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    Wednesday, July 9, 2008

    Procrastination

    What challenge or task are you putting off today for tomorrow?

    Its no surprise that you along with 95% of the population will put off completing a challenge/task today in hopes of completing it tomorrow. Tomorrow, 20% of you will find another excuse so that you could put off addressing your challenge/task for another day. In fact, if you are among the 20% of the population that experiences chronic procrastination, you have tons of excuses to justify why tomorrow is better than today. Excuses such as: I don’t have enough time to successfully complete it today—I’m not feeling creative enough—I work better under pressure.

    There are many studies on chronic procrastination--some studies show that procrastination is a behavior associated to perfectionism, while other studies show that procrastination is a behavior a person experiences if they fear success.

    Procrastination is known to be a mechanism for coping with anxiety when having to start or complete any task or decision. For the purpose of this article, I will focus on the 20% of the population that experience chronic procrastination.

    When a known procrastinator is faced with a challenge/task, they evaluate their capabilities, their level of confidence, and how successful they feel they will be in completing the challenge/task. If they lack confidence in self, or fear the outcome of the challenge/task, they are more likely to push out the date as far as possible. This is why New Years Resolution are made and just as quickly broken.

    Often time decisions are made without proper forethought. A procrastinator is eager to be involved in many challenges/tasks, at work or at home, so that they can prove to themselves and those around them that they can be successful, proving their self-worth. Unfortunately, this impulsive behavior further strengthens the procrastinators mind set, creating new doubts and fear, while their level of confidence continues to drop.

    Any distraction is a good distraction for a procrastinator whose level of anxiety continues to rise with each passing day. Emails, research, anything they could deviate their attention to so that they don’t have to think about what they agreed to do—whether it was an agreement made with self or to somebody else they feel possess authority, like their boss, parent or even their spouse.

    With no confidence, negative self-talk and the fear of the outcome sets in-- you might or might not be consciously aware of it-- your inspiration and motivation did not come knocking today, but you hope that tomorrow will bring you exactly what you need so that you can kick-start the task at hand--your anxiety level rises as you divert your attention again.

    Are you born with the procrastination gene or is procrastination a learned behavior?

    Perhaps procrastination could be tied to a gene, or maybe it could be tied to your childhood and your immediate influencers. Perhaps you grew-up in a controlling environment where you were unable to develop some of the key essential life skills such as internalizing your own intentions and learning how to act on them. Maybe you rebelled against your parents during your teens not wanting to relinquish control.

    6 Steps To Overcome Procrastination:

    1. Write all the challenges/tasks you’ve been putting off for the fear of failure
    a. Work Projects
    b. Losing weight
    c. Setting personal goals
    d. Accomplishing house projects

    2. For each activity you are afraid of completing, ask yourself the following questions:
    a. What am I afraid of?
    b. What outcome do I fear most?
    c. What can I do to change the outcome so that it will be in my favor?

    3. Create a plan
    a. Breakdown your plan into manageable chunks
    b. Create small tasks for each chunk

    4. Replace negative habits with positive habits

    5. Complete one task each day
    a. Check mark the completed task in your plan

    6. Monitor your progress within your plan as you build
    a. Motivation
    b. Confidence
    c. Self-esteem

    To learn more about Master Life Coach, Toronto Native Bruno LoGreco, visit www.brunologreco.com
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    5 comments:

    Daryl said...

    I almost always never procrastinate ... tho sometimes I sit and think about not doing something .... for a long time

    :-Daryl

    i am storm. said...

    i was going to work on my procrastination but think maybe i will wait until tomorrow.....

    ;-)

    storm

    Anonymous said...

    To raise awareness that your own procrastination exists is a key step. Once you admit something inside, you recognize it exists and then, get mentally prepared to go through the process of change if you so choose.

    Gone Back South said...

    I do procrastinate and have often wondered why. What you say is really interesting - thanks for the food for thought.

    Bruno LoGreco said...

    Sometimes the odd task will get us thinking - what's the point of doing this... It's normal Daryl :)

    Did tomorrow come storm?

    Once a person becomes aware of their procrastination, they are more likely to want to make the necessary changes mentally to address the task that they have been putting off - Thanks Liara!

    Your very welcome gonebacksouth.

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    Ten Powerful Self-Coaching Tips

    By Bruno LoGreco

    Are you living the life of creativity and happiness that you've always dreamed of, or are you allowing your fears or other outside factors to influence you?

