help you get closer to the goal. But, like, break that thing down into smaller steps.

Speaker 1: 10:39

And then, lastly, you have to identify who is your support system. Who is your support system that you can rely on so that you don't procrastinate, Like who can hold you accountable? Because one thing I'll say now I know I talk a lot about having you know, having a personal trainer Shout out to Pierre. He definitely keeps me accountable and gets me right, but it helps me not procrastinate on certain things that are important to me because I know somebody is going to be checking in with me. So, yeah, the three things again you can do avoid perfectionism. Done is better than perfect. Break that task down into smaller goals and have an accountability partner or, better yet, a stronger support system. And if you're lacking in any of those areas, now you know this is where you start, so that you can enhance your situation and stop procrastinating. All right, y'all listen, I know I this is where you start, so that you can enhance your situation and stop procrastinating. All right, y'all Listen, I know I know you may be thinking all right, Jason, you talking to me on this one, OK, cool, but now what you going to do about it? All right, Peace.

Speaker 1: 11:42

Thank you all for listening to another episode of the Peace and Prosperity podcast. Episode of the Peace and Prosperity Podcast. Again, if you are feeling like, hey, I'm experiencing high functioning anxiety, don't beat yourself up about it. It is okay. We all experience anxiety from time to time and I gave you a couple of things that you can do on your own, but don't hesitate to reach out to a professional to better manage what you're going through. Ok, and lastly, make sure, if you have not like, share, subscribe to the podcast and send this out to a friend. And if you want to hear certain episodes or have certain conversations, let me know. You can shoot me a DM or just leave a review and I will definitely follow up. All right, y'all be blessed Peace.