July 2, 200812:00 – 1:00 P.M.

Room 2-334

Procrastination –

NOW!!

“You may delay, but time will not.”

Benjamin Franklin

“You can’t build a reputation on what you intend to do.”

Liz Smith, columnist

Plan for the WorkshopJuly 2, 2008 – Wednesday

AGENDA ITEM:• Introductions and Welcome• Procrastination Quiz• Getting Out From Under – Procrastination• Look at Procrastination

– Reasons for Procrastination– Fear of Success– Cost of Procrastination– Stop Procrastination NOW – An Insight and Benefits

• Successful Vs Unsuccessful Students• Goal Setting• Talent Is Never Enough – Initiative Activates Your

Talent

Introductions and Welcome

Procrastination Quiz

Getting Out From Under –Procrastination

Look at Procrastination

Do you stick with your plans?Are you punctual?

Do you get things in on time?Do you put things off?Well, it’s time to deal with the most dreaded, dangerous time monster of all…

You be on time, then I don’t have to do it for you

Procrastination:“Never do today what you can put off ‘till tomorrow!”

Forms of Procrastination:• Ignoring the task, hoping it will go away.• Underestimating how long it will take.• Overestimating your abilities and resources.• Telling yourself that poor performance is okay.• Doing something else that isn’t very important.• Believing that repeated “minor” delays won’t hurt you.• Talking about a hard job rather than doing it.• Putting all your work on only one part of the task.• Becoming paralyzed when having to make choices.

Four Simple Reasons for Procrastination

1. Difficult• Task seems to hard to do.• Avoid difficult things in favor of those which seem easy to us.

2. Time-consuming• Task will take large blocks of time.• Large blocks of time are unavailable until the weekend.

3. Lack of knowledge or skills• No one wants to make a mistake.• Wait until you learn how before you start.

4. Fears• Everyone will know how you messed up.• I can never be successful.

Four Complex Reasons for Procrastination

1. Perfectionism• Everything must go completely right.• Long on criticism and short on praise.

2. Anger/Hostility• Unhappy with someone, we’ll often withhold our best efforts.• Delay a project as a way of “getting even.”

3. Low Frustration Tolerance• You find situations radically intolerable and terribly unfair. • Characterized by whining and complaining.

4. Self-Downing• Minimize your own skills and abilities.• Express doubt about your ability to succeed.

Fear of Success

“Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know

will result if they move ahead now. Because success is

heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ‘someday I’ll’ philosophy.”

Denis Waitley, author

Waitley Institute

Fear of Success

• Being afraid to achieve the very things that we want.• Self-defeating thinking, such as:

– “I don’t deserve it”– “If I achieve what I set out to do, everyone will know that I

don’t really deserve it”– “If I get it I won’t be able to sustain it. Why try?”– “If I am successful, someone will come along who is better

than me. Then, what will happen to me?”– “If I am successful, my relationships will change and I’ll have

to make new friends. My current friends would never accept a more successful me.”

Fear of Success

• Self-defeating thinking leads to self-defeating actions– Doing the wrong thing even when you know the right thing to do

• That way, one can avoid having to deal with success.

– Minimizing your accomplishments so they are ultimately negated

• Then, you don’t have to live up to being all that you really are.

– Feeling guilty when you have a success.• Creates a slowdown in momentum, hesitancy to act, and a self-

fulfilling inability to move on to another success.

• What to do differently– Act in a way that will help build a sense of self

• Find ways to encourage and acknowledge accomplishments of those around you

– Seek people who have your permission to provide feedback – positive and negative – about your progress.

– When someone compliments you, respond with a firm “Thank You!”

Fear of Success

Cost of Procrastination

• Your health– Evidence of compromised immune systems

• More colds, flu, and gastrointestinal problems

– Insomnia

• Shifts the burden of responsibilities onto others, who become resentful

• Destroys teamwork in the workplace and private relationships

• Other costs?

Stop Procrastination – NOW!An Insight

• Procrastination is reinforcing – every time you delay, it reinforces your negative attitude toward that task

• Every time you put off something you dislike, you:1. Strengthen the habit of not doing.2. Practice avoidance instead of participation.3. Avoid acquiring training and skills.4. Indoctrinate yourself with fears.

Stop Procrastination – NOW!Benefits

• Benefits– Peace of mind– Feeling of strength and purpose– Healthy feeling of being in charge of your life– Make you feel strong, competent and capable.

• Not weak, useless, and helpless.

– You will experience more freedom and greater personal self-satisfaction.

Successful Student

Successful Student

“A successful student accepts personal

responsibility,

discovers self-motivation, masters self-

management,

employs interdependence, gains self

awareness,

adopts lifelong learning, develops

emotional

intelligence, and believes in

themselves.”

Skip Downing, On Course

Choices of

Successful Vs UnsuccessfulStudents

Choices of Successful and Unsuccessful Students

• Accept Self-Responsibility – 100%– Primary cause of their outcomes and experiences (E + R = O)– See themselves as victims

• Discover Self-Motivation– Finding purpose in their lives by discovering personally

meaningful goals and dreams– Feel depressed and/or frustrated over lack of direction

• Master Self-Management– Planning and taking purposeful actions in pursuit of their goals– Seldom identify specific actions to accomplish goals

(procrastinate)

• Employ Interdependence– Build mutually supportive relationships– Solitary, seldom requesting, even rejecting offers of assistance

• Gain Self-Awareness– Consciously employing behaviors and attitude that keep

them on course– Make important choices unconsciously

• Adopt Life-Long Learning– Primary cause of their outcomes and experiences– View learning as fearful or boring rather than as mental play

• Develop Emotional Intelligence– Effectively manage their emotions in support of their goals– Anger, depression, anxiety, or need for instant gratification

• Believe in Themselves– Capable, lovable, and unconditionally worthy human beings– Doubt their competence and personal value to achieve

success

Choices of Successful and Unsuccessful Students

How to Stop Procrastination

• Commit, commit, commit to being on time.

