Get Over Yourself

Get over yourself you are not that big of a deal, you have no right to a good life, a well paying job, or even good health.   Life is not fair, yes that jerk deserves what he has just as much as you do and maybe even more so.  And no, your arbitrary expectations that you have placed on your boss, your spouse or your friends do not really matter to anyone or anything but to you and your insignificant little world.
Sounds harsh doesn't it.  It really isn't, the point is that we think that the world owes us more that it does.  We think we deserve things that we haven't earned, and sometimes worse we think we have a right to it.  Like some soul singing diva we cry out in our heads, 'Doesn't the world know who I am!?'.
Now let me be clear about something I am not going against a positive attitude nor am I saying that one should not try to improve themselves and the world around them.  We should all strive to improve our lot, and I truly believe that you can't know what you are capable of until you have tried, failed and repeated the process until you either quit or die.  Many times we think we deserve something by some imaginary birth right.  The problem is that instead of focusing on the work and situation in front of us we rail against the world because it hasn't delivered to us our just desserts.
The point here is that we should avoid getting hung up on what is fair or what is not and comparing our status to others and simply define our goals, identify where we need to start to achieve them and roll up our sleeves and start working.
This is a mental trap, and I think it manifests itself in a number of ways but when you boil it down to its core I am talking about envy.  Which apparently is such a big issue that God identified it as one of the Big Ten do's and don'ts.  Most of the time when we think about envy we think about desiring something that someone has, like a car or a house or a certain job.  But it also applies to situations where we think we deserve more of something.  The reason you think you deserve more is because you are comparing yourself to others around you.
Humility is a great attribute, you can be humble and confident. Humility is freeing from the stand point that if you are humble you no longer have to worry how you measure up or compare to anyone else. The problem with comparisons in this life is that our paths are as unique and varied as we are. You simply focus on being the best you that God created you to be.
So get over yourself and start being yourself.

Distractions

In today's world we are constantly inundated with information in one form or another.  Be it passive like television or interactive such as reading RSS feeds and blogs on the web, there are countless things vying for our attention.  It is no small wonder it is a struggle to focus on any one thing.  Distractions make procrastinating easy because we find something else to occupy our mind with little effort.
Sometimes these mental diversions occur without our intentions.  You sit down at the computer to do some work, and you think ‘I better check my e-mail before I start , somebody might have sent me something important’, you check your e-mail and you see an e-mail from Jim Bob, that makes you wonder if Joe Bob has posted a response to what you wrote on his wall on Facebook, then on Facebook you see that link from Bobbi Sue to the video on YouTube of the pug licking the glass, that makes you wonder what was the name of the pug in the movie ‘Men in Black’ and so you google that and that takes you to wikipedia and at this point it is all over because pugs lead to House of Orange which leads to Dutch Revolution then to painters and so on.  Four hours later you are well on your way of becoming a real life Cliff Clavin, still have not completed one important item on your to do list.
The solution is remove and or manage distractions by forming habits and using tools that help you avoid them.  The central key is to remove anything that may pull your attention away from the task at hand and create an environment where you can focus on the task that you need to accomplish.  There are count techniques on doing this.  This article is just one of countless and lists ten things to do to avoid distractions which I think are effective, if practiced.
But you really don't need ten or twenty or even five techniques to be less distracted, you need to apply one.  My personal favorite techique to aid in the fight against procrastination is time blocking (apparently this term is outdated because an article in FastCompany, but it fits and I like it). Many times the task at hand is so daunting that you simply won't start.  You can a technique called time blocking by deciding to only work on the task for a predefined period of time.  For example, you have to write a report, you know its going to take you hours and you avoiding starting.  Simply decide to work on it for thirty minutes and then take a five minute break.  I honestly think this is one of the best techniques for improving your focus when working on a task.

Now stop being distracted by my amazing prose and witty , pick something that you NEED to get done today and do it! 

Procrastination

Procrastination is probably the single worst habit that keeps us from our passions. There are countless articles, blogs and books published on the subject. And yet we still procrastinate, we wait until the last minute to do everything, from important tasks like starting that new exercise program to seemingly unimportant items such as getting up on time in the morning. Why would anyone allow such a bad habit to persist? There are two reasons in my case, fear and laziness.

Now I think that the motivation or the lack of motivation in fear and laziness are the same. You value the current state more than the perceived out come. For example, I know I do better on a sleep schedule of going to bed early (10 pm) and getting up early (5 am). I am more productive, refreshed, and energized on that schedule. Then why do I constantly slide back to a schedule where I stay awake until midnight or later and then sleep until the last possible second to get up? The simple answer is laziness or lack of discipline and that is correct, but to be more specific it is because at the moment it is time to get out of bed, my brain tells me that the warm bed I am lying is better than moving, or if I stay up late I can get a particular task accomplished (the irony is that the task never gets done and if I attempt to tackle the task I am not as affective).

When you do not do something out of fear the reason is similar. When there is something you are scared to do whether the feared outcome is real or perceived it is easier to stay put than to try and move forward. People, like water, will always follow the path of least resistance and fear keeps us from pushing to change our current path.

Brian Tracy wrote a book on overcoming procrastination called Eat That Frog!, which gets its name from the Mark Twain quote:

“If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.”

Tracy’s advice in the first chapter is to identify the thing that you need to get done and that you are most worried about doing and do it first (I have only read the first chapter of the book, I haven’t gotten around to the finishing it, its bad when you procrastinate reading the book on overcoming procrastination).

My goal for the next couple of weeks, to overcome procrastination. My next couple of posts will be about procrastination and the techniques you can utilize to overcome it.