Now I don’t want to yak on aboutmyself, but I have been told that tellingyour story helps inspire other people toovercome the challenges that you havefaced. <3

Hi I’m Antony Sammeroff, host of the Be Yourself and Love It Podcast(subscribe on iTunes or Android) and author of 20 incomplete books, all ofwhich are scheduled to come out sometime over the next decade (staytuned.)

Jokes aside, I’m very happy with how my writing is progressing these days– I must have written a million words in 2017 – but it wasn’t always so.

For the entirety of my 20s procrastination racked my self-confidence andundermined my self-esteem. All the people I knew who were productivehad ALWAYS been like that so there was not much they could do to help oradvise me. What’s more – everyone I knew who was a chronicprocrastinator had always been like that too!...

Was it just luck of the draw?

Did we have no choice but to accept our fate?

My procrastination didn’t just have me chronically depressed at the worstof times, it also cost me big opportunities!

Here are just a few of the things I cringe to remember:

- In my early teens I went to audition for a TV program and got a call backwith very few other candidates. They gave me a script to learn but Iprocrastinated on learning the lines for so long that I was not confident inthe audition and the part went to someone else, even though I knew that Icould have done a great job. - When I was 18 I took a Demo CD to a club where they played the sort ofdark electronic music that I was really into in my teens. I asked one of theDJs to put on one of my songs, and while it was playing the other oneasked him what it was. When he told her that it was my demo she was soimpressed that she said she could get me a slot at a musical festival.Despite the excitement I felt in that moment, I let myself down by puttingoff finishing my demo and never got to play my electronic stuff live.

- I started college at 22 and had to study for my four-year honours degreeover five years. Although I gave everything to my assignments and mymarks were excellent, I often could not discipline myself to get them in ontime! I was on the road to getting a first-class degree but missed by one ortwo marks partly because of this problem.

- When I was 24 I was suffering from back pain and went to a chiropractor.He pointed out that my chest muscles were too short and my hamstringsexceptionally tight. He corrected my spine and gave me some exercises tofix the problem. I did them half-heartedly until the pain went away andthen stopped. As a consequence, I am only now correcting my posturewhich would have been fixed years ago if I had persevered.

- By the time I was 28 I had slightly managed to improve my output butnot in a disciplined way. I got a coach to help me with my own coachingbusiness. He taught me how to create and sell an online program. I was allset to host a webinar to pre-sell the course, but right as I was reaching thefinish line my procrastination kicked in. My coach and I parted ways and ittook two years before I finally finished my online course - Surviving toThriving.

Even though these challenges were seriously depressing, I never lost hope.I always believed that one day I would find the right solution to myprocrastination problem, but where? I kept on trying things and tryingthings. I read books, most of which were completely useless, and watchedYouTube videos which were not much better. No matter where I looked Icould not find someone who had actually gone from being a reluctantprocrastinator to a productivity machine! Only people philosophisingabout how to mitigate the effects of procrastination slightly. No oneseemed to have a profound solution. I saw a variety of therapists over theyears and they helped me offload some of my frustration, but after a whileI got tired of telling the same story about my feelings of futility over andover again. I had understanding. What I needed was practical help.

Well, no spoilers, but eventually I found a method that worked for me.

Nowadays I wake up early.I meditate, do some yoga stretches and then some breathing exercises toget energised for the day.I floss my teeth and make a healthy smoothie – a couple things I couldnever manage to do regularly before.I do my first writing session next, then practise the piano for a half hour orso, then do some reading. After lunch I will usually do at least one more writing session, whenever itsuits me.On Monday and Thursday nights I do a Facebook live stream for 10minutes on a self-help topic of my choosing. Many have reached tens ofthousands of hits. (You can find the previous live feeds on my YouTube.)On Wednesdays I put out the Be Yourself and L ove I t P odcast.Thursday, the Scottish Liberty Podcast.On Sundays I run two personal development events in person.Before bed, I journal for 15 minutes about what’s on my mind and howI’ve been feeling.I also find time to go to the gym, write theatre reviews, see the lady, hangout with my buddies, and most importantly I feel like every day is asuccess!Did I mention I also work? During the week I run events, coach others andoffer counselling services, in person and internationally over Skype.

How did I do it?

Little Keys Open Huge Doors

I found the right method and applied it consistently until I was used to it.

That might sound blindingly obvious but at least I’m not selling any snake-oil. I went out and weeded my garden, then planted seeds until it was fullof flowers. It took a little persistence – and persistence is a very scaryword for procrastinators. Often, we feel like we can’t trust our moods fortomorrow so how can we commit to being persistent today? Half the timewe are scared to even start an exciting new project in case it ends up beinganother unfinished responsibility hanging over our head. Just anotherdiscarded possibility on the heap of unmet dreams. The thing is, I found away of making it easier and easier to be persistent.

You may be wondering how long this “quick fix” took.

After 30 years of experimenting with dead-ends, unable to change mywork ethic, I was seeing tangible results from this method in a few weeks.In less than a year I had transformed my life completely. I had routines.

This book will help you design a three-month course of action for yourselfand make it as easy as possible to apply so that you can do as I have done.I have decided on that amount of time because it is a realistic period to seesignificant changes in your life and is relatively unscary. Three months isusually the minimum amount of time I work with a private client, and it isenough time for you to judge whether my method is right for you or not. Ifyou are hungry for more you will naturally continue to apply the methodfor another three months, and then long after those three months are done!

This book teaches the genuine method that I used to overcomeprocrastination and change my life, one step at a time. I hold nothing back.There is no woo-woo or funny stuff. It’s a pragmatic, sensible approach.It’s simple and effective. All you need to do is follow in my footsteps andget results. Then write me a little email detailing your experiences. (Don’tput it off too long.)

We will start off with addressing a few changes you might have to make toyour mindset if you really want this method to work for you.

Come with me.

The Five-Headed Dragon Between You and Your Goals.

(and how to slay it)

All or Nothing Thinking.‘It’s all or nothing – and nothing’s all I ever get.’- Meatloaf and Jim Steinman

When you’re stuck in a rut it’s easy to imaginethat everything must change at once or else it’spointless. The truth is that victory is not actuallyachieved by getting things done – but by makinglittle changes in the way you operate day to daythat add up over time.

Think of changing the pieces of hardware in your desktop computer one byone until it’s a brand-new machine internally. The weakest links may slowit down in the short term, but ultimately when the transformation iscomplete it will effortlessly be able to do things that it can’t do now. Youcan continue to upgrade the machine indefinitely as new advances becomeavailable – and you will soon get pretty handy with a screwdriver too!

The problem right now may be that: You are Expecting a Miracle!

You want to have a healing experience.

Maybe you will go to a motivational seminar one weekend. You will feelgreat and get really juiced up hanging around all of these other people whounderstand you and are going through similar problems... but nothing deepcan fundamentally change from one workshop – or a therapy session, orseeing a guru or shaman, or taking a psychedelic – and when your oldpatterns reassert themselves you might end up feeling worse than ever!

“Now I’ve swung back down again it’s worse than it was before– If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor.”- James (English rock band)

How to Slay this Dragon: Change your goal from getting things done togetting a little better each day, based on the understanding that simplygetting things done is not the actual goal. Becoming the kind of personwho can get things done is the goal. Once you become that person – theperson you’ve always known you have the potential to be – getting thingsdone will come naturally to you.

Perfectionism“I’m a man of simple tastes. I’m alwayscompletely satisfied with the best.”- Oscar Wilde

Many procrastinators place such high standardson themselves and their work that theyintimidate themselves out of even gettingstarted. Sometimes the goal that they have setthemselves really is too demanding for theircurrent skill level, especially if it’s a big project.

No one would go to the gym for the first time and expect to be able tobench press their own weight, so why would you expect to be able to startand complete a big ambitious project like write a novel, record a soloalbum, launch a product, or climb Everest without first getting the relevantexperience under your belt?

