This month we are breaking through some of the things that are holding you back. Last week we talked about fear of the unknown and today, I want to talk about the ever-destructive, yet temporarily pacifying act of procrastination. The phenomenon that slowly chips away at your self esteem, efficiency and progress and ultimately sabotages your success.
Procrastination is defined as the avoidance of doing a task, which needs to be done, usually by doing more pleasurable or less urgent tasks thus putting off important tasks to a later time.
It’s going biking with your friends instead of writing your essay. It’s watching Friends reruns all day Saturday because you have so many things to do this weekend you don’t even know where to start. It’s checking off a bunch of simple, fun tasks that lead to no where because you don’t know which direction to take to lead you somewhere.
Sound familiar?
Procrastination is caused by several things including pure laziness or low self-esteem, overwhelm, lack of clear direction, or an undefined vision of the end result.
Motivation, self-esteem, clear direction and vision are all linked together. In pageantry, or any other quest for massive success, this is called a Strategy. When you have a strategy of how to get to where you’re going, you’re focus is not distracted, it’s laser-sharp, because you see the ultimate vision and it makes you salivate for success!
Can I just tell you right now: no high-level pageant titleholder is a procrastinator.
Every high-level pageant contestant has a clear strategy to move them toward an ultimate vision.
And the judges know that if someone is going to be crowned Mrs. America or Miss World then she better not be a procrastinator because just 10 minutes of putting something off can lead to lost opportunities and diminished success.
Even the most successful women in pageantry recognize the pull toward procrastinate, but they don’t give in.
I’m not saying there’s not time for biking with friends and watching your fav shows. Activities like this are certainly worthwhile, after you’ve accomplish what needs to be done.
Bryan Tracy – a famous motivational speaker – wrote an exceptional book on this topic called “Eat That Frog! 21 Ways to Stop Procrastinating”
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It’s a super easy read and gives so many practical tips to overcome this awful habit. There’s a great video you can watch HERE that quickly sums up the book. Basically, if you woke up every morning and the first thing you did was eat a frog, the rest of the day would be easy!
Bryan Tracy says that the first thing you do every day should be the “frog” of your to-do list. The biggest, scariest, most awful thing….the thing you’d rather procrastinate…that will give you momentum and energy in the day. For the people who don’t just wake up and eat the frog, they go all day with it hanging over their heads, draining them and making them feel guilty for not doing it yet.
I know that you don’t like procrastination. None of us do. It’s a huge energy leak that makes us make other bad decisions, feel guilty, and procrastinate more.
The truth is: it takes a lot of energy to eat a nasty frog, so you can’t afford to lose energy by procrastinating. Bryan Tracy says,” if you have to eat a frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.”
Haven’t you noticed that those women that take action and get things done are the ones that are getting the promotions, always looking put together, immediately lost the baby weight, are constantly bouncing around all happy, smiling at strangers and….winning pageants? Don’t they appear to be oh-so-perfect?
That’s because they stop energy leaks instead of let them continue to drag them down.
I also know that you sometimes tell yourself that you work well under pressure. The truth is that any task expands to take up the length of time in which it is allowed. If you have 2 months to turn in your pageant paperwork, you’ll still turn it in the day before. If you only allow yourself 72 hours – it will magically be done in 72 hours. If you sign up late and only have 24 hours…guess what, you’ll still get it done on time.
The problem for procrastinators is they spend 6 weeks procrastinating which causes a major energy leak which brings guilt, low self-esteem, distraction, mismanagement of time, lack of decisiveness and a host of other negative stuff.
The energy leaks that hide in the corners of your life are undone tasks.
The key to stopping the energy leaks and quickly jumping into the Top 10% —- Eat That Frog! By eating the biggest, ugliest frog first thing each morning, you’ll achieve more in one week than most women will achieve all year.
Of course, I broke this down into some manageable steps that I use whenever I feel low energy and need to pull myself together.
Step 1 – Make a list of all the things on your ‘to do’ list…Everything!
- Throw away the old asparagus rotting in the fridge
- Call Grandma
- Sew the button back on my summer shorts
- Make a dentist appointment
- Stop by CVS for toilet paper
- Wash the car
- Get my hoo-ha waxed
- Drop off donations at Salvation Army
- Create a photo album from my trip to Costa Rica in 2009
- Sell the VCR
Whatever is on your list, write it down.
Step 2 – Scratch off all the things you actually don’t need to do.
Feeling guilty or wasting time on things you don’t need to do is a huge energy leak. You aren’t going to sell that vcr player from the 90’s…take it to the thrift store and call it a day. Leak: Stopped.
Step 3 – Circle the things that take less than 30 minutes and will immediately solve a problem.
Order toilet paper on Amazon. Quit picking up a 4-pack at CVS after work every Tuesday. Get on Amazon and get a giant pack delivered to your door in 2 days. Done. Leak: Stopped.
Step 4 – Group what’s left into size and texture of frogs.
Put the biggest, ugliest, smelliest frogs at the top. Put the small, cute little froggies at the bottom. Warning: do not spend more than 3 minutes on this, or that will drain even more of your energy.
Step 5 – reate a calendar to eat one of the big, ugly frogs per day until they’re all done.
When you wake up, look at your list and choose the biggest, ugliest, nastiest frog and freakin’ eat it! Then, go about your day.
By eating the frog, I mean doing the task! These frogs could be as common as to the gym. Or, as unique as asking your husband to join you for couple’s therapy. These are the big, nasty frogs that get put off and things only get worse.
I want to share a story of my client, Candice who completed my 4-week VIP Jump Start program, got a platform sponsor, and won her national pageant 5 weeks later.
Candice is in the Top 10% – she made fast decisions, took action immediately and boy did it pay off!
Jolie, Miss Taiwan, is another amazing Top 10% woman who took action in 5 weeks before her pageant. She started a youtube channel and even got all the professional equipment to make it amazing.
Not that I want you to wait until 5 weeks before your pageant.
Lori, who started working with me 6 months before her pageant now has a published children’s book that’s taking off like wild fire!
Emaleigh, an 18-year old Top 10%-er is finishing her senior year of high school as Valedictorian, Captain of her softball team, class president, and…published author! She’s also been eating frogs daily for 6 months and she has so many more goals she’ll accomplish before her pageant this summer.
Every single one of these women started with a strategy call with me where they realized that in order to achieve their big dreams, they had to get a strategy that would give them the motivation to get to the finish line of their ultimate vision.
I always say,
“Motivation is the combination of understanding the process, and believing in the possibility.”
You can have this too. I know you have a dream in your heart, you wouldn’t be listening to these trainings if you didn’t believe you have something incredible that needs to be channeled toward success.
You have exactly what it takes to get you to your dream – that’s why God put that dream on the inside of you: So you’d chase it.
All you need is a clear strategy to understand the steps to get you to your goal…and, the willingness to eat big frogs every day.
Do not let procrastination get in your way of success.
I get frustrated with passionate pageant women who want to keep practicing their walk over and over again and completely ignore the fact that they have no Legacy Project to make them stand out from the sea of other gorgeous pageant contestants.
I want you to succeed. And I know that you are capable of it.
If you have not yet had a free strategy call, now is your chance.
Hey girl! Strategy Calls are no longer available. But, you may like our new course “Pageant Interview Game Plan.” Click HERE to learn more!
Because, that, ladies is how you win a pageant.
Links & Resources:
- Eat That Frog Video
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