All this week I’ve been talking about some small tweaks I’ve made that have 10x-ed my productivity and killed a lot of procrastination that I previously experienced.
It’s no surprise that 2024 has seen all-time highs in revenue because of these changes.
Yesterday I talked about how important it was for me to first figure out (with a therapist) my biggest limiting belief that makes me procrastinate the most.
After figuring out my big limiting belief for procrastination: “I’m not good enough,” I described how I work with and modify that belief.
The next question for many people reading this will be:
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“What if I procrastinate so badly that I procrastinate on stopping to even analyze what my limiting belief might be?”
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Let me share something that took me decades to finally realize about productivity and procrastination:
Once you get a single taste of what it feels like to operate without a limiting belief – you can never go fully back to procrastinating like you used to.
Let me explain.
If you’re struggling with procrastination and you’re anything like me – I can damn near guarantee there’s a limiting belief somewhere deep in your psyche.
Most people will spend their entire lives not knowing that they have a limiting belief (or believing that limiting beliefs are even a thing).
There are 2 ways to discover you have a limiting belief that’s making you procrastinate:
- You hit absolute rock-bottom and the pain of procrastination becomes so great, you force yourself to seek help and figure out what’s going on.
- An expert or guide (a person or even a chemical like psilocybin) shows you your limiting beliefs.
Now, the good news is this: once you see that limiting belief – and you fully accept that it’s real for you – you can never go back to procrastinating like you did before.
At least that’s been my experience.
The way that you’ll accept that a limiting belief is real is by experiencing the productivity and the lack of procrastination that happens when you address a limiting belief and alter or remove it.
If you haven’t experienced this yet for yourself – you’ll have to trust me that operating without a previously crippling limiting belief is one of the greatest and freest feelings in the world.
I don’t experience this freedom all the time, but I did ONCE, and that was all that it took to flip the switch for me.
It’s like waking up out of a dream. You get to the other side (where procrastination doesn’t exist) and you’re like, holy crap I can’t believe I thought that belief about “not being worthy” was real.
And this process of re-awakening eventually starts to happen on shorter and shorter timelines.
Sometimes I go through periods where I forget the strategies I outlined yesterday. I get lost in the limiting belief and I procrastinate. But eventually I remember – I remember that I have these tools and I remember that I can operate without the limiting belief.
Let me ground all this in a real-life example:
- Say you’re procrastinating on starting an email list (building a business).
- You’ve got all the information you need, you just can’t seem to get yourself to get started.
- The pain gets so bad that you finally say f*ck it, I’m going to listen to Derek (an expert in this situation) and hire a therapist (another expert).
- That therapist helps you realize that you have a limiting belief of “I’m not good enough.”
- You try to work with the limiting belief to remove it, but you don’t fully believe it’s real at first, or that you’ll be able to get rid of the limiting belief (if you’re being honest).
- But one day, the pain will be so great, or the stars will simply align, and you’ll have an epiphany and you’ll see it: “Oh my god, I’ve been running this limiting belief script and it’s causing me to procrastinate and also do all kinds of other things I don’t like.” It’ll click.
- For a few fleeting moments you’ll operate without that limiting belief. Your procrastination will fade to the background.
- You now have had a taste and you’ll never be able to go back, fully, to how you were before.
- You may stumble and even regress into severe procrastination behaviors. At times you’ll feel like you’ve lost that realization or the path entirely.
- But with time, and as long as you really did get that initial taste – you’ll come to realize that you NEVER lost the path – you can’t. It just took you a little bit extra time to remember.
- At that point, you’ll use the tools you’ve learned to work with the limiting belief and you’ll kill your procrastination.
- With more time and practice, the length of time it will take you to “remember” will diminish until there’s an almost immediate recognition that your limiting beliefs are coming into play.
Consider re-reading this email from the beginning. My introduction will make a little more sense after going through the example I just laid out.
The main point is again: once you figure out your limiting belief when it comes to procrastination, and get your first taste for what it’s like to work without it, it’s all downhill from there. You will stumble and fall back into your old patterns, but you’ll eventually start remembering more quickly and eventually procrastination will damn near fade away.
In case it wasn’t clear, my biggest piece of advice is – go get some professional help. Hiring a therapist (and especially one who works with business owners and entrepreneurs) has been a game-changer for me in my quest to rid myself of procrastination.
Tomorrow, I’ll recap this week and last and add one additional tool I’ve found that helps both procrastination and productivity issues.
Talk to you then!
– Derek
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