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June 2003 New Perceptions Success Letter By Kate Ripp Success strategies to support you in your professional and personal growth. Please feel free to forward this newsletter in its entirety to colleagues and friends. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ June, 2003 E-mail: kateripp@ktrconsulting.com Web Site: http://www.ktrconsulting.com Pull the Weed of Procrastination Sometimes we have good intentions for changing our lives but we sabotage our intentions with procrastination. We dont want to deal with the details or are resistant to the change it will bring in our lives. We can come up with excuses like, Im not in the mood right now or Ill start tomorrow because I have so much to do. This thought process doesnt do us any good; it just sets us up for failure. Learn how to outsmart yourself and create a plan that you know will hold you to accomplishing the endeavor. We can change how we think by taking full responsibility for everything that happens in our lives. Most procrastinators blame others for why they arent taking action. Procrastination is an excuse for not facing fears, accepting change, or taking responsibility. If you procrastinate, its not anyone elses fault but your own. Telling yourself the truth and taking full responsibility for what isnt working in your life is the first step to defeating procrastination. Changing our behavior is paramount to eliminating procrastination from our lives. 1.Write it down. When you find yourself procrastinating, reflect on the problem and then write it down. Ask yourself where the resistance is coming from and what it would take to accomplish the task. 2.Break a project into smaller pieces. When I procrastinate, its usually because I feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the project. Rather than look at the entire project, schedule short slices of time, say an hour a day to chip away at what needs to be done. Just a little bit every day reduces the anxiety of waiting until the last minute. 3.Ask for help. Sometimes you just dont want to do it yourself so you procrastinate taking action. I have a client who kept procrastinating about cleaning up the clutter in his office. I suggested he hire an assistant rather than force himself to do it. Now that his assistant helps him to keep organized, he has the time to do his genius work and is free from the guilt of procrastination. 4. Make a contest or a game out of a task. Plan a chunk of time and see how much you can get done in that time. Use your creativity to make it fun! Accomplishment feels good. 5. Reward yourself with a night out on the town after completing a big project, or a hot bath and a nap after cleaning up your files. Reward systems work extremely well for many people. Make sure your delays are truly procrastination. We creative beings are constantly developing new ideas and strategies. Sometimes we need to let these simmer. Dont chastise yourself if what youre really doing is creating. When faced with a deadline, a creative client of mine often found herself procrastinating before getting down to work. Once she got started, she could work for hours at a time. However, she saw it as a procrastination problem that she wanted to change. What she has come to realize is that this is just how she works. She can now endorse that creativity. There is an importance to creative work, some amount of squandered time needed to stimulate the creative process. So now, she builds squander time into her schedule before getting down to the task. She sees her natural creative style as a strength instead of procrastination, and feels less guilt and more joy in her work. If procrastination plagues you, look for a creative solution that works to solve the challenge and accomplish the task without tasking you. Copyright 2003 by Kate Ripp. All rights reserved. .. Kate Ripp offers business and personal coaching to entrepreneurs, small business owners and professionals. She is a high-energy coach with twenty years of corporate management experience and hands-on knowledge in the areas of leadership, strategic planning, operations, sales, and customer service. She coaches one-on-one, in groups, and delivers workshops to improve communication, reduce conflict and foster teamwork in the business environment. Kate is a graduate of Coach University and a member of the International Coach Federation. She can be reached at 303-697-5914 or kateripp@ktrconsulting.com . Visit her web-site at www.ktrconsulting.com Want to improve your communication and effectiveness? Receive your comprehensive personal profile system and capitalize on your behavioral strengths, appreciate different work styles and improve your communications with others. To find out more about the DiSC Personal Profile System, contact me at kateripp@ktrconsulting.com or call 303-697-5914. SmartMatch Alliances Open the Door to Your Extraordinary Business Growth and Success The SmartMarch Alliance process provides a powerful model to quickly attract better business prospectsin greater numbers faster than ever before. Learn how to find and form alliances with other organizations or individuals to increase your visibility, sales, and profits. These programs are based on the book, SmarMarch Alliances. I am a SmartMarch Alliances Certified Trainer. To find out more, contact me at 303-697-5914 or kateripp@ktrconsulting.com For subscription changes click on http://10000things.com/ktr/ktr_newsletter.php3 Comments, questions or suggestions for topics? Please e-mail Kate at help@ktrconsulting.com |
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