How to Slay this Dragon: No one else will tell you this but the cure toperfectionism is not lowering your standards. It’s gaining confidence inyour ability to meet them.

We always feel confident operating in a situation that we have commandof. You never feel a lack of confidence walking, but this was not alwaysthe case. You were once a toddler. Right now, you might be a goal-achievement toddler. Confidence will be gained, but only by experience.

Build your confidence by gaining experience working on smaller, lessambitious tasks than the ones you are persistently avoiding. If you havebeen putting off that great thesis for years start by writing short pieces onrelated subjects that are 60-500 words long. Write them as uncritically aspossible ‘just for experience.’ You may be able to use some of your ideasin your final work once you’re ready to get back to it! If you dream ofhaving a successful podcast start making little recordings explaining thingsyou find interesting in five to ten minutes. If you want to run a businessstart by getting a job in something like sales and use it as an opportunity tolearn. Find the most successful people in the company and offer to buythem lunch or a coffee and pick their brains to learn how they achieve theirstandards. Most people are so flattered by having their accomplishmentsacknowledged that they will gladly tell you everything!

Some people feel like it’s too late and they should have already done alltheir training years ago... As though now that they’re older they need to getstraight into the big project if they’re ever going to make it happen forthemselves. That view is pure poison, and if you are taking it to heart youare basically fating yourself to being in the same position in five or ten, oreven 20 years’ time. Except you’ll be even older then than you are now. Ilook back on all the things I thought it was too late for me to do and realisehow good I would have been at them by now if I had just started then –making learning my priority instead of trying to “punch above my weight.”

IF YOU THINK YOU DON’T HAVE TIME TO DO IT, THE TRUTH ISYOU DON’T HAVE TIME NOT TO DO IT.

True, you ARE older and wiser, but that means you can learn faster thanwhen you were younger and naïve. I used to teach adults piano, as well aschildren. Most of them came in believing you had to have taken up pianoas a child to ever be truly competent at it. As it turned out they learnedmuch faster than the kids did, so that idea turned out to be an empty cliché.

It’s never too late to learn. And what’s more, you can’t afford not to learn.It’s the essential step of becoming competent to accomplish your goals.

Fatalism.“All happiness is illusory. Life swings like apendulum backward and forward between painand boredom.” - Arthur Schopenhauer

In the Ancient Greek Myth, Sisyphus is fated toroll a boulder up a hill every day only to watch itroll back down again.

Every procrastinator knows that this story is actually about them!

If you manage to motivate yourself to work on your big project and getreally into it – you’re flying! You can’t wait to get back to work tomorrowand your head is buzzing with ideas as you struggle to get to sleep throughall the excitement… but then the inevitable happens...

You wake up in the morning to find yourself intransigent, inflexible,lethargic, and impossible to motivate. You’re not in the mood. It’s too hard.You’re too tired. You don’t have enough energy. What’s more you’recrestfallen that you could lose such a wonderful, sweet and effortlessfeeling. Looks like your boulder has rolled back down to the bottom of thehill, and you’ll have a steep climb today if you’re going to get any workdone at all.

Maybe you’ll just give up – but you can’t give up! You wouldn’t evenknow where to start. One way or another you have to do this thing… butnot yet. So in the meantime you do something “almost” productive; youcheck your Facebook notifications, or put on that film, video, or podcastyou’ve been meaning to catch up on. In short: you procrastinate.

Sometimes the Sisyphean reality of the procrastinator leads to anadditional resistance of its own. Feeling like you can’t trust yourself, youstart thinking things like, “There’s no point in starting since I’ll neverfinish it anyway.”, “Even if I do it today I’ll still feel crap tomorrow.”,“Even if I manage – I still have a million other things I’ll never get done.”,“Even if I finish no one will buy it.”, and so the incessant fortune-telling ofwoe continues long into the day. By night time it’s too late to do any workanyway so you might as well watch some TV, have a beer or go to bed.Tomorrow is, after all, another day. But then, tomorrow never comes.

How to Slay this Dragon: “The amateur believes he must first overcomehis fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear cannever be overcome.” ― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art.

I am still hoping to one day prove Steven Pressfield wrong in this, but fornow let me tell you a personal secret…

I am still astonished that – despite the fact I usually feel great five minutesinto the first writing session of the day – I rarely ever feel like gettingstarted in the morning. After the first session, the taste of accomplishmentis still fresh in my mouth and I can more easily get back to work. But I’mnot usually in the mood for the first one. Somehow, I manage to writeconsistently anyway. Rarely do I miss a day. So, what has changed?

Big Muscles Can Push Big Boulders

I am used to writing every day and working through the resistance. I haveroutines and habit behind me. I have countless reference experiences of notfeeling in the mood to write but negotiating with myself to “just sit downand have a look at it, make a few tweaks, give it a try, agree to do itbadly...” only to find myself thoroughly happy and engaged in my workshortly afterwards. In short, the resistance is the same but my self-discipline has grown (and continues to grow) stronger. By flexing my anti-resistance muscles once, twice, three, four times a day they grow instrength and my ability to work through resistance without self-flagellatingcontinues to advance.

The beginning is the hardest part, of course, so let’s explore some ways ofgetting over the hump.

Always be practising Getting Started rather than thinking about finishingthings. You can consider what you will do with your projects once they arecomplete and write all your ideas down in a list, but don’t focus on the endpoint to the exclusion of the work itself. If you can get enough experienceof getting started and getting restarted and getting started again, time andtime again, over the course of this year, then getting finished will becomethe natural product of your tenacity next year. Remember that you onlyever have to learn one step at a time. Get good at getting started, thenwhen you are good at that you can get good at getting things finished.1

If you are getting in your own way take out a notepad and write all of yourfatalistic thoughts down the left side of the page. Make a record of all thereasons you tell yourself why you ought not to pursue your goals. This willhelp you become very aware of how your mind is wired up to talk toyourself right now. See if you can spot any trends. On the right-hand side,you can write the truth regarding each statement. When these reasonsrepeat they should become very familiar to you. That will help you viewthem from some distance, disidentify from them, and say: “There it goesagain...”

No one will be interested. People may or may not be interested but itwill be a valuable experience to press on.

There’s no point. The point is I want to do it.

I can’t be bothered. I am low on energy but if I can just getstarted my mood will change and I willsoon feel more enthusiastic.

Even if I work today I’ll stillwake up tomorrow feelingunmotivated.

I recognise that it’s still hard for me to getstarted – especially in the morning, but theonly way to make it easier tomorrow is topractise getting started today.

Even if I manage I still have amillion other things I won’t everget done.

I can only do one thing at a time and doingone thing is always better than doingnothing. If I succeed in doing one thing thenI will feel encouraged to do the next thing.

There’s no point in starting sinceI’ll never finish it anyway.

Every time I start I get better at starting, sothere’s always a point in starting thingseven if I don’t finish them.

1 Since I am progressing through the “learning to get things finished” phase I will no doubt have more to sayon this in the future. Stay tuned!

Affirm to yourself that you will gain pride for every action you take andthat there is only ever the gradual building of your action muscles. Youcan’t change the habit pattern of a lifetime overnight, but you can make amove towards changing it with one simple action today. As I have said inthe first class of my online course Surviving to Thriving, “Just one actionmay not be a routine, but every routine starts with just one action.”

I always motivate myself by setting a parameter that is easily manageablefor my level. For example, my morning session is set for 30 minutes, butyou can experiment with ten, or even five. Whatever you know that youcan reasonably expect of yourself. When I don’t feel like starting I justrepeat to myself, “It’ll only take half an hour,” and that works for me now.Usually I will actually end up writing for a 40-75-minute stint, but on mybad days I would not sit down in the first place if I knew I had to committo such a length of time. Bear in mind I used to sometimes take weeks topsyche myself up to doing a big long stint – to “finishing” an article. In theintervening time I’d be giving myself hell non-stop, and sometimes I’dplay video-games just to get a break from hating myself. Nowadays I don’tthink much about finishing. I just think about getting started. Things willget finished when they’re ready to be finished. Knowing I’m allowed tostop after 30 minutes helps me a lot in this respect, because if I get halfwaythrough and it gets challenging I only have another ten minutes or so topush myself through. I’ve done it enough times to believe I can do it. So,setting manageable parameters helps me get started.

