It’s Monday morning — and I’m betting that even though the week just started — you’re already putting things that you don’t want to do on the “back burner.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll do it…..later!”

How many times have you said that to yourself, but in your heart, known that you wouldn’t ever get to it?

If you’re like most people (myself included) — probably thousands of times.

But the worst part is that oftentimes, we put off things that we truly WANT and NEED to do because procrastination is so deeply engrained in our lives.

We literally can’t stop ourselves.

How do we get out of this vicious cycle?

Here to save the day is my friend Ben Austin, who will take you step-by-mothaf***ing-step through a framework that teaches you not only WHAT is causing you to procrastinate…but exactly HOW to fix it.

If you’ve ever procrastinated even ONCE in your life, read this.

Now.

Enter Ben

We all have goals that we want to achieve. Whether it be starting a business, living abroad, creating the life of our dreams or breaking free of the system. This is the reason why we all come to Rich20Something.

Each of us has created a vision of what we want out of life and we write endless “to-do” lists to get all of those things done. Between creating a website, marketing, social media, time management, finding topics and creating content, there are enough “to-do’s” that make the strongest person crumble. Each “to-do” is a test of our willpower and taps directly into the energy we have set to do other things in our life.

I found a couple of comments on Rich20Something that really stuck out:

“I often feel like my all of my passions are stuck on one of those “Under Construction” signs”

“I have this tendency to procrastinate on tasks I don’t “feel like” doing at the time, and then convincing myself I’m actually not procrastinating but just doing “other” tasks before this dreaded one. It’s a shameful cycle. “

“Because I’m so all over the place all the time, nothing actually gets done and as a result, I’m 22 with very little to show for all the time I’ve spent thinking about and planning all my projects.”

We know if we take action and do the things we are supposed to, our lives will be better and we will continue to develop. Yet, how many of us are able to buckle down and do the things that actually matter?

Have you ever thought about working on your business and then all of a sudden felt really tired? Maybe you started working on it but could not resist the urge to check your Facebook newsfeed? Perhaps you were about to start working on your business and then “just had to” clean your apartment? What excuse did you invent?

Are you someone who loves to do things later?… this post is for YOU.

One of my many failures…

About a year ago I was reading David Deida’s The Way of a Superior Man (great book by the way). One of his main points; is once your path begins to appear, you should jump on it as fast as possible. I took this advice. Ultimately this led to me starting a website and writing content for it.

I only had a vision and a dream.

At first, I was really motivated and I cranked out 3 (pretty bad) articles for my website; except for the post about how I met my beautiful girlfriend Michelle and started my journey…(She’s my support system who pushes me when I need it most!). Other than that, my posts were essentially rants against the medical establishment and were really negative. Not the type of thing anyone would want to read.

A few weeks after buying the domain and creating content, my motivation started to fade very, very rapidly. My motivation was GONE and I couldn’t get myself to do any work.

…I didn’t get it. I knew what I wanted and I knew how to get there, but I just couldn’t find the motivation to get keep going. People, especially Michelle would ask me about my site, I would say “Oh I’m still working on it. It’s not ready yet.”

Working on my business, which was once a fun and exciting thing to do, was now a drag. The thought of doing anything related to my business, immediately brought more reasons to mind why I should put it off. Every night I promised myself that I would work on it. Somehow my entire night would go by without me putting in any solid effort. Although I did spend a lot of time trying to create the perfect header for my website…(Just ask Michelle) - which by the way I no longer even use!

Instead of working, I would create all sorts of fancy excuses not to work….

I would tell myself things like:

“You don’t know enough yet to start this”

“You should rest now, you have been working so hard already”

“Squirrel“

As a result I bought books, listened to podcasts, took programs all which improved my actual output about 0%. I knew more about what I was supposed to do than ever, yet I could not get myself to take action.

What the hell was going on?

Another thing happened to me… To avoid working on my business, I would go on Facebook and look at what my friends were doing. One of my best friends from college (with the same degree, GPA, work experience etc.) was absolutely killing it in the professional world. To top it off, he was getting famous as a professional athlete and was traveling the world. While he was gallivanting around Europe, I was stuck in a cubical doing work that was uninspiring.

This made me feel even worse about myself.

When Jim Rhone said “ you are the average of the 5 people you associate with the most”, I don’t think that he had Facebook in mind.

Taking Matters into my own hands…

After getting sucked into the black hole of procrastination and lack of productivity, I started thinking about ways that I could use these forces that were acting against me, to my advantage. How could I start taking action and doing the things that would help set the foundation for the rest of my life? Before I was able to do this, I had to figure out, Who I was and what I wanted out of life?

It was a lot of really hard and not fun work. I had to build a new strength and trust in my self. This involved a serious breakdown of my self-image (how I see myself) and a re-wiring of subconscious mind. It sucked.

I created a system that I used on myself.

I Call It….