• Set and keep deadlines.

• Organize, schedule & plan.

• Divide a big job into smaller ones.

• Make a game of it! Make it fun!

• Give yourself a prize when you’re done.

Use lotsof

Stickies

Daily – Work On Your…..Self-esteem – Self-image – Self-confidence

• Self-esteem– What you say to yourself about yourself when no one is

listening – the respect (or lack of) you have for yourself.

• Self-image– How you think others perceive you, and the way you

interpret that input becomes a component of esteem.

• Self-confidence– How esteem and image are shown externally – the

assurance that is portrayed to others.

Beat Procrastination –Goal Setting

Creating SMART Goals “Vague goals produce vague results.” – Jack Canfield

• S = Specific– Do you know exactly what you want to accomplish with all

the details?

• M = Measurable– Are you able to assess your progress?

• A = Attainable– Is your goal within your reach given your current situation?

• R = Realistic– Is your goal relevant towards your purpose in life?

• T = Timely– What is the deadline for completing your goal?

Hand-out

Goals:To get an A in History

To lose 10 pounds in the next 2months.

• Commitments:I will spend an extra 30 minutesper day studying History. I will goto the library at least 2 times a week.

I will go to the gym 3 times per week.I will spend 20 minutes on the

treadmill.

Goals and Commitments

Goal: What you would like to achieveCommitment: A specific action you agree to take to move you toward your goal.

Procrastination –

NOW!!

Talent is Never Enough … by John C. Maxwell

Initiative Activates Your Talent

Talent is Never Enough

1. Belief lifts your talent2. Passion energies your talent3. Initiative activates your talent4. Focus directs your talent5. Preparation positions your talent6. Practice sharpens your talent7. Perseverance sustains your talent8. Courage tests your talent9. Teachability expands your talent10. Character protects your talent11. Relationships influence your talent12. Responsibility strengthens your talent13. Teamwork multiples your talent

Insights on Initiative

People Who Lack Initiative

Initiative Action Plan

1. Initiative is the first step to anywhere you want to go– Where you finish in life isn’t determined so much by where

you start as by whether you start– Successful people initiate – and they follow through

2. Initiative closes the door to fear– If you want to close the door on fear, get moving– Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence.– Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear

3. Initiative opens the door to opportunity

– Anyone who doesn’t take initiative is almost guaranteed to fail

– Can’t wait until everything is perfect to act and expect to be successful

Initiative Activates Your TalentInsights on Initiative

4. Initiative eases life’s difficulties– “Nothing is so fatiguing as the hanging on of an uncompleted task.”

- William James– The only way to get rid of a difficult task is to do it. That takes

initiative

5. Initiative is often the difference between success and

failure– Without it, true potential is never reached– Goals are not achieved

Initiative Activates Your TalentInsights on Initiative

1. People who lack initiative fail to see the consequences of inaction

– “It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.” – Sir Josiah Stamp

– Whatever we do - or fail to do – will catch up with us in the end

2. People who lack initiative want someone else to motivate them

– Motivation comes from within.– If we wait for others to motivate us, what happens when a

coach, a boss, or other inspirational person doesn’t show up

Initiative Activates Your TalentPeople Who Lack Initiative

3. People who lack initiative look for the perfect time to act– “He who deliberates fully before taking a step will spend his entire

life on one leg.” – Chinese proverb– For many people, the tragedy isn’t that life ends to soon; it’s that

they wait too long to begin it

4. People who lack initiative like tomorrow better than today– Focus your attention on today instead of tomorrow– “Tomorrow is the only day in the year that appeals to a lazy man.”

- Jimmy Lyons– For people who never start, their difficulties never stop

Initiative Activates Your TalentPeople Who Lack Initiative

1. Accept responsibility for your life– “To move the world we must first move ourselves.” – Socrates– Responsibility and initiative are inseparable– You cannot wish your way to success– You need to take responsibility and act

2. Examine your reasons for not initiating– Separate legitimate reasons from excuses– An excuse puts the blame on someone or something outside you– Easier to move from failure to success than from excuses to

success– Eliminate excuses

Initiative Activates Your TalentInitiative Action Plan

3. Focus on the benefits of completing a task– Procrastination is the fertilizer that makes difficulties grow– If you procrastinate about a task – it is a necessary one

• If it’s not, don’t put it off; eliminate it

– Focus on what you’ll get out of it if you get it done• Will completing the task bring a financial benefit?• Will it clear the way for something else you would like to do?• Does it represent a milestone in you personal growth and

development?• At the very least, does it help to clear the decks for you emotionally?

4. Share your goal with a friend who will help you– No one achieves success alone– Share your goals and dreams with people who care about you

and will encourage and assist you in accomplishing them

Initiative Activates Your TalentInitiative Action Plan

5. Breaking large tasks down into smaller ones– Divide it by categories– Prioritize it by importance– Order it by sequence– Assign it by abilities– Accomplish it by teamwork

6. Allocate specific times to tasks you might procrastinate– “The greatest time wasted is the time getting started.”

- Dawson Trotman– The hardest part of writing a letter is penning the first line– Schedule a specific time for something you don’t like doing

Initiative Activates Your TalentInitiative Action Plan

7. Remember, preparation includes doing– “The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

- Louis L’Amour– Desire isn’t enough. – Good intentions aren’t enough.– Talent isn’t enough.– Success requires initiative– Plans are nothing…unless they are followed with action. Do it

now!

Initiative Activates Your TalentInitiative Action Plan

Success flows from Doing, not from planning