I am also a better writer these days and so what used to be difficult toaccomplish in terms of clarity and style has become easier. This means thework itself is less anxiety-provoking. I can write nice and simple and crispthe first time, cover an issue from many angles, and my personality andsense of humour comes through in my tone, so I enjoy writing more. Whenmy style was clunky and verbose I had to work a lot harder and longer tomake it read the way I wanted it to. This created additional resistance.

If you aren’t competent enough to enjoy what you are working on yet,practise, practise, practise. Choose smaller more manageable tasks. I wrotehundreds of blogs, articles and theatre reviews before writing this book. Imade lots of little self-help videos for my YouTube channel. Takesomething that challenges you, but not something so challenging that youcan’t help but avoid it. Give yourself permission to do it imperfectly.

One final suggestion to help you get your rock rolling up that hill. Mostpeople who self-identify as procrastinators are much more productive thanthey think they are, they just happen to be more aware of the time they arenot using productively because it’s painful. My advice is to take an“accomplishment audit” every night. Write down all of the things you havedone that day in a little notepad. Celebrate every little step in the rightdirection. Take pride in adding the simplest things to your list like“brushed teeth morning and night” or “hoovered living room”. Knowingyou will be able to include each little positive thing you do for yourselflater will help motivate you to do more positive things now.

Friedrich Nietzsche was a deep-thinking man. He was very impressed byLudwig van Beethoven’s proclamation that he would live his life overagain a thousand times, despite the fact that the great composer hadalready gone deaf! Nietzsche decided that the measure of a good life mustbe that it was lived in such a way that you would want to live it over againand over again. Can you even stand the idea?

If we’re each predestined to roll our big boulders up the hill each day, itwould be best if we started to learn to enjoy a little rock climbing.

Seeing things as things to be done rather thanthings to do.“Seems I’m always waiting for the moment Istop waiting, when the only thing’s the momentand the moment’s all I need.” - me.

To the procrastinator, everything is a “job” andeach task a means to an end. Nothing can beenjoyed simply for its own sake.

I would like to go out to the park and enjoy and nice stroll, but by the timeI get there I will be thinking of all the things I “have to” do when I getback. So, I probably won’t be able to relax much. I could go out for a beertonight and see some friends, but then I won’t have any energy to do stufftomorrow and I’ll end up wasting the entire day. Plus, I haven’t worked onmy paper, so I’m not really justified in going out. All I see are to-do lists.Projects, old and new, that I haven’t completed. Articles I mean to writeone day, a list of interesting YouTube videos I have “saved for later” andwould like to “get through” but never will because more keep gettingadded. Even so-called leisure time is affected. A movie isn’t something toenjoy watching, it’s something I “really should see.” A book is something Iwant to “have read” so I can get on to the next one, and I love the shortones because I can get through them quicker.

Sound familiar?

All of the great gurus have praised the virtues of “living in the moment”but it’s hard to relax and enjoy when there is so much to get done.Strangely, the only time you ever feel like you are here-and-now is whenyou are passionately engaged in something and you forget abouteverything else. Yet somehow you seem to spend more time avoidinggetting passionately engaged in anything than doing the things you feelpassionate about! When you finally do get started on something, it’s hardto shake the feeling that you better get through it as quickly as possible soyou can move on to everything else that needs your attention. It’s not muchof a joy.

With so much on your plate your mind can become overactive or evenpanicked. This only adds to the trouble because it’s near impossible tosettle down and focus on anything in an anxious state of mind. It’s likerolling around “trying” to get to sleep on a restless night. It’s self-defeating. Slipping on Netflix and “checking out” is always a temptation toescape a sense of overwhelm.

Viewing things as means to an end turns them into chores – and sometimesthe more something means to you the bigger a challenge it is to psycheyourself up for it. The weight you’ve associated with the things you needto do makes them harder to attend to, and a small pile of papers can beginto look more like a mountain to climb.

It might be that you also have such a long list of potential projects thateven when you have some free time it’s hard to know how to select one orwhere to start. You might feel pulled in multiple directions – none ofwhich are too appealing from the outset. The things you feel a bit morelike you probably could tackle if you really put your mind to might looklike a cop out, relatively unimportant, even “pointless”. You might not feeljustified in attending to them while you have “so many more importantthings to do.”

That means you often procrastinate over relatively easy things as well asthe hard ones. Often we feel under-resourced to meet the heavy demandsof the simplest tasks. Life is exhausting.

How to Slay this Dragon: Learning to simply relax and enjoy what you aredoing by giving it your full attention might take some practise. You arechanging the habit pattern of a lifetime, after all. Most of us have heardthis referred to as the “flow state” and certainly you can become a littlemore acquainted with your flow each day until it becomes second nature toyou.

The first thing you need to do is become aware when you are trying topush forward rather than attend to what is right in front of you. Then youhave to make developing patience your practise. Sad news for you: Youcan only develop patience slowly. How do you expect to become patient ifyou try to do it quickly?

Over the next few weeks you will begin to learn the art of gentle self-persuasion. Later on I will show you how to gradually build up structuresand routines in your life which will help a lot. Instead of having to rely onlong stints done in a slipshod manner in a random burst of energy, you willsimply become used to attending to certain things on a daily basis. One byone they will no longer be a struggle for you. Hard to imagine for some,but if I can do it anyone can!

For now, let’s start with a practise you can use any time of day when yourmind is rushing but you want to do something:

Take a moment’s breath to turn inwards and ask the all-important question:Can I force myself to commit to this right now for 20 minutes? If not, howabout five? Am I able to do it?

If so, put down all distractions, set your timer, and psyche yourself up tobegin. If it’s too much and you really can’t begin – be honest about that.Do not be afraid to choose another task which is easier to do. Doingsomething is better than doing nothing. Use it as a ramp. If you get a goodfeeling from making small accomplishments then it will make it easier todo other tasks that you consider more important. You are also buildingyour “do-it muscles”, even if you are beginning with small weights. Youhave to lift small weights today in order to lift heavy weights tomorrow.

The psychologist Abraham Maslow posited that people have a “hierarchyof needs”. According to his theory, only once we meet our physiologicalneeds (to eat, sleep and excrete) and our needs for security do we gain anappetite for pursuing our higher potentials for personal connection,achievement, creativity and self-actualisation. If we take this modelseriously it may yield an important insight into why we procrastinate:

Our need for caution precedes our need to express ourselves or strive forpersonal growth.

In other words, we won’t be motivated enough to pursue our aims if we geta sense that taking action will compromise our sense of safety. This mightalso explain why some of us suddenly find the ability to spring into actionon the eve of a deadline, because suddenly it feels safer to get to work thanto put it off any longer!

You need to feel safe to advance in your work. That’s why in order toovercome procrastination you also have to learn to be a good mentor andhelper to yourself.

When I got my dog he was very scared to walk down the stairs. You couldtry to pull at him but it would be no use. He would just seize up, dig hisheels in, and pull against the lead. He became more anxious than ever. Wehad to learn to gently guide him down, staying present and maintaining aloving attitude rather than getting impatient with him because that wouldmake him more nervous. It was no good. It didn’t help him feel safe.

I mention that we had to learn to gently guide our dog. It didn’t comenaturally to us. We thought the dog had to learn to get down the stairs, butactually the responsibility was on us to discover how to teach himproperly.

Now you are both your own manager, and your own employee. You couldbe a great leader who brings out the best in their staff, or you could be aterrible tyrant who breathes fire because they think it’s the only way thatthey can get anyone to do anything around here! In reality, it’s their lousyattitude that stirs up resentment and makes everyone passive-aggressivetowards their demands.