Constructing your Get Shit Done Foundation

I created a system that I call my “Get Shit Done” foundation. It is a series of methods that I use to be a peak performer and get out of my own way.

I hope it helps you as well.

Building Block 1: Stop Comparing Yourself to Other People AKA The Death Trap of Facebook.

One of my biggest mistakes I have ever made is getting sucked into the black hole that is Facebook. Anytime I wanted a mental clarity break from whatever I was doing, I would log onto Facebook for a “quick 5 minute break”.

We all know what happened next….

What I did not realize at the time is that the coders and developers of Facebook have created the ultimate productivity killer, that lasts long after you click “Log out”. Besides wasting countless hours clicking through the interesting things my “Successful friends” were doing, I noticed that being in the Facebook world did not make me feel good about myself and thus did not help me get things done.

Let’s dive a little deeper.

In new age teachings such as Eckhart Tolle and Alan Watts, we learn about the many ways the Ego is created. One of the main ways your ego is created is focusing on differences between you and other people. By judging the lives of others we directly inflate our own ego and make it harder for us to be authentic and true; thus get more shit done. In other words, your ego sabotages you from accomplishing your goals.

Comparing yourselves to others is a “Lose-Lose” trap. Think about it…Even when we achieve success in our niche, business or personal life, there will always be someone who is more successful, has more followers, makes more money, etc.

For example, if I make $100,000 this year and one of my competitors makes $150,000. I compare myself to them and feel bad about my $100k income, because my criteria for success is based off their accomplishments.

The next year I work even harder and I’m determined to make more than my competitor. However, my competitor makes $500,000 and I only make $150,000. If I continue to base my success off of what other people are doing, I will continue to feel bad about my own accomplishments.

Final lesson from Facebook.

A recent wedding my friends kept asking me about all of the cool things I have done lately and wanted to know about my “exciting life.”…Huh?

This was very strange to me. I have taken a few trips recently and done a cool things (which get posted to Facebook - by Michelle), but no one see’s me grinding it out, staying up late, dealing with stress, and going through the daily grind that I face every day. However, in Facebook land I might as well the be Tim Ferriss.

OK. End of Rant.

Building Block 2: Get your Mind out of magic pill mode

After the initial shock of creating your 25 page “To-Do” list, you might have a response like this:

“Oh Hell No”

“There is no effin’ way”

“Ha! yeah right”

After a google search for: “How to start a business”, “Starting a blog 101” or “How to make money online”. You’ll find countless programs, blog posts, videos, podcasts and books. Your mind is swimming even more and you add another searching for 75 things to your “To-Do”.

This is a never ending cycle. As you add more to your “to-do”, you become really hesitant and start second guessing your decision to work on something. Taking action and actually starting a business is the furthest thing from your mind.

“How could I start something now? There is so much to learn?!?”

or

“Am I doing the right thing!?”

You just want to find the thing that is quick and easy that you can get started with right now. Marketers know this. They know you want to believe this so they feed you the The Magic Pill solution.

There is no magic pill.

The sooner you stop searching for the “How to” and the “Top 15 things you are forgetting” the more time you will have to start working on problems and solutions that are specific to your business.

What to do?

Just jump in the deep end of the pool and see how well you swim. You will learn 100X faster by just jumping in and trying things out. After you are struggling with something, then look at the “How to’s”.

Building Block 3: Push Through Resistance

One of my favorite books is the War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

Summary of the book in 2 Sentences: The entire book is about that voice inside your head which tells you to relax and not work when you know you should. He calls this voice “resistance”.

Quick Points about Resistance:

• You will always feel the greatest resistance to the things you should do the most
• Resistance is the voice inside your head is not actually you.
• Resistance is the opposite reaction to your sole calling.

Obviously, Pushing through resistance does not mean that you should jump off a 15 story building or start smoking meth. What it means, is that we all feel a strong push or pull away from our true calling. This is experienced by all creative types including entrepreneurs and people in business.

It is up to us to push through it.

My favorite passage from the The War of Art:

“Our job in this lifetime, is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine ought to be…But to find out who we already are and become it.”

-Steven Pressfield

Building Block 4: Understanding Short Term Motivation and the Tony Robbins Hangover Effect

Most motivational material sucks. There I said it.

How many motivating speeches, videos, books, writings have we read? How many of them have caused an identity level change which caused us to have effortless motivation to accomplish our goals?

Not Many.

I call this the Tony Robbins Hangover effect

Robbins is famous for doing change work on people. People spend 40+ hours a week with him in a seminar fashion, hoping that they will be changed and become millionaires. People leave the seminar with a new energy and hope for the future. Within a few weeks, most of them have returned back to their old habits. In some cases, they are worse off than they were before.

Not many of them actually achieve their goals.

Why?

When you consume motivational material, it rarely penetrates your self concept or your identity. If these materials actually worked then we would have a society of lean/jacked millionaires who ride on the backs of unicorns and sing like Mariah Carey (I only know one).

