039: Delays & Gratification • Passion Design Project

Summary::

Two Hour delays. Do you remember them? Those amazing days when you would wake up for school and out your window you’d see a foggy haze or snow covering the ground. On those days, my brothers and I would eagerly wait by the radio for the host to announce: Patrick Henry Schools: Two Hour Delay. Ahhhh the sweet, sweet sound of putting off working for two hours!

I’ve always wondered why real jobs don’t give two-hour delays, they do have the same weather, after all! Although, how would that work for entrepreneurs?! You wake up, see snow on the ground outside, and announce out loud that you can’t make it to your office on the other side of the house for another two hours:) Haha!

Actually, I don’t think this is too far off from what we do sometimes. We know we have work to do, but too often implement delays into our day (whether we realize or not). I’m not saying we simply decide to stay in bed for two extra hours. No, no. That would be far too obvious. We cause delays to our success in more elusive ways (cuz we’re clever, hello!)

Can you relate with any of the following?

Putting others before yourself because “helping others is more important”
Looking at Facebook just because….multiple times
Deciding you’re hungry right when you sit down to work
Doing small tasks instead of working on that big task you really need to do
Cleaning the house instead of taking action in your biz

As you can see, we don’t MEAN to delay, we just have a lot on our plate, right? Of course! I get it because I’m right here with ya.

The important point to realize is, we will ALWAYS have a lot on our plate. Always. And if you want, I can find 10 more things that you could do instead of taking action towards your goals. I’m sure you could too!

Can we both vow right now not to become pros at finding false more important tasks to do?

First off, think about why you are putting off the important things in order to do less important things.

Maybe the smaller tasks are easier, or you want instant gratification, you are more confident in doing the small tasks, maybe you know you’ll be successful. All true. And the results you get will most likely equal that. Easy, small results that make you feel warm and fuzzy.

Does the idea of that excite you? It doesn’t really do it for me and I doubt it gets you really pumped up either.

“It is not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about?” ~ Henry David Thoreau

So what thing on your plate, once completed, would excite you?!

I’ll answer from my perspective. Creating a private Facebook group of passionate, cool creatives and entrepreneurs who are looking to make a big impact on the world. I want to create a place for daily interaction and inspiration for all of us to connect and begin taking action.

Okay, simple enough. You’re probably thinking, uh just do it.

However, to do this I have to get past my fears that no one will be interested (even though I already know people want something like this), get past the story I’ve made up in my head that I won’t stay consistent (even though I can decide to post each day), and simply dive in and do it.

Written out and said aloud, these sound simple and easy to overcome. And that’s the ticket! By writing and saying what I want, I can actually articulate my ideas into thoughts and actionable steps. I can almost feel what it would be like to accomplish what I want and work backward to achieve it.

Now, I will be doing small tasks again, BUT they will actually pertain to my goals and what I want to accomplish! Even if I don’t know EXACTLY what I want my page to turn out like, by taking small steps to start, I’ll at least be able to try things and learn what works and doesn’t work.

“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” ~ Peter Drucker

I was talking to my productivity coach this morning and talking about this subject and he reminded me to Let my enthusiasm fuel me! So I want to say that to you! And that’s one amazing way to begin to create more freedom in your life.

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I’d love to know what you’d like to hear more of, or any guests you’d like me to have. You can reach me at Haley@PassionDesignProject.com or by finding me on Facebook at Passion Design Project.