You want to coach yourself to win employee of the month – every month.When you have trouble getting to a task because you are more concernedwith getting through it than doing the hard work, just imagine you aretrying to help an anxious person with vertigo across a rickety bridge. (Thismay genuinely be where you are at at the moment!) If you tried to coercethe patient they would be likely to seize up or freak out. One step at a time,though, something could be achieved. Perhaps you could build up theirconfidence.

Mile by mile – life’s a trial, inch by inch – life’s a cinch! (To mix my imperial units with my metrics.)

You will learn to guide yourself gently one step at a time, be there foryourself, and encourage the anxious little procrastinator inside you acrossthe rickety bridge to achievement – if you are willing to begin exactlywhere you are, and not expect unreasonable miracles of yourself. If youmake it your focus to gradually build up your confidence one step at atime. Tune into yourself and take a realistic assessment of what you arecapable of accomplishing in any given moment when you are betweentasks or trying to decide what to do. As we all know, getting over the humpis the usually the hardest bit, so bring everything I have said before aboutconcentrating on getting started back into focus.

A little exercise is to notice when your mind is racing and slow down yourbreathing. Breathe to the bottom of your diaphragm. Try to follow thesensation of the air passing through your nostrils. You can also take controlof your mind and use it to soothe yourself, saying nice things like, “That’sright, just like that, gradually now, slooooow down, you can relax now,that’s it, much better, you’re doing fine…’ and so on. Stay present with it,don’t jump ahead. Create a moment’s space to bring your attention into thepresent moment instead of thinking about all of the things you need to do,the whys and wherefores and the consequences of failure.

When you can, try and bring a lightness to your work. Don’t takeeverything so seriously. All that is required is that you do what you arecapable of doing to advance in the present moment, and the mostimportant tool you have at your disposal is the quality of attention you canbring to your work. A harassed mind will not produce your best efforts. Ifyou can create the space to remind yourself that ‘Tain’t What You Do It’sthe Way That You Do It – that’s what gets results – then you can start tobring a better quality of attention to your work and make things a littleeasier on yourself. What is difficult for you today will become easy for youtomorrow if you start exercising on what is only of moderate difficulty toyou right now.

I suggest you start paying attention to activities you tend to rush likeeating, drinking, or washing and drying your hands. Fill the wash basinwith warm water and feel it on your hands as you soap them. Feel thefabric of your hand-towel against your skin. Take your time and turn it intoa ritual, enjoy each movement of it and be very conscious of each moment– each sensation. Try to make it a beautiful experience. It may sound a bitwoo-woo, but little mindfulness exercises like this practised daily canbreak you out of your habitual way of thinking and create a little space.

In my personal-improvement course Surviving to Thriving I say that thehabit pattern of the mind is like a river running down a mountain. It hasworn itself a nice little groove that it is habituated to taking, and it likes thepath of least resistance. It has a certain momentum, and in order to divertthe river a conscious effort has to be made to send it down a different way.Then to reinforce its alternate trajectory. We need to cultivate a new way ofbeing, to grow a new neurological program and reassert it time and timeagain until it becomes our predominant mode of being. The occasionalflood might cause the river to revert to its ancient path, but we rebuild thedykes once more and assert our free will over our nature. Similarly, we should not be surprised or downhearted if we fall into oldpatterns from time to time. The key is learning to get back on the horse (tomix my metaphors). Never let a setback deter you from taking the nextaction. Accept that habits are hard to break and maintain that you’re onlyhuman. Rather than using a blip as a pretext to give up, becomedetermined not to neglect the same action the next time.

There will always be a second chance to break a habit. In the long termyou will be engineering your habits to work for you instead of falling attheir mercy.

Another handy little trick is to keep a watch out for “should” thinking aswhenever you look at the world through a “should” you will feel like aslave to authority. You will often rebel, even if it’s only yourself and yourown good that you are rebelling against.

When you think you “have to” do something, instead say what the benefitof doing it will be and what the cost will be if you don’t do it.

I have to pay my rent. If I pay my rent I will feelless stressed.

If I don’t pay my rent I willget into trouble with thelandlord again.

I need to tidy theliving room.

If I tidy the living room itwill look really nice forthe guests.

If I don’t tidy the livingroom Nina will be pissed!

I should work on mynew song.

If I work on my song Iwill be really proud ofmyself and get to play iton Sunday.

If I don’t work on my newsong I will be disappointedand it will hang over myhead.

I must get to the gym. If I go to the gym I willfeel energised and growstrong and fit.

If I don’t go to they gym Iwont make any progress inmy health and it will be evenharder to go next time.

I ought to wake upearlier.

If I wake up earlier I canaccomplish more thingsin my day and feel moreenergetic.

If I don’t wake up earlier Iwon’t achieve as much. Iwill lose self-respect, andfeel like I’m wasting mymornings.

Finally, consider whether you actually need to do something, or if you getto. I love writing, yet sometimes I find myself thinking “I really have towork on my book.” But I want to work on my book. I get to work on mybook. Lucky me!

I don’t feel like it. (ever)

“I don’t really want to,I only want to want to,How they tend to haunt you,All those things you want to want to...”- me

I want to talk about emotional well-being – orrather – the lack of it.

Our emotions govern the quality of our lives perhaps more than anythingelse other than having food on the table and a roof over our heads, but werarely see any mature discussion of how to handle them effectively or howto improve them. I am frankly appalled by the lack of good qualityresources and help available to people who are regularly (if notperpetually) suffering from debilitating emotional states. Many peoplehave simply resigned themselves to feeling like crap as a fact of life. Goodhelp is hard to find and often costly. There is widespread denial over thesize and scope of the problem, or even that there is a problem. Because ofthat, people who are not content to simply accept their condition as “theway things are” might find high-quality information that has been tried,tested and shown to be effective in producing a predictable result hard toget their hands on. People who have walked the path successfully and canshow the way are thin on the ground. There is a lot of well-intentioned poppsychology floating around which makes for good reading, but it’s oftentoo vague and superficial to be of profound help in the long term.

It’s easy to get disillusioned with the demands of changing your life.Especially when you’re persevering on your own with few allies andwithout social structures that will reinforce you in what you are trying toaccomplish. It’s a great work. A lot of trial and error is involved and it’shard to guess what leads will pay off ahead of time from what is simply awaste of time. Only the tenacious will survive. You have to have faith andpersistence. Many people I speak to feel very isolated and find it difficultto come to terms with how few people are interested in personaldevelopment. Without peers to enliven them and mentors to show thecorrect straits from the false, many who begin the journey will give upwhen their first exertions miss the mark and fall back into old patterns.

I can only attribute the widespread malaise about these critical issues to thefact they are very modern. Throughout most of the history of civilisationmost people had to work on a farm for sometimes more than 60 hours aweek. Feeling crap was not an option. You just got on with it. People werefit from manual labour, resilient from cold winters, their diet was simpleand easy to digest, and if they got too ill they croaked. Such was life.Survival was the main concern of the day.

In recent centuries we have attained all sorts of rights we take for granted.Not just the right to vote and participate in government, but the right tochoose our profession, where to live, who to marry, what to do with theproduct of our labour, and how to spend our leisure time – which we havemore of than any generation since we were hunter-gatherers. Even ourparents and grandparents were not granted the same level of autonomy thatwe have been given and have to make sense of. We are faced with morechoice than ever before – and making good choices requires us to becapable in areas that have never been considered before. As such theexistential crises have begun. As I heard it put once, glibly, “Empty belly –one problem, full belly – million problems.”

Perhaps our society has simply not caught up with the speed of changesover the last 200-300 years and learned to equip us for the challenges weare liable to face in our lifetimes. Some people manage – many of themdriven by necessity – to develop a certain kind of character and can soldieron through just about anything. Others find satisfactory work within theircapacities or do not place lofty expectations on themselves. But there arehuge swathes of people who feel very deeply that they are performing wellbelow their potential and hardly making use of their capacities. They thinkthey weren’t adequately prepared for life or to use their talents by theirupbringing or education and they feel miserable about it.