True Motivation does not come from external influences.

These sources are not all bad, but we need to understand that this type of motivation is temporary or short term (lastly about 5 min - 4 weeks). Understand what short term motivation is and use it to your advantage.

Building Block 5: The Long Term (Internal) Motivation Action Plan.

NOTE: This is some pretty heavy stuff we are going to talk about. Take your time and don’t rush through it.

What is Long Term (Internal) Motivation?

• Your motivation is part of who you are, it is not something you do.
• It is generated from with inside of you. It is not created through external sources.
• It is part of your subconscious mind. What you think you deserve out of life and what you can visualize will directly impact your motivation and what you get done.

What Role does “How you See Yourself” play in Motivation?

• Motivation is tied to your self image.
• If you buy into your self image you will have more motivation as a result.
• If your self image is negative, you will NOT be motivated to do the things you want.

The Long Term Motivation Action Plan:

This is where things get tricky. Because real motivation is part of how you see yourself (self image) and is generated from within, no external material can create it for you. In order to create motivation, you have to do the work. You have to create “Buy-In” for yourself.

What does this mean?

It means that you are not in control. Your Subconscious is. Until you fix what is going on beneath the surface, you won’t be able to achieve the goals that you want.

How to Use Visualization to Achieve Your Goals

There are a ton of different methods of connecting you and your motivation and below I have listed one that was very powerful for me. The exercise below is a visualization exercise which ties negative and positive emotional anchors to your goals.

Important points on Visualization:

• Humans beings always act, feel and perform in accordance with what you imagine to be true about yourself (who they think they are or their self-image) and you’re your environment.
• Your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a real one.

Exercise: The Motivational Seesaw Method

Get out a pen and a piece of paper. Yes, do it right now. We were talking about procrastinating earlier!

Suggested Time: 10 minutes.

Exercise 1: Imagine what will happen with your life if you do NOT take action and you continue to put off the things that you know will help you. Imagine that it is 10 years from now. What does your life look like? Be very vivid here. The more details the better. Explain exactly what it would look, feel, taste and smell like (well, hopefully it does not smell!). Write it down.

Example:

1. I will be stuck in my cubicle, surrounded by people who are zombies. I will have to listen to Bill and his stories about his cat.
2. I will be making slightly more money than I am right now, due to annual increases to my salary. Every month I will pay off my bills for my cell phone, cable, cable, internet, Netflix, utilities, mortgage, and daycare. My income is fixed by what my employer pays me.
3. I will have no free time to do the things that I want to do. I will spend 50+ hours a week working in an environment with no windows and people who are uninspired. I won’t be able to live abroad because of my bills and debt.

Exercise 2: Write down 3 things or 3 beliefs that are currently enabling you to live in a manner that does not serve you.

Example:

1. I don’t work on my business, when I am tired. When I get done with work, there is no way I could start working on my business. I’ll start tomorrow or after a quick Facebook session.
2. I don’t know enough about starting a business to start working on it. I need to read more material, watch more “How To” videos before I start working. I don’t want to make a mistake.
3. There are so many fun things to do in life, why would I sacrifice my 20’s to work on a business that will probably fail? 99.99% of businesses fail right? I don’t want to be just another statistic.

Exercise 3: Write down 3 positive affirming statements that directly oppose the beliefs stated above (even if they are not true).:

Example:

1. I have a ton of extra energy to work on my business. There is no time better than right now to get started.
2. If I start working on this right now, my life will be so much better. I will be a positive role model for my friends, family and community.
3. Even if I fail, I will still have a really valuable learning and growing experience out of it. If it does not work the first time, I’ll just keep trying until I find something that does work.

FINAL NOTE: Your long term motivation is tied directly to Purpose and your Daily habits. After Reading this make sure you visit Daniel’s Post on the Seinfeld Solution and Rajiv’s post on Finding Your Purpose.

Call to Action

Do the exercises listed above and notice how you feel over the course of 1 week. If necessary do them every single day when you wake up. I do a variation of this in my Gratitude Journal every day.

Do you see a shift in your mindset or mood? Are you more productive? Are you calling yourself out on your BS and excuses? This would be a good time to write those thoughts, feelings and actions down. Take a second to pause and reflect how you have changed.

I Want to Hear from You

Do you use visualization techniques to achieve your goals? What books or resources to you use to motivate or create inspiration in yourself?

If you haven’t found inspiration or motivation yet; What sorts of excuses do you make in order to not take action? Share them here as some good social pressure to take action and make your life better.

I look forward to chatting with you about your life under construction at BenAustinblog.com.

-Ben Austin

Resources:

Awesome Books: Psycho Cybernetics, The War of Art, The Way of the Superior Man

Motivational Material: Tony Robbins: Unleash the Power Within

My Post on Gratitude

Follow me at BenAustinBlog.com

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