Good morning. Welcome to another episode, I'm going to just warn you straight off the bat. I've had coffee just now and it's nice and early in the morning, which is my favourite time of the day, and I'm just roughing off life. So I feel like this is gonna be a very high energy episode for you, even though I'm talking about as you can see in the title, I am talking about things like procrastination and perfectionism and productivity, which doesn't sound like fun.
But I just get so excited talking about this stuff and helping to actually create some structures and mindset works and belief system changes for you to get productive AF so you can live your best life, which is probably why I'm frothing so much at the moment, just a bit of a life update, I am frothing life's so hard at the moment, just because Paul and I are going to Europe in about four weeks time, for the trip of like my dreams, my dream life has all just kind of like it's
everything's lined up in the last few months. And I'm so happy and just so grateful and so excited. And it's gonna be so fun to bring you on a journey with this podcast from different countries where obviously, we've got 10 countries that we're writing. So we're taking our bikes, we're literally cycling from Amsterdam, across to Romania, or at least that's the plan. So we've got 10 countries.
And I'm taking my mic, I'm taking my equipment, and I'm gonna just see what energy I pick up on in different countries, which I'm sure will be a hoot for you. I am like an absolute. I remember once actually, this is going on a tangent. But I remember once the very first time I'd ever seen a psychic, I sat down and the first thing she said to me was, Oh, you've got a restless soul. And I was like, yeah, that that definitely lands I just, and it's restless in a good way. It's like I just want to
explore. And so COVID has been so interesting, because there's obviously like we've done a lot of Australia. But I am just so excited to explore again. And yeah, there's just so much exciting stuff going on. So I am really, really excited. And I also wanted to just say thank you so much, because this podcast energetically like there's just so much going on, I think at the moment that you know how I always say the better
it gets, the better it gets. I think this is why my energy and vibration at the moment is just so high. So things just keep getting better and better. But this podcast is like, hopefully, hopefully, on the downloads. So thank you so much for anybody who has left a review for anybody who has liked or shared, it just means the world like it really does. And, you know, obviously right now, to set the scene, I'm actually sitting in my closet, because I think the
sounds a bit better. So I'm just sitting by myself in my dressing gown in my closet surrounded by my clothes. And it's easy to forget that there's people listening and that it's actually helping helping people, I would do this, you know if it was helping one person. So the fact that it's getting to more people and helping more people just
means the world. And so I actually want to just before I get into today's episode, I do want to share the winner who's going to win another winner coaching session with me we had an amazing coaching session last month for the winner of the leaving a review and got really clear on some of her underlying sort of it was actually money mindset that we went into on that coaching session. And so if you are the winner of this one, please please please get in
touch. Because we want to give you a free coaching session with me. And that is Becky who said tells it how it is what a woman it's so refreshing to hear you speak and share. Love, love, love the morning routines episode and making it your own. The not waiting for permission episode was so spot on and doing things that light you up. Thank you for being a bright shining light sister. You're amazing. So Becky from fit, fit focus,
please, please get in touch. I would love to offer you a one on one session so that we can get you lit up living your dream life and seeing what underlying mindset stuff might be getting in the way. So beautiful set segue there did not mean to do that. But beautiful segue for me to launch straight into procrastination. Since we're talking about things that are getting in the way of your success of your goals or of your productivity of the life you
want to live. What I found working with lots of amazing women and very goal centric women and people who are really trying to get shit done and have these amazing goals is that procrastination tends to be something that really gets in the way and I want to talk about
that today. And I actually am running a free masterclass which is going to touch on a lot of this stuff myself and my amazing friend Steph got gotten who some of you will probably know, I just looked at the clock as I said stuffs name and it was 444 So I'm going to look that up anyway. Yeah, we're actually 444 is all about foundations and structure. Interesting. Isn't that crazy? So yeah, we're literally talking about the file. nations and the structures you need to be productive and to stop
procrastinating. And we're doing it in a master class, which is going to be so good, like, the content is fucking fire like it really is, I got so excited making the content. And we wanted to do that for free, because we've noticed both of us in our businesses working with so many women who get into cycles of overwhelm procrastination, and then more stress. And that stops from success. It really does. And so all of the details for that are
in the show notes. And I'll speak a little bit more about that at the end of today's episode. But for now, I actually want to talk about, first of all, let's look at what procrastination is, I'm not going to get deep into it, because you all know, I get messages all the time I get
