If you are currently suffering from procrastination, let’s explore why and what you can do about it.
You don’t love what you do and you’re not excited about it. If you are not eager to work, it can be because you’re thinking about the money you don’t have and the money that you need to make. The need to make money only appeals to your prefrontal cortex, not your heart. This does not give you a strong enough motivation to get you to do the things you need to do in a timely manner.
In addition, when you’re desperate to make money, you’re sending out a negative vibration of scarcity. What you get back is what you send out – more scarcity. Then you’re in a vicious circle.
Remember that you are in a service business. When you wake up in the morning, you should be thinking, “Who can I help today?” If you really put your heart and soul into the joy of contributing to another person’s life, I guarantee that you will be proactive in everything you do and the procrastination will simply fade away.
You need to do whatever you can to love your business, to get excited about helping people and release any mental blocks that get in the way. The sooner you do that the sooner your business will grow.
If you’re asking yourself, “Why am I not excited about my business?” The answer is simple.
You have self-limiting beliefs that stifle your confidence, that make you afraid of success, that make you believe there is never enough money and that make you believe that prospecting is begging. Here are the most common self-limiting beliefs that people have. Look at these and ask yourself if any of these ring true.
- I’m not good enough
- I need to be perfect to be okay
- I’m not worthy
- I need to push myself to succeed
- I don’t have what it takes to succeed
Remember: these are not facts, they are just beliefs and beliefs can be changed. Also remember that you may not feel these 100 per cent of the time, you may only feel them one per cent of the time, but nevertheless they need to be checked.
Here’s the good news. It doesn’t matter how many self-limiting beliefs you have. They were installed in your subconscious mind when you were growing up and they are not the truth about who you are. Therefore they can be changed. It’s not your fault the self-limiting beliefs are in there in the first place, but it is your responsibility to release them and reprogram them instead of carrying them around as extra baggage as you go through your life.
Here are the most common self-limiting beliefs about success:
- Being successful means working long hard hours, struggling and sacrifice
- Being successful means I won’t have balance in my life
- Being successful means that people will be jealous of me
- If I am successful, I’ll lose my core identity
- If I am successful, I will be overwhelmed
Can you understand how this connects to procrastination? Obviously, if you are afraid of success and you have these beliefs about what success does to you, then doesn’t it make sense to procrastinate?
When you procrastinate, you are sabotaging your success. Consciously, you want to overcome your procrastination, but subconsciously, these beliefs are really running the show.
Here are some common self-limiting beliefs about money:
- There is never enough money
- I don’t deserve to have money
- Rich people are greedy
- Money is the root of all evil
The problem is they’re not true. We don’t live in the universe of scarcity; we live in a universe of abundance. If you believe that there is never enough money, then you will create a life in which there is never enough money. Is that what you want to do or would you rather believe in abundance and thereby attract abundance to you?
Let’s take the belief that rich people are greedy. If you really believe that, then your subconscious mind would be working against you because it does not want you to become a wealthy person. From the subconscious mind’s perspective, you being a wealthy person would make you a bad person.
Here are some self-limiting beliefs about prospecting:
- I’m bothering people
- I will be rejected
- People will think that I’m a “pushy salesperson”
- Prospecting is begging.
If your old belief is “I’m bothering people”, then your empowered belief would be, “I am helping people.” If your old belief is, “If I’m successful, I’ll be overwhelmed,” then your empowered belief would be, “I create success by working smarter, not harder.”
What is the way out? Get some help to reprogram your subconscious mind. You won’t believe how good you feel when you release these old outdated beliefs.
In mindset coaching, we go far beyond that. We not only find out what self-limiting beliefs you have, but we find out about the origin of them in your childhood. Then we question whether those beliefs are currently helping you or hurting you and most of time you’ll find out that they’re hurting you.
I was working with a client recently, let me call her Nancy. In one of our coaching sessions, she admitted to me that she felt very complacent about her business. When I asked her to tell me more, she said that she really wants to enjoy her life and not work very much.
She went on to say that her real goal is to make $100,000 each year, but that she’s been struggling to try to make $250,000 a year. I asked her, “Why the difference”? She was honest with me in explaining that other people expected her to make $250,000 a year like her broker, her mentor and her friends. They all told her that she needed to “live up to her full potential.”
The truth of the situation was that she really just wanted to have balance in her life and not have to work very hard. I assured her that if she kept struggling to earn income that wasn’t really her ideal, then she wouldn’t be able to succeed.
Your goal and your definition of success need to be uniquely your own. If you are doing it for any reason other than because you want to, it won’t work and you will create complacency, struggle and procrastination.
You could have the right mindset, and the right action steps, but still be sabotaging yourself by not attending to your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs. The trick is to find the balance in your life that works for you. Here’s a tip: if you have moments of joy throughout your day, then you’re probably on the right track.
Maya Bailey, Ph.D. is known as the Mindset Business coach for real estate agents and other success minded entrepreneurs who want to achieve a “Multiple 6 Figure Income in 12 months or less”. For a complimentary “Business Breakthrough” coaching session, visit 90daystomoreclients.com