    Following the path that your heart's desires requires courage and might require a shift in attitude. There are several methods you can use to act as your own life coach and start working toward the life you dream of.

    Ideas for self-improvement

    You don't need to change every aspect of your life at once in order to improve your attitude and outlook on life. Self-improvement can feel daunting if you try to change everything at once.

    A good way to embark on your journey of self-coaching is to make one change and see what kind of impact it has upon your life. The following tips are designed to help you improve your life and become your own life coach. Try out one of the following tips at a time to positively impact your attitude and daily life.

    1. Find some ‘you' time. Everyone needs time alone to meditate and recharge. You may think you don't have extra time in your day. Start with 10-20 minutes to use for meditation or silent reflection.

    2. Ask yourself what you truly want in life. Are you living your life according to your true dreams and desires? You may be unaware of your desires that lie hidden beneath your surface needs and wants, so take the time to find out.

    3. Write everything down. Even if your thought seems silly, write it down! You may be surprised by the inspiration and ideas you can come up with.

    4. Journal daily, but with a twist. Instead of just writing about today, try writing about yesterday.

    5. Keep track of the "happy moments." Each day has potential for many small moments that bring joy and happiness. If you don't make a special note of them, you may not even recognize the small joys in your day.

    6. Choose one task each night to complete the next day. This way, you have focus, and you accomplish at least one task. Tasking and taxing yourself with effort is important in reaching goals.

    7. Smile when you wake up. Smiling is contagious. By smiling you improve your mood and can potentially improve someone else's day as well.

    8. Give thanks each night. Gratitude will improve your outlook on life and help you see all the good and wonderful moments of your day.

    9. Try something new. A new experience fuels creativity and your enjoyment of the day.

    10. Create at least one memorable moment each day. Make each day unforgettable, even if in a small way!

    Taking the next step with a life coach

    Self-coaching tips are great ideas for helping you improve your life. However, you can take your life to the next level with a life coach and mentor. A professional life coach can help you set goals and help you move forward with your dreams. If you're looking for the right path toward happiness, a life coach can help you discover the path your heart truly desires.

    Want to learn more about self-improvement? Bruno LoGreco is a Life Coach Toronto and mentor. Visit BrunoLoGreco.com and find out how to unleash your potential for success and happiness.

    The Success Indicators on Your Life Path

    Many people seek out a particular goal in their life path and are content when they achieve it. The chance to broaden their horizons or learn new things within an existent structure is not as appealing to them as it is to some others. This is an issue that arises in many individuals because they mistakenly think they have achieved what they wanted to in their lives. The plethora of environmental noise around them begins to infringe upon their goals and forces them to lose sight of what they truly wanted.

    A good way to think of this problem is to envision a large square box. This is not just any box though. Rather, in this case, your box has been divided into three separate, but equally shaped rectangular boxes, all stacked on top of one another. Each of these rectangular boxes is a highly important expression of your life goals -- individual levels of success. Within each of these levels of success is an indicator that tells you how close you are to becoming successful in this area of your life.

    Every area of your life that you identify as a potential path for success can be further divided, containing the many different events and obstacles you will encounter as you strive to reach your goals. Think of each sector of your life as being divided even further, with three new sections within one of the three stacked boxes (sectors). Within each stacked box are three separate sections, divided by dotted lines that make up the life path you will follow. These dotted lines are not the same as the solid lines dividing the sectors -- they are a path that you have envisioned since childhood -- a series of goals and pathways to success that you want to follow.

    As young people, these life paths may not be fully formed. Or they might be crystal clear in our minds--long, straight life paths from the early days of college and adult living to the ultimate goal of success that you have always strived for. You can see exactly what you need to do to reach each success indicator and achieve what you have set out to accomplish. And you probably did just this. After all, your goals as a youth were to be successful in the same way that you saw thousands of others live their lives. You wanted to reach your success indicators and experience the measure of success by which you would measure you life for decades to come.

    However, nothing is ever as simple as we envision it during youth. There are countless factors that interfere with your ability to clearly see those success indicators and life paths to success. These factors, or "Environmental Noise," can be detrimental to even the most focused of individuals. Think of what would happen if you dumped the contents of downtown New York into your box and tried to maintain your focus on those goals. Would you even be able to see your life path anymore?