comments on my Instagram. And it's a lot of people resonate with procrastinate snacking, which was always my one, procrastinate cleaning, which, you know, when I've got a really clean house, I used to laugh when I when it was marking time and report writing time when I was a teacher, I used to like Paul was like, ah, the house is spotless, have you got reports to be writing? Or have you got essays to be marking, and I was like, I don't want to I really don't, but the house was
spotless. And so you know, doing all the other things, except the things that are actually causing you stress and really, like perpetuating this cycle really, of Oh, my God, I've got so much to do, I feel so stressed, I'm going to just procrastinate. And now I'm going to feel more stressed. And so it's this cycle that really can, it perpetuates the stress response, it stops us from getting really clear,
really productive. And it stops us from getting shit done so that we can go on and move on with our life because the things that we're avoiding other things that are going to actually relieve the stress. But what I want to say is, procrastination is a symptom. It's a symptom of something going on under the surface. And this is where my role comes in as a mindset expert is going, what's going on under the surface for this
symptom. And I want to look at the root cause when we address the root cause, then the symptom disappears. Just imagine if the medical industry worked that way. Well, instead of just giving us prescription they actually address the root cause. Anyway, don't get political Breanna. Sorry, I could rant about that. But I'm not going to today. So we want to actually go to the root cause and then we
can stop the symptom. And before I get into those three things that might be the root cause, I want to say first, if you are somebody who is a serial procrastinator, and you are somebody who tends to do it all the time, and get really good results. Regardless, there is actually a subconscious reason why you have this cycle. And you continue with this cycle. Now listen in because this was me, and this is me to be completely
honest with you. I am the person and you might resonate with this, especially if you were a cat, this kind of student who left everything until the last minute, you were the person who you know, the teachers decide now, don't leave this until the last minute because it's not the bla bla bla bla bla and you're
like cut Challenge accepted. And the night before you'd open it and go, What am I doing, and then you'd do it last minute, or you'd be doing an all nighter right before the due date and submit it, you'd get great results. You've already got an evidence log in your subconscious mind that you get good results from this. And some people actually keep on with this cycle because there is a positive secondary game here.
Now when we look at our patterns, anything that we repeatedly do, even when we consciously say I'm so frustrated at myself, I don't want to keep doing this. Why do I do this? Why do I do this thing? Even though I keep telling myself I'm not going to Why do I keep eating chocolate? Even though I told myself I'm not going to? Why do I keep procrastinating even though I've got so much to do on my to do
list. Oftentimes the reason we keep doing the thing that we say we don't want to do because it's causing us stress and it's not aligning with our goals. When we keep doing it, there's a subconscious positive secondary gain there. So you are actually getting some sort of benefit from the pattern from the behaviour. And if you can look at it and go okay, now, is this actually worth it this positive secondary gain? Is this actually worth it? And if your answer is no, if you go actually yes, I
might get good results. But this stress caused by the procrastination is not fucking worth it. I don't like this feeling. Then you need to actually start to deconstruct and look at those, quote positive experiences and go not there is nothing positive that comes from this and really rewrite your story around like I get good results anyway, what's the point in like, you know, getting it done early or I get good results. Anyway, I love the pressure. We need to reframe that whole story to like, I
don't get good results. And imagine if I imagine if I already get good results. Imagine how much better they'd be if I was organised and proactive and didn't procrastinate like deconstruct and D like really disarmer those positive reinforcements those positive secondary gains means, because that's going to help your subconscious mind to go actually there is no pleasure associated with this behaviour that I no longer want to do. Okay, so you know what
procrastination is? Have a think about, first of all, what are you gaining from this procrastination? For most of us, it's actually stress relief. For most of us, the reason we're procrastinating is stress relief. And I'm gonna get into that. And I'm going into this in deep detail with a masterclass that Steph and I are doing. Like I said, it's free. We just wanted to help people, it's the links in the show notes. So I'll be going a lot deeper in that.
But essentially, procrastination is a form of stress relief, because we're feeling like Oh, my God, there's so much on my to do list, or there's underlying subconscious stuff going on, which I'm about to get into. And so we give ourselves a little bit of relief by just not doing the thing, maybe scrolling feels a little bit better. So we get this tiny little stress relief, it feels good to get that stress
relief. But then of course, we end up stressed anyway, but again, positive, there's something positive from the behaviour. So first of all, I just want you to bring attention to that what is the what is the positive thing that you are receiving from this unwanted behaviour. So, let's get into the three things that are going to address
your root cause. Now, number one, the reason why you might be procrastinating the reason why you're avoiding the thing that needs to be done, the reason why your to do list isn't actually getting any smaller. The reason why you're not progressing, even though you really, really, really say that you want to first things. First is clarity.
