WEBVTT 00:00:01.260 --> 00:00:03.399 Hello, my name is Austin Shadle, and welcome 00:00:03.399 --> 00:00:05.719 back to the Life Endurance Podcast, where we 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:07.919 explore methods of unlocking your true potential 00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:10.339 in the greatest endurance race we all partake 00:00:10.339 --> 00:00:15.339 in, life. Procrastination. Not taking action. 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:19.160 By doing nothing, you will guarantee the outcome 00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:23.320 you want to avoid. Ironic, isn't it? We desperately 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:26.679 want to avoid something, but we don't take action. 00:00:27.390 --> 00:00:30.530 and by doing so, we ensure the bad outcome occurs. 00:00:31.190 --> 00:00:34.890 Why do we do this? In a previous episode, we 00:00:34.890 --> 00:00:37.530 discussed laziness and how laziness is focused 00:00:37.530 --> 00:00:41.109 on the cost and not the reward. This also applies 00:00:41.109 --> 00:00:44.270 to procrastination. We overthink the path to 00:00:44.270 --> 00:00:47.009 the finish to a point that we don't even start. 00:00:47.429 --> 00:00:50.549 I am as guilty as anyone in this, and if you 00:00:50.549 --> 00:00:52.490 haven't listened to the last episode, I urge 00:00:52.490 --> 00:00:54.899 you to do so. But there's a couple other key 00:00:54.899 --> 00:00:57.479 sources of procrastination I want to talk about 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:01.679 today. The first is fear, most commonly the fear 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:04.579 of failure. We tend to overthink the potential 00:01:04.579 --> 00:01:07.500 of failure, another common topic in the self 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:10.120 -help world, and one I will continue to bring 00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:13.640 up. Sometimes, as I batch write episodes, I worry 00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:16.719 about beating a dead horse at times, but there 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:19.099 are some things I don't think we can revisit 00:01:19.099 --> 00:01:22.849 too much, and failure is one of those. We fear 00:01:22.849 --> 00:01:25.730 failure even though failure is part of the process. 00:01:26.049 --> 00:01:29.230 But failure can be painful, so our desire to 00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:32.370 avoid it is a protection mechanism. A natural 00:01:32.370 --> 00:01:35.150 mechanism that means well, but is one that we 00:01:35.150 --> 00:01:38.590 must learn to override in order to improve. So 00:01:38.590 --> 00:01:40.829 the first life endurance takeaway is for you 00:01:40.829 --> 00:01:43.030 to consider something you are procrastinating 00:01:43.030 --> 00:01:46.530 on. So take a moment and think about what outcome 00:01:46.530 --> 00:01:49.269 you're trying to avoid, and what will taking 00:01:49.269 --> 00:01:53.189 action ensure won't happen. Now look inward and 00:01:53.189 --> 00:01:56.769 see if fear is the source of your inaction. What 00:01:56.769 --> 00:01:59.890 are you afraid of? Dig into these fears and ask 00:01:59.890 --> 00:02:02.569 yourself, are they rational and are they worse 00:02:02.569 --> 00:02:05.510 than the outcome of taking no action? You'll 00:02:05.510 --> 00:02:08.610 likely find the irrationality of the fear that's 00:02:08.610 --> 00:02:11.550 causing your procrastination. Now the other source 00:02:11.550 --> 00:02:14.509 of procrastination that has skyrocketed in modern 00:02:14.509 --> 00:02:17.849 day specifically is the myth of multitasking. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:20.919 Again, another topic I have hit on, so I won't 00:02:20.919 --> 00:02:23.400 go into detail about how there is no such thing 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:26.740 as multitasking, just rapid task switching, which 00:02:26.740 --> 00:02:29.699 is wildly bad for productivity. But this idea 00:02:29.699 --> 00:02:32.340 of multitasking being a source of procrastination 00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:35.300 really explained a lot when I heard it. When 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:38.719 we multitask or have the option to, we procrastinate 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:40.840 completion of the task we're switching from. 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:44.020 And it's also a way to cope with the fear we 00:02:44.020 --> 00:02:46.870 mentioned before. It gives us an excuse to avoid 00:02:46.870 --> 00:02:50.050 the thing that we're scared of. It gives us options 00:02:50.050 --> 00:02:52.949 to procrastinate. And we justify them because 00:02:52.949 --> 00:02:55.710 we switch to another task that, yes, needs to 00:02:55.710 --> 00:02:58.210 happen, but might not need to happen as much 00:02:58.210 --> 00:03:00.710 as the one we're working on. Modern day technology 00:03:00.710 --> 00:03:03.990 makes this extremely difficult to avoid, and 00:03:03.990 --> 00:03:06.889 I'm guilty of this. I have four screens on my 00:03:06.889 --> 00:03:09.770 desk. I can have emails on one screen, messages 00:03:09.770 --> 00:03:12.449 on another, documents on the other, and a web 00:03:12.449 --> 00:03:15.360 browser on the fourth. At times, there's an advantage 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:18.000 to having multiple screens, when you need to 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.259 have two documents open to compare at once, or 00:03:21.259 --> 00:03:23.879 you need to have info from your browser or email 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:26.360 to include on a document you're working on. But 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:29.099 it also makes it too easy to let yourself leave 00:03:29.099 --> 00:03:32.340 a task for another. When a new email comes in, 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:34.819 or you remember a browser tab that you've been 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:38.180 meaning to revisit, it becomes too easy to indulge 00:03:38.180 --> 00:03:40.939 in the impulse to go after the new exciting thought 00:03:41.389 --> 00:03:43.629 and continue to avoid the task you should be 00:03:43.629 --> 00:03:46.409 focusing on. So the second life endurance takeaway 00:03:46.409 --> 00:03:49.949 for today is this. When you find yourself procrastinating, 00:03:50.030 --> 00:03:52.810 observe how many options you have in front of 00:03:52.810 --> 00:03:56.250 you. How much access to distractions do you have? 00:03:56.590 --> 00:03:59.710 You may have to find ways to remove those options. 00:04:00.129 --> 00:04:02.990 And with that, combating your procrastination. 00:04:03.689 --> 00:04:06.650 I hope today's episode added some value to your 00:04:06.650 --> 00:04:09.229 own pursuits. Please subscribe and take a brief 00:04:09.229 --> 00:04:11.449 moment to share if you think this could help 00:04:11.449 --> 00:04:14.150 others. To learn more about my background, follow 00:04:14.150 --> 00:04:17.370 me on Instagram at TheEnduranceBeast. To support 00:04:17.370 --> 00:04:19.449 yourself as well as the podcast, check out my 00:04:19.449 --> 00:04:21.970 affiliate links below. Thank you for listening 00:04:21.970 --> 00:04:24.410 and as always, I look forward to sharing the 00:04:24.410 --> 00:04:24.970 next episode.