If you don’t feel qualified to meet the demands of life; to make decisionsthat will work out in your favour, learn how to self-correct from yourmistakes. Exercise skill and mastery in at least something that will makeyou feel useful, and take responsibility for yourself in general… Chancesare that you will feel a great deal of overwhelm, anxiety and depression. Iam not saying that this is the final cause of these conditions, but it’s boundto play a role. As the existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre put it,“Man is condemned to be free.”

Now, I acknowledge that this chapter contains the most “serious” passagesin the book and that it will not hold resonance for everyone who reads it.However, it’s important that those of you who do see yourselves reflectedin these pages have your story told. You have to feel adequatelyunderstood, and that your challenges have not only been acknowledgedbut given the weight that they merit. From there we can embark on ourfinal discussion of the practical method for overcoming procrastinationwhich I have created this book to share.

Given that a lot of these challenges are new, if you are undergoing thegreat work of becoming fit, competent, confident, and eager – not only totake on the challenges of a fully-fledged life, but maybe even tooccasionally excel at them – then you are really a bit of a pioneer. Therearen’t huge numbers of fully flourishing, self-actualised role-models toshow you the way, and most of them are busy with their own heroic workhigh up in some organisation or another. They are not accessible. So weneed to rely on books like this one for now.

Now here’s the big news story: If you know that you are full of untappedpotential and dream of accomplishing big things – but you don’t haveenough energy and feel miserable or low much of the time... You might belooking in the wrong direction. The first priority is to begin raising yourenergy levels and moods so that doing your work will become easier.Definitely, doing some work towards your goals every day – whatever is inyour capacity – is advised and will help give you a sense ofaccomplishment which will raise your moods, but it has to be paired withother things that will help get you out of the doldrums and firing on allcylinders. I have done this myself so I am not speaking in fables. Iexperienced more than my own fair share of depression and anxiety in mylife. To find a solution was not easy, but I am glad to say that I am free ofdepression now, anxiety has halved and continues to reduce. I certainlywould not have had the energy, focus or stability to deliver a project likethis one in years gone by.

It will take some perseverance. There is no magic wand to take youstraight from being low in energy and mood to ecstatic and vivacious, onlythe gradual improvement in your condition as a long-term average overtime. There will be low days amongst high days, and up days among downdays, but the ultimate trajectory will be rewarding.

And what’s the alternative? Accepting that you will always be as you arenow and that that’s about the best you can expect out of life? No thankyou!

I once read an important allegory in Steven R. Covey’s Seven Habits ofHighly Effective People which I like to retell to my clients.

A man wanders through the woods one day to find another manbreaking a heavy sweat, trying to saw through a big tree trunk.Clearly fatigued, the would-be wood-cutter appears to beworking harder than necessary. Curious, the wanderer asks,“How long have you been here?!”

“All morning!” pants the woodsman in return.

“Why don’t you sharpen the saw?” replies the confused drifter.

“You idiot!” yells the man, “Does it look like I have time tosharpen the saw?!”

How to Slay this Dragon: If you want to get results in your life you have tobegin by sharpening your ultimate tool of the trade, and that is yourself.Many people neglect the critical process of tending to their innerenvironment because progress in the inner domain is hard to measure –there are no clear markers. On the other hand, it’s easy to see the results ofwhat you do outside of yourself in front of your face – you can see theminstantly.

Whether it’s writing a poem, making some money, or finding a partner, allexternal success is predicated upon your internal condition. If you are in apoor mood with low energy then everything is going to be harder for you.As you improve your mood things that were previously extraordinarilydifficult will come within your power.

Nothing works well above the ground if it doesn’t work well below theground. The roots are the key to the fruits. The performance of a computeris dependent on the condition of its programming. Likewise, when itcomes to the human being, our behaviour will ultimately reflect ourpsyche. If you want fruit, you better start preparing the soil.

One way to do this is to get more into your body. I know this is a book onovercoming procrastination not physical health, but unfortunately this is afactor we can’t overlook. If you are anywhere near as unfit and as I wasnot for the first 30 years of my life then you have far less energy at themoment than you can be enjoying. When you are low on energyeverything seems hard. If you are not already flexible, fit and strong thenthis is going to have a major impact on your mental state, psychology andwhether you feel capable or not. Simple things like hoovering, tidyingyour room, moving furniture, or walking up the stairs will seemunreasonably taxing so you will naturally end up avoiding them. Plus youdon’t want to find it hard to get off the toilet seat when you get old now, doyou? If not then get squatting!

In Old Athens, the great Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato andAristotle believed it was essential to be fit of body as well as mind becausea sharp mind depended on a healthy body. In fact the word gymnasiummeans school in German because the Ancient Greeks used theirs tosocialise and engage in intellectual pursuits as well as to train their bodies.If your muscles are all tense and tight chances are your mind will follow.

Nowadays it’s easy for armchair philosophers like me to stow ourselvesaway in ivory towers with our laptops and a cup of Joe, or wax lyricalabout the big questions of life over a pint at the pub with our intellectualmates... Then, at the mere tap of a keyboard we can put our adrenaline-fuelled “profound wisdom” out on the internet for everyone to like andcomment on, thinking we are saving the world. But the real question is:What is the quality of our day-to-day experience like?

If it's not so good, then what are we philosophising about? What level ofconsciousness is our profundity coming from? And how can we expect tocontinue to have a meaningful impact on others if we don’t even knowhow to keep ourselves in the head-space to deliver a powerful message?It’s great to have a sharp mind, but without an efficient body to carry it outinto the world there is a good chance that the best of our wisdom willremain confined between our ears. We won't finish our more ambitiousprojects because there is no sense of flow and ease about our day-to-dayoperations.

The human body is our vehicle for experiencing this reality. We cannotexpect to have a good experience unless we keep it in fairly good shape.It’s time to start taking a little action every day to improve it. If you haveneglected to do this so far it might not be very fun at first – let’s face it –but it will definitely pay off in the long run. Not only will you be tuning upyour system to sustain higher levels of energy and better states of mind inthe future, but exercising releases endorphins and serotonin, both of whichwill raise your mood, norepinephrine which makes you more alert andfocussed, BDNF which keeps your brain healthy, and dopamine which isthe “motivation” chemical.

I know for some people, especially if they are not used to it, exercising isextremely difficult. But, you don’t have to start with a lot and the ultimatemethod this book teaches will help you integrate it into your life bit by bituntil it becomes easier. Slow and steady wins the race.

For most of my life I was completely uncomfortable using my body foranything. Simple tasks like bending over to plug an appliance into a wallsocket or making the bed felt like a hassle to me. In school I would be thelast in the line to get picked for the sports team, and because it didn’t comenaturally to me I opted out of taking exercise so my condition did notimprove either. Computer games and cartoons were more my thing. I wasso uncomfortable using my body that I would stand idly by and watch aspeople did things like load objects into the back of the car or put chairsaway after a meeting. Unfortunately, because no one (myself included)understood my condition I would simply be chided for being lazy! Thissimply drilled into me the idea that there must be something wrong withmy character rather than some issues with my body that could be fixedwith the right kind of help. Eventually I discovered that many of mymuscles were too tight, and some of them were too short, and that whilethis was the source of my discomfort for decades, it was also somethingthat could be remedied with a little commitment to the right dailyexercises. Some of these I even put off for a great many years – which Ihave no excuse for – but lets just say I obviously hadn’t suffered enough totake the problem seriously yet. Thankfully, I realised at some point that Iwouldn’t be able to take my personal development journey any furtherwithout confronting the problem. All the psychology and the self-helpbooks and videos and podcasts, psychotherapy and coaching had only gotme so far. It was time to reclaim my body.