I say with every course I do every client, I have level up your life, we spend four weeks with clarity with Dream Life Design, it's like, we can't actually align our actions, we can't align our mind, we can't align our belief system, we can't align our daily calendar, we can't align our schedule our task list until we know with real clarity, what is the end goal here? Really like? I mean, specifically, like it's not enough to say, well, the end goal is to I don't know, get
more clients, but why? And how many? And where are they coming from? And what's working and like, you really need to get clear on the end goal that you're after. And why that goal. Now this is true, tr so clarity, and clarity plus y all the time. So this is what I want. This is what I'm aiming for. This is the outcome I want. And then when you've got that I really encourage you to so say, why this outcome? Why this goal? Why does it matter to me? Why is it
important to me? And the reason I asked for always, always always answered like follow up your clarity with a why question is because that is where you get emotionally attached to the outcome. That is where you get emotionally attached to your goal. And humans are 95% driven by our subconscious and our
emotional mind. If you are not emotionally attached to your end outcome, guess what, it's not going to be enough to move you through things, it's not going to be enough to put you into action, it's not going to be enough. Because the end goal, the emotional, why is just
simply not there. And so if you're procrastinating and you're looking and going, Do I even want this end outcome, like honestly, and I've seen this a million times, clients who will go keep procrastinating I'm just not feeling motivated to do the thing. And when we when we really go deeper, the thing itself is not even actually lighting them up. The thing itself is something that someone else said they should do, or some other strategy that someone else said would work and it's
not right for them. And so it's like you really need to know thyself, and be really, really fucking lit up by your goals. And by the outcome that you're after. Because that clarity and that emotional, why is going to be one of the reasons that you
will move. And so to give an example, like I said, when I was like I had two degrees that I was doing my first degree and I used to procrastinate all the time with like, property law assignments, corporate law, all of that, and law even just saying it now I'm like, no wonder because there was no emotional reason that I would want to do that. Like I didn't like it. I didn't want to be a property lawyer. I didn't want to be doing wills. I didn't want to be doing corporations law.
Like I didn't like it. However, when you looked at my results and my behaviour doing like legal theory or human justice, I mean, not human justice, human rights. There was no issue there. There was no procrastination because I loved the work that I was doing. I had an emotional attachment there. And so there wasn't as much procrastinating so first we need to address like, are you even
lit up by the by the goal. And if not reassess that because emotion and and clarity is so important because then we can align your to do list to make sure that you've got the right things there and that you're excited by them. So that's the first thing. Do you have clarity and are you emotionally attached to that outcome that you are after? Now the second part and this is the biggest This is the B ghee. This is honestly the reason when I get to the root cause with most of my clients.
The reason we're procrastinating The reason we're avoiding the thing we really want to do is an underlying fear. It's an underlying belief system. It's an underlying subconscious fear that is holding us back. And sometimes we can't even pinpoint what it is. And from a lot of my clients, and for a lot of you listening, I'm going to just and this is a generalisation, but see if it lands for you see if it sounds about right. For some people, it tends to be a fear of failure, or a fear of what will
people think? What if I don't get it, right? And this is where the perfectionism really the perfectionism tendencies really start to kick in here? What if I can't get it perfect? And then I'm going to be ashamed? What if it doesn't work? And I'm going to feel a sense of failure? What if it, you know, what if? What if, what if and all of these underlying things about what if people don't like me? What if people judge me? What if I fail? What if I look like an idiot? What will people
say? All of that that underlying fear can keep us so stuck? You know, I've said it in this podcast, and I'll say it time and time again, we are emotional creatures, we are driven by emotion, either towards pleasure or away from pain. And if we have got an underlying fear about what will happen if this actually what will happen, if this doesn't work, what will happen, if I try to I try, try, try, and then I fail, what will happen, all of this stuff is associated with pain, we're
going to avoid it. We're going to avoid it if we've got an underlying belief and evidence in our portfolio that suggests it's embarrassing to not when it's embarrassing to not get it perfect, I'm ashamed when I don't get it right. I'm ashamed. If I don't do well in this thing. All of that is going to stop us in our tracks. Because what we get as a secondary gain, is we get relieved from that pain. So we procrastinate because underlying underneath the surface, we're so afraid.
And so when when we procrastinate, all of a sudden, we avoid that pain. And so I want you to ask yourself, if you think this is landing, ask yourself the question, what do I believe might happen when I actually do this thing? What do I believe might potentially hurt me if I do this thing? Because that would suggest there's an underlying belief system that is around fear and it's fear based and it's keeping you in that procrastination cycle, and relieving you from any pain.
Now, the other one, and this is actually my one is a fear of success. I have said on the podcast before I don't really resonate with a fear of failure. But for me personally, when I'm procrastinating and I dive under the surface, and this is what's happened with me with the book writing. I've been very honest with my journey to writing my book this month, I'm sorry this year, and I was procrastinating procrastinating procrastinating. And then I realised, oh, there
we go. Again, when I dive deeper and go, What do I believe might happen? When this book comes out? I realised there was still a little bit of work to be done for me on my subconscious thought patterns and and subconscious belief systems about what success will do. Well, then my life might change, well, then my relationships might change, well, then I might not be home so much, because I'd be doing a book to book tour.
And also just for this is a sort of other like little secondary bit of advice, I want to say, if you're procrastinating and it's coming from a place of I actually just don't have the time right now. And it's just not a priority. Just allow yourself to say that, like this is I'm procrastinating I'm not doing this task, because it's simply not the priority right now. I thought it was, and now it's not. And I'm giving myself permission to change. And that's actually what's had to happen
with this book. Because Europe's happening, the backdoor thing is happening. And I'm like, Okay, it's a later on thing. And I give myself permission, it's not a failure. It's just not right now priority. And that's why having clarity and having your priorities list is so important. But anyway, if you are somebody who is like, what if what if I do well, and my relationship changes, what if I do this thing, and my business gets, like so busy, that I don't have
time for my kids anymore? What if I become so successful, that all of a sudden, I don't have you know, my friends won't relate to me? Or my friends abandon me? Or what if I, there's so much that comes up here? And so again, ask yourself the question, what do I believe would happen if this thing was to was to eventuate? What would I believe would happen if all of those goals actually manifested? What do I believe would happen when I actually do this task? And what do I believe it's going
to take? Because this is where our subconscious belief systems really rear their ugly heads, especially when they're not ones that align? A lot of my clients and a lot of women that I speak to will say, Oh, it's going to be so hard. I'm going to have to make so many sacrifices, I'm going to have to like give up so
much. And so when you've got a negative or fear based or pain based association to your goal, to your outcome, of course you're not going to actually Go and do it because subconsciously, you believe it's going to create pain when you get there. So if you have an underlying belief system about what success looks like, what it's going to take, what sacrifices you're going to make, what's going to change when you actually get there. That is what's stopping you. That is
what's relieving you. That is what is stopping you with your procrastination behaviour. So we really need to address the underlying beliefs. What are you telling yourself? What is the belief that's running? What is the fears? Or is it success? Is it failure? Do you have perfectionistic tendencies? And if so, where do they come from? What do you believe would happen if you like if you didn't get it? Perfect? What would that say
about yourself? What do you think it means if you don't do this thing with absolute perfection? And to go even deeper with that one for all the perfectionist that are listening? What is perfection? What do you even define as perfection? And is it even this is just to help you deconstruct the perfectionism behaviour? What is perfection? Actually give yourself a definition? Is it even an achievable target? Are you setting yourself up to never actually get there? Nine times out of 10? The answer is
yes. And so if that is you, please repeat the mantra Done is better than perfect, imperfect action forward, always takes you there. Imperfect Action forward always takes you there. And you learn along the way. You pick up pieces of evidence, you pivot, you get feedback, you make it better, you're always evolving, you're never aiming for perfection, because Perfection
doesn't exist. So that's just for the perfectionist that are listening, Done is better than perfect, imperfect action forward is going to create huge momentum, huge results. And it's actually better that you just take a tiny action forward, even
when it's not perfect. So that's the underlying fears, the beliefs, whatever you're running, do a little bit of investigation, see what comes up when you're journaling, even what sort of thoughts you had pop into your head as I was talking about those, so then you can start to really do the work to deconstruct them. And the third one, the final one is a plan. And this sounds really
obvious. But for some of us, like, we don't actually have a plan to execute that alliance specifically with that clarity that we wanted in the first point. So if you've got the clarity, and you've got the outcome you want, under and then you've worked on your beliefs, and you're starting to move through and rewrite your narratives, rewrite your stories rewrite your paradigm. The next thing is that you need to have a plan to execute the brain likes efficiency, it does not like to
do things really on the fly. And so it needs to have like a preconceived plan. And this is where you need to be a little bit strategic about the plan you give yourself, overloading yourself and putting like a million things on your to do list that is unrealistic perpetuates the procrastination cycle. Because you look at it, it feels stressful, subconsciously, you know, you can't actually get it all done. So you get stress relief from the cycle of procrastinating.
And that is why you will say I don't write to do lists, I write outcome lists or to manifest lists. And there is never more than three things on there. And every single time they asked, prioritise with a number next to them. This is priority one that aligns to this outcome. This is priority two that aligns to this outcome. And I always have a plan on a Sunday evening for my week ahead, because that helps me then just to execute, and it takes away the decision fatigue.
And decision. Fatigue is like such a real thing, especially for people that have their own business, they've got a million decisions to make that around your household running a business running a life running a fitness regime, all of that too many decisions makes us overwhelmed. And when we're overwhelmed, we need stress relief, which is procrastination behaviour. And so have a plan. And please only put a couple things on that plan. And then all you need to do is execute.
So I think it's just as important to make the plan than the actual execution. The plan itself needs to be achievable, realistic, and give you positive reinforcement. Every time you write a to do list that you actually get to tick everything off, you need to then stop and don't add anything else. Do the to do list or whatever you want to call it the outcomes list. Once you've got those things done, don't add more, because all you are doing is is telling
your subconscious mind. What's the point in getting this to do list done, you never take a break, you never rest you never give me a positive a positive reinforcement. So I don't even like the to do list. I'm gonna procrastinate, you see. So you want to make the plan to be something that actually is
achievable. So that when you tick, tick, get it all done, cross it off, highlight it, whatever it is, then you get a reward, which is rest which is something fun, which is something that you enjoy not adding more stuff. And when you have a positive experience from your outcomes list, you're more likely to do it the next time. And that is why I implore you not to put a million things on your to do list actually ever.
If you need to brain dump all the things that are in your head by all means brain dump, but then prioritise in like one to two Hurry and just laser focus on those things. So get a plan, spend some time really thinking about the plan, make sure the plan aligns with the outcome, make sure you're emotionally attached, and then see what sort of underlying things might be coming up as you do that underlying sort of mindset work. And that belief systems work.
Because at the end of the day, you can have a plan, you can have a strategy, you can have all of these, like your calendar, and your diary has got all the perfect setup, you've time blocked, you've made a strategy. And you know what if you've got an underlying fear, or you've got something going on under the surface, the plan won't work, the strategy won't work. So we kind of need to be doing the strategy and the mindset all at once, because that is what creates amazing
results. And that is what, like I said at the beginning, Steph Gorton and I are doing a masterclass, called overwhelmed to overflow. And we are going deep into all of this stuff that I spoke about today, and really giving you some tools and tangible practical tips to get yourself out of this overwhelm procrastination cycle, and get you moving towards productivity. So that and this is so important to me, get you productive, so that you can go back to life and doing the things you fucking
love. Like, we're not doing work for work sake, I hope, I hope you're doing work because it has meaning and purpose. And it gives you more freedom, time, freedom, financial freedom to do things outside of your, you know, very, very blessed when you love what you do. And I can honestly say that I'm in that basket where I have to use discipline to not work, I have to use discipline to not be at my laptop or at my mic all day, because I would do it all day long, because I love it.
However, it takes discipline to go no, I've done my work. I've done those three things on my to do list today or my outcomes list. Now I'm going for a bike ride. Now I'm going out for lunch with Paul because I need the recharge and the mental break to come back to my desk with more productivity with more fire with more inspiration. And so that's another thing to tack
on to the end there. Please make sure that when your to do list is done, you've also got a big list of shit that just lights you up that's got nothing to do with productivity, nothing to do with getting shit done and is purely for enjoyment. Because the more you fill your cup up, the better it's going to feel to come back to your outcomes list the better it's going to feel and you will not procrastinate because you've already had that stress relief from things outside of your business or
outside of that to do list. So anyway, all of the information for this overwhelm to overflow masterclass is in the show notes it's absolutely free we would love to have you it's going to be fire Stefan I just get so excited together talking about
this stuff. So if anything, you're going to be in an energy of absolute inspiration and that will make you so lit up to go in, get clear, do the work get shit done, get productive and feel overflow like really to feel that sense of overflow that will come back into your into your life into your daily life and help you with the
procrastination cycle. So as always, if this helps, if you want to go into the draw as well to win next month free coaching session, please leave a review on iTunes or on Spotify, you can leave a review and next month I'll pull out another winner. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. It truly does mean the world. I hope you have a productive day that is very aligned to your outcomes list. And I will speak to you next week. Bye