    Everyone must travel their life path with environmental noise inundating them from all sides. It begins to become cloudy. The dotted lines, our life paths, begin to look like the straight lines and the success indicators start to be confused with any number of different distractions.

    And then something will happen and you will realize that you are in fact nowhere near the original success indicators you set for yourself. Everything has changed and yet you are stuck in a way. You are deep within the center of the middle rectangular box and you have no idea which way to go or how to get back on track. The noise only grows louder and you grow dizzy trying to regain your focus.

    It is in this instant that you must clear the noise and return to the basic, almost instinctive mode of thought you experienced as a child. What did you want from life? Where did you want to go? What do you need to get to that point? What was my life path? All of these questions must be asked without the distractions of the world around you muddying up your thought process. When you can revert to a very simple perspective of the world and only spend time thinking of what you want from life, you can be that much more successful.

    You can succeed in life despite the environmental noise, cruising down your life paths and moving through your rectangles with ease, but oftentimes you need a helping hand to clear away the noise and look at life with fresh eyes. There is nothing wrong with asking for help to weed out these distractions and remove the clutter from your life sectors with a professional life coach.

    Is your life path inundated with environmental noise? Learn how you can lift the noise and begin reestablishing your success indicators today. Visit www.brunologreco.com a Life Coach Toronto today.

    Chapters.ca

    Top 10 Benefits to Journaling

    By Bruno Logreco

    There are countless reasons to maintaining a journal. The top ten benefits of journaling may differ from person to person. However, there seems to be general themes that are attractive in the collective unconscious. Many people are looking to daily entries of their personal experiences to reap some of the following rewards.

    Maintaining a journal is a natural way to exercise the brain. People who make regular entries are taking time to develop writing and communication skills that are very valuable in everyday interactions. This mental exercise also helps to allow your thoughts to flow freely.

    Creativity is a second benefit to consider. This is an important aspect of journaling. The right hemisphere of the brain is associated with visual, imaginative and intuitive facets of thought. When you take time to write, you free the right hemisphere. The ideal entry will be one that puts the inner editor on hold. Thoughts and ideas should flow freely and naturally.

    The uninhibited nature of this form of writing serves a third benefit of developing self awareness. People often create different faces to meet various circumstances. We tend to recreate in distinct situations including the work environment, the community and even when at home.

    The process of keeping a journal helps you recognize the various aspects of your unique personality. The growing self awareness is a powerful force that can lead to even greater benefits in the future. Gaining insight into the self is among the most important aspects to maintaining a journal.

    The fourth benefit is the ability to set priorities. Once you get a grasp on the thoughts and emotions that are filtered through your personal experience, you begin to gain control of them. The process eventually leads to a greater understanding of what is and what is not important.

    The ability to re-see the past is another great benefit of keeping a journal. The pages can be revisited with a fresh perspective. It can be very surprising how much your understanding of an event changes over a relatively short period of time. Some writers find great moments of epiphany when rethinking and rereading entries.

    Journaling is a fantastic problem-solving resource. The approach of using entries to come up with various solutions to troubles is a little different than approaches for self awareness and growth. Many people choose temporary brainstorming techniques that serve to give viable solutions to problems.

    The seventh benefit of journaling is variety. You can choose what kind of entries you want to make. Common choices include brainstorming sessions, automatic writing and reflective notes. Personal journal entries can be made upon inspiration, when you first wake or right before you fall asleep. Some choose to do a combination of these.

    Purging is the eighth benefit to this practice. Many people find it helpful to place negative thoughts and feelings down on paper. Once the negative energy is placed on the page, they are free to let it go. This practice also works well when dealing with anger towards another individual. Purge the negativity and work towards a constructive approach.

    The ability to communicate with others is another benefit of keeping a journal. Those who work with life coaches can find a wealth of resources for sessions. Journaling can help you tap into your fears and dreams, helping your coach gain insight through entries that you choose to share.

    The tenth benefit is improvement in your overall health. Journaling reduces stress. It provides time for you to meditate. The process helps to make the positive forces in your life surface and it helps to bring the harmful elements into light. The result of personal journaling is a new perspective on how you can take control of many aspects of your life.

    Want to learn how online journaling can help you reach goals and problem solve? Learn more about life coach Toronto at brunologreco.com and journaling at iijournal.

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