I wanted to do something that would remove the tightness from mymuscles and return them to their full length so I opted to take up yoga. Iwas really stiff and wanted to gain some flexibility in my body, plus italways seemed like the big yogis wore permanent smiles on their faces sothey must have been doing something right! I found it very challenging atfirst because I was not flexible or strong enough to hold up the weight ofmy own body for very long, plus I was completely unfit so when I tried tostretch I would get out of breath instantly. Nonetheless, I persisted throughthe really-sucky-phase (technical term), to the only-slightly-sucky-phase,to the somewhat-sucky-yet-vaguely-satisfying phase, and after threemonths I could go to the gym and enjoy fitness classes for the first time inmy life. I was a changed man!

I am still working hard on becoming fit flexible and strong but it’s muchmore fun now. I really get a kick out of it. I don’t think I can give morecredit for the improvement in my energy levels to anything else.

The reason why I share this is that some of you will be in a similar positionto what I was and I want to let you know what the challenges are and howyou can expect to benefit. Otherwise when things get tough you start towonder if you’re abnormal and just not cut out for it after all. You alsoneed to know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

There is.

Now, getting in shape is obviously not going to fix all the problems in yourlife, but it will certainly help you fix all of the problems in your life.Meanwhile, you might consider seeing a good therapist, or looking upEMDR, somatic experiencing, bioenergetics, trauma release exercises,biofeedback, brainwave optimisation or EFT. Discussion of differentmodalities for improving your mental health is obviously far beyond theremit of this book, but you can educate yourself on what is available, findsomething that appeals to you, and give it a fair try.

I, myself, work with lots of people who have problems with their state andenergy levels and have first hand experience of overcoming thesechallenges. If you think you might like to work with me you can send mean email detailing your situation and what you think you would like helpwith: antony@beyourselfandloveit.com .

One final thing on improving moods and energy levels. There is increasingevidence of the role our digestive system plays in governing our moods andenergy levels. We are now told that our guts have more neurons in themthan the brain of a cat. You have just about a second brain in your tummy!

It makes intuitive sense as well. If you think about it, how can you get allof the energy and nutrients that you need out of your food if your digestionisn’t working properly? I am not an expert in improving digestion (nor amI qualified to give medical advice,) however, I suggest you follow up withyour own research or consult your physician. I know that one simple thingyou can do is take probiotic foods and supplements. Just make sure youfind out first what brands are effective so you don’t waste your money onsomething useless.

Another thing is to get some black walnut and wormwood solution andtake it three times a day in a glass of water to kill off any parasites lurkingaround in your guts. They might be scooping out nutrients that you needfrom your food before you get to them yourself, and making you cravemad, bad food like sugar and refined wheat. Check the instructions, I haveheard you need to do it for three months consistently to get all the littleblighters.

Eat less, chew more:Digestion Starts in the Mouth!

No liquids 20 minutes before or 40 minutes after a meal: They dilute your digestive acids!

Focus on eating while you’re eating:No distractions!

Eat fruits and vegetables:They’re simple and easy to digest!

Try fermented foods and probiotics:Top up your good bacteria!

Other Concerns.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky (Ice Hockey Coach)

A lot of resources on procrastination talk a lotabout things like the “fear of failure” or “fear ofsuccess”. I have not counted these kinds ofconcerns as heads of the dragon because really,they are myths.

It’s not that fear of failure or success do not exist; of course they do – butthey aren’t primary drivers of procrastination. Procrastinators don’t have alittle unconscious biocomputer that calculates the long-term risks of doingsomething, weighs them against the long-term benefits, and puts out an“avoid-it” feeling if it doesn’t like the odds. That’s not how it works.

If procrastinators were driven by their long-term interests they wouldalready be doing all of the things they know are good for them. But here isthe problem: they aren’t. They are driven by the avoidance of immediatediscomfort and anxiety. If you are a procrastinator, your regular emotionalstate makes it difficult for you to command your own behaviour becauseyou associate pursuing tasks with a deepening of a discomfort that you feelalready.

When we do not feel we have the resourcefulness to deal with theemotional demands of a task, whether it be working on an important paper,a personal project, or cleaning the kitchen, our mind will find justificationsfor why we don’t want to do them that seem plausible. That’s why Iconsider justifications for procrastination like “fear of failure”, “fear ofjudgement”, “fear of criticism”, all of which assume a long-termmotivation for procrastination, to be essentially rationalisations rather thanreasons. As Steven Pressfield put it in The War of Art, “Resistance isalways lying and always full of shit.” In other words – you can alwaysmake up new reasons not to do the things you want to do. Each of themcan fit into one or more of my previous five categories: All-or-nothingThinking, Perfectionism, Fatalism, Seeing Things as Things to be DoneRather Than Things to Do, and Not Feeling Like It. You might even arguethat the first four are either a product or a cause of the last one.

Bottom line is, if you felt excited and enthusiastic about working on yourproject right now you’d be going right ahead because doing it would be itsown reward. Sure, if afterwards you were called upon to submit your workthe fear of rejection might arise and you might decide to keep it toyourself, but that’s a different story from avoiding doing the work itself.

When you introspect do you find that you are currently wired up to see theprospect of doing most things as unreasonably burdensome, anxiety-provoking, boring, difficult or overwhelming?

Have a good look at what you are trying to protect yourself from. Chancesare, that while you might want that kitchen tidy or love to see this bigproject complete, the work itself doesn’t look fun. Often-times, it won’t befun. It will be stressful. At every free moment you are embroiled in anexhausting struggle between the desire to “push through” and the urge to“check out”. Pushing through means defying your instincts. Checking outmeans shameful defeat. Procrastinators are not lazy. They have beenworking overtime on freaking themselves out, and they’re battle-worn.

The initial aim of this book is to give you the tools to gradually rewireyourself from not feeling like doing things, to feeling enough like doingthem to get them done. That’s a pretty good start. There’s no need to try topsychologize yourself to discover your deep, hidden, underlying motivesfor being task-avoidant, only to learn to deal with your states better andwork with them in accordance with what you can realistically expect fromyourself. It certainly beats taking a sledge-hammer approach. How muchhas self-flagellation helped so far? I doubt there would be any need for thisbook if it did. Most of us are seasoned veterans of giving ourselves hell.You don’t actually have to love the prospect of doing something to getstarted – or even to get it done. If you gradually increase your ability tomuster just enough of a push to get through the ups and downs ofsomething consistently, over the long term you will develop more positiveassociations with doing it. That will free up your energy to spend on otherthings that you still find challenging. You will see your progress, gain afeeling of satisfaction, and become more optimistic about your prospectsfor more positive change in the future. Eventually you may anticipateenjoying many of the things you avoid. This skill is the master key. If youlearn it, all other doors will open for you. Not instantaneously, but with alittle persistence, it’s a certainty. We’ll shortly come to see how it’s done.

Does Your Dragon Have a Sixth Head?

If so please email me and tell me what it is:a ntony@beyourseldandloveit.com

Common Tips and Tricks That Help. (And Why They Don’t HelpEnough.)

In my YouTube video Procrastination as the dread of dread…, I explainedthat many of the techniques that are recommended to help peopleovercome procrastination are only cosmetically helpful. This is evidencedby the fact that the world is still chock-full of frustrated procrastinators.

For example, you can use the pomodoro technique, where you set a timerfor 25 minutes and get down to it; because while we believe that we haveto be in “the right state of mind” to get started, the truth is that our moodsfollow our actions. You can also practice counting “3...2...1…Go!” in anattempt to train yourself to start things as soon as you say Go!. You canbreak your task into manageable chunks and “eat an elephant one bite at atime”, and even reward yourself for finishing parts of the project instead ofwaiting until you finish the whole thing. You can make an hour-by-hourplan of what you will do tomorrow and attempt to stick to it diligently, ortry to activate your “last minute rush” circuit by setting deadlines for eachpart of the work rather than focussing on the final due date. You can workout of home to minimise distractions, and say the affirmation, “Do it now”all day in an attempt to change your predominant way of thinking.

The reason why I believe these practices, while somewhat valuable, areonly superficially helpful is because procrastination is caused by theavoidance of emotions rather than the avoidance of specific tasks. Theydon’t fundamentally alter your character which – no offence to yourcharacter – is what you need if you don’t feel you are conscientiousenough to get things done. They don’t offer an actual plan to help yourewire yourself to become better at dealing with the challenging emotionsthat you are procrastinating to avoid. They won’t help you to permanentlybecome the productive non-procrastinator you have always longed to be.At best you will have a better managed problem. I definitely recommendexperimenting with these practices to help you get over the hump whenyou’re avoiding something. You can apply them “in the moment” whenyou are procrastinating to help you get started. But on their own, they willnot offer you a program of change. They’re too short term. They also relyon you having the presence of mind to apply them over and over again atrandom intervals. But what if they themselves are avoided? What if youdon’t have the willpower yet?

The Truth About Willpower.

If you try to change yourself using only willpower you will fail. Willpoweris like a daily allowance, you only have so much to spend at a time, andthere are too many things that need attending to accomplish them all usingbrute force. You will need to use your willpower to develop anotherpower…

The Power of Habit.

As we all know habits are hard to break. The habit of procrastination maybe running your life – ruining it even – and still willpower alone will notbreak it. But you don’t need willpower to do what you are used to doing.Whether it’s grabbing your morning coffee or checking your notifications,it’s quite routine. What is routine does not demand any extraordinaryeffort. It’s what we’re not used to doing regularly that throws up the mostresistance for us. Habits are acted upon with ease. It’s time to train ourhabits to be our faithful servants rather than our terrible masters.

If you try to use your willpower in a haphazard way without anoverarching plan, you are throwing your energy out in all directions andwill achieve very little. You might get a few things done here and there thatyou are proud of, but the uphill struggle will continue the next day. Insteadyou have to learn to invest your willpower wisely. You use it to cultivatetiny habits that – totalled up – will equal a positive change in yourcharacter. As Aristotle put it: “We are what we do repeatedly.” Bychanging what you do repeatedly, little by little, you can actually become amore conscientious person. I’m not talking about trying to be a moreconscientious person – you will already be one. I know it’s possible. I’vedone it! Earlier I used the metaphor of replacing the hardware in acomputer one piece at a time until it’s a brand new machine. Well that’s theprocess I’m talking about applying to yourself. You’re getting an upgrade.

Imagine you planted a seed in a garden one day and watered it the next,but on the third day you forgot all about it and planted another seedsomewhere else. Then the next day you got a third seed, planted it, gave itsome fertiliser and water, but you soon forgot about it too and tried anotherplant. Would your garden look like much? Not very likely.

However, if you planted one seed and took care of it well, soon a plantwould emerge and it would grow leaves. Provided you watered it everyfew days or so, protected it from strong winds and left it in the sunlight itwould begin to grow exponentially, come into blossom, and thrive. Youcould easily move onto the next plant without thinking too much about thefirst one, and even take cuttings from it that were well developed andwould grow more quickly than planting a seed from scratch.

What you actually have to do is concentrate your willpower in one place.Use it to make one small change in your life, and reinforce that changeover and over again until it becomes second nature to you. At first youmay need to push yourself a little, or even a lot, to tackle the daily actionwhich is the focus of your attention. Nonetheless, the difficulty level ofperforming that action will gradually diminish day to day as you get usedto it. Then it will not take so much of your willpower allowance any more.As it becomes easier to perform, it won’t take so much energy, and youwill have more of your willpower allowance left over to invest in making asecond change in your life. Cultivating a new habit will then become yourprimary focus of attention and you will dedicate your energy to makingsure you perform it every day until it, too, becomes a routine. Now yourinvestment is paying you dividends. Not only have you made two smallbut profound changes to your life, you know how it’s done. You are morepersistent, and have more experience working through a little resistance.Since you’ve done it once, twice, you can do it again, a third time, a fourthtime, a fifth time, a sixth time… Now that’s what we’re going to do.

How I Overcame Procrastination and You Can Do The Same!

So here it is, the moment you’ve been waiting for – The SammeroffMethod for overcoming procrastination and accomplishing your goals.Notepads at the ready.

I would like you to take some time to jot down a list of 10-15 actions thatyou would be taking every day in an ideal world. A world where you werenot a procrastinator and had no resistance to doing anything you haddecided to do.

Here are some simple examples: 15 minutes stretching, morningmeditation, floss teeth, paint, answer all emails and messages at a specifictime of day instead of at random intervals, read for half an hour, go for arun, practise singing, keep a gratitude journal, say affirmations in themirror, lift weights, do squats, garden, study, write an achievement audit,make a smoothie.

None of the things on your list should take more than 20-30 minutes. Ifyou have a big exercise routine laid out in your head you should break itdown into smaller chunks. Similarly if you would ideally like to bespending hours writing, playing a musical instrument, doing art,programming a computer game, or working on your side-hustle, you willstill be starting with a session of no more than 30 minutes. As you progressyou will be able to add more sessions or make them longer.

Look through your list and make sure you know for certain that if you dideverything on your list your life would be unrecognisable. You wouldalready be doing many (or all) of the things that you want to be doing withyour life – not just things that you think you should be doing. You wouldbe doing the things that are necessary to propel you towards attaining yourpersonal goals, and also the things that are necessary for you to be in aposition to do things that you may want to do now but can’t because yourcircumstances will not allow you to yet.

Get writing...

The next step is to choose six items on your list. The ones you would mostlike to be doing every day once your three-month ProcrastinationAnnihilation program is complete. You can choose the ones that are themost important to you or the ones that make the most sense at the moment.Choose a mixture of challenging and easy tasks. Don’t load up all thehardest ones, but choose at least one that is really important to “the bigdream” (whatever that means to you). Write out your new list and put thefirst one away somewhere for safe-keeping.

Step three. The big one!

Choose one item on your list and make a commitment to do it every dayfor the next two weeks. Forget about everything else for a moment (withinreason). So long as you perform this one action every day then you canconsider your day a success. If you do miss a day, don’t berate yourselfand definitely don’t give up. Just return to the beginning of the two weeksand start over again. When you have managed to perform the first task forat least 14 days consecutively you can choose a second one to add andbegin the practice again. You can make yourself a little chart and tick offeach task every day.

Task S M T W T F S

Be realistic about your first choice. The most important thing at this stageis that you actually manage to perform the action every day for two weekswithout missing a day, not what the action is. You may wish to choosesomething small that you can definitely deliver on to get you off to a goodstart and show yourself that you can do it. Remember, no matter how smallit is, doing one extra thing that is good for you every day is far better thandoing no extra things that are good for you. The smallest achievement canboost your confidence and change you.

I had a client who was suffering when she came to me because she didn’tfeel motivated to do anything to take care of herself. I taught her mymethod and the first thing she decided on doing was brushing her hairevery day. It’s that simple! For two weeks she brushed her hair every day.She found the weekends the most difficult because she was not leaving thehouse to see anyone but she still delivered on her commitment... And guesswhat? She was THRILLED with her progress! Small things make forperfection, but perfection is no small thing. When my client checked inagain for coaching she was ready to choose a second item. In two monthsshe was doing four things a day, all of which she had found impossible tomotivate herself to do beforehand. What’s more, her moods and attitudewere better because she saw what she could achieve for herself when shefocussed her attention little by little. She was a Changed Person.

If you want to be a changed person start with small changes.

Some personal development authors I have great respect for have advised“eating the frog”; i.e. doing the hardest thing first. That is all fine, well anddandy if you can do the hardest thing first. But for some of us that’s toomuch of a stretch. I’d recommend adding your practices in a way that isrelatively easy for you to accomplish. Difficulty is all relative. How hardyou find a task isn’t proportionate to the amount of time it takes or evenit’s practical demands, but to your personal psychology. For example, Ihave never had a filling in my life and my dentist told me I have fantasticteeth. He also told me I was going to lose them one day if I didn’t starttaking better care of my gums! For some reason I had a massive resistanceto flossing. Even though it would seem a relatively undemanding taskcompared to some of the others on my list, it stayed on there for severalmonths before I made it a daily practise. I built up to it.2

If you make it relatively easy on yourself, what is not yet in your powerwill come into your power. If you have been trying to build one habit butit’s just not working out for you, supposing you keep missing it for days ina row and then find it hard to get started again, put it on pause and replaceit with something easier. Come back to it when you have more experienceand self-discipline. Help yourself, do not make things more difficult thanthey have to be. 2 After writing this section I heard a podcast where someone mentioned a study that found success in getting

people to floss their teeth by asking them to simply floss the front teeth every night for a period. After a while people got used to it and it was easier for them to extend the habit to flossing all their teeth! Baby steps work!

Case in point: When I started to apply this method myself my primary goalwas definitely to develop a reliable writing practice. Up until this point mywriting had always been very patchy and as-and-when. Often I’dprocrastinate for weeks before getting back to a project. If I could psychemyself up I’d eventually do a long stint, rushing to take advantage of mygood fortune by trying to do as much as possible before my juice ran outand I was back to square one. I have wanted to be a writer ever since I wasa kid, but without a regular practice I knew I would never be able to finisha large project like this one. I thought if I could write for even half an houra day then that would be better than relying on haphazard stints of longperiods – and it definitely was. I practised writing for a minimum of halfan hour a day for maybe six months, and as writing became easier andeasier I was able to bump that up to two stints, and then four. Now I writefor a minimum of 2-3 hours a day. But here’s the thing – I didn’t have thewillpower to adopt the half an hour of writing right away. It was maybe thesixth habit I implemented. Although it was the most important item on mylist, I had to practice with easier things before I could commit to it. I had todevelop my “do-it” muscles first, on easier things.

Never doubt the value of a little a day for 14 days. A little a day for 14days is better than nothing. Doing 5 hours in one day is not as good asdoing 20 minutes a day for two weeks, because a little a day can build ahabit you can rely on. A long stint is a great rush, but you are as likely tocrash if you expect you’ll be able to do the same the next day when yourealise you’re back to square one. After two weeks performing a task, itwill be considerably easier.

Now you may be wondering if I’m expecting you to commit to doing allthese things every day for the rest of eternity without ever missing a day.Obviously that would be an unrealistic goal. In the long term, life tends tohappen, and you are going to miss performing some of your habits sooneror later. That’s perfectly natural and to be expected. There is nothingwrong with missing a day of anything once your habit is locked in.

You will know that your new habit is locked in if even when you miss aday getting back to it the next day comes naturally to you. For a while itmight not. I don’t do everything on my list every day any more (after all,it’s become a pretty long list!) but I do enough of the things on my lifeevery day to satisfy myself and feel accomplished. Every day is a success.

Some things are more negotiable than others. If I am adding somethingnew that I’m not used to doing then I have to do it every day for at leasttwo weeks consecutively, otherwise it will always throw up resistance. Ifone habit starts slipping because I am being too casual about it then I haveto commit to doing it for two weeks again without stopping. The point is,this discipline is there to help you, not to serve as a straight jacket or areligious dogma. It’s a method for growing your personal power andgetting used to getting things done.

It’s good to set priorities and know which tasks are most important, but Iwould caution you against one thing.

When you have a big project to work on, it’s easy to sacrifice everythingelse to it. For example, while working on this book, it could have beenreally easy for me to forget all about my daily stroll or going to the gymevery few days. I could have even started dropping things that didn’tactually involve leaving the house like my piano practice, because I wouldfeel accomplished so long as I’d done a good chunk of work on my book.The problem with that attitude is that you can lose track of a whole bunchof habits that were hard to form in the first place, and then you will have todevelop them all over again. Later on, when you find it easier to put yourmind to anything you decide, you do not have to worry so much about thisproblem. But until then, be aware.

Besides, projects have their way of growing extra arms and legs andgetting out of hand. They might take a lot longer to finish than you thinkthey will. If you put your exercise routine on hold while you record thatalbum set for release in May, but it doesn’t see the light of day until mid-October you might find yourself far less healthy that you would have beenif you’d stuck to your regular plan. Plus there will always be another bigproject around the corner to put your life back on hold for.

If you’re sacrificing important things in the short term ask yourself thisquestion: “In an ideal world, is this something that I would be doing everyday no matter what was going on?” If the answer is, “Yes!” remember thatlife is happening now! It doesn’t start once your project is finished.

And anyway, tomorrow never comes.

Chart Your Progress

Earlier on I mentioned creating a chart so you can check off your activitiesas you do them. I also want to suggest a handy online tool you can use tohelp with this.

Introducing habitica.com ...

Habitica.com is a habit tracker that emulates a role-playing game whereyou get a little avatar and rewards every time you complete tasks. You canbuy your character clothes and all sorts of items with the money you findfrom ticking your boxes. At first I didn’t think Habitica would work for mebecause the rewards aren’t “real”, but the first thing I discovered was Iwould want to check off my daily tasks anyway because I didn’t want mylittle avatar to lose her health!

Personal development experts often say (somewhat disparagingly) thatmost people will do more to avoid something negative than to pursuesomething positive, so I guess that’s true of me! Nonetheless, I later foundmyself wanting to do tasks so I could save up gold to buy my avatar newclothes, or to find food to feed her pets. It really works!

Habitica isn’t just great for tracking your progress with the habits you arebuilding, but it also serves as a great reminder and a checklist for what youstill have left to achieve each day to meet your goals. I access my Habiticaaccount several times a day, especially if I am at a loose end, and am oftenreminded of tasks I am perfectly capable of completing but simply haven’toccurred to me because I have been busy with something else. The simplereminder helps me get far more done than I would have otherwise.

As well as your “dailies” which are a renewable checklist of what youwould like to do each day, it also packs a to-do list and another feature thatlets you reward yourself at any time for completing extra items, or to“punish” yourself for missing them or reinforcing a bad habit which youare trying to get rid of or replace.

I am happy to promote Habitica in my eBook since it has helped improvemy life so much, and many of my friends can testify the same. PlusHabitica is completely free. They survive entirely on donations fromsatisfied users like me!

Me and My Friends on Habitica

Order of Events.

There is a lot to be said for having a schedule and doing the same tasks atthe same time of day each day, or at least in the same order. According toThe Internet, having a schedule helps increase concentration, mentalabilities and learning, the development of self-discipline and organisation,increases achievement and productivity, and may even boost your immunesystem. According to me, it also helps deal with indecision over which taskto do. A lot of time is wasted mulling over which potential activity to workon first when you’re a procrastinator. Having specifically defined times setout for each task removes the ambiguity.

Just remember that the most important thing about developing your habitsis to actually do them. Especially when you are first starting with the two-week habit-forming method. If you are inexperienced it really doesn’tmatter when you get them done, just so long as you do them.

Many years ago I read a book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameronwhich is now a classic for creative types of all sorts. The book advises thatno matter what – come hell or high water – you write three pages everymorning. In her words: “Morning Pages are Non-negotiable.” The point isto get the juices flowing, overcome resistance to getting started, let go ofperfectionism and clear your head. She also mentions that it’s hard to keepwriting about the same issues over and over again without noticing andwanting to fix them. The idea is that it doesn’t matter what you write, justso long as you write – just whatever comes to your mind – and you do itwithout critiquing the work as you go. I knew instantly that this practicewould be good for me, but no matter how many times I tried to commit toit I could never find the presence of mind to write in the morning so Iwould just give up. What I realise now in hindsight is that I just wasn’tmaking it easy enough on myself. In my early twenties I was so groggy inthe mornings, and it would have been hard enough for me to force myselfto sit and write three pages uncritically at any time of day, never mind thetime I felt least energetic of all. If I could go back in time to give myyounger self a hand, I would advise him to start by writing three pages atany time of day. It didn’t matter when, so long as I did it before (or evenin) bed. Once the habit was locked in, I could work on making sure I did itin the morning as Phase Two. Phase Three would be to do it first thingafter I woke up.

See how it works? Help yourself! Just be conscious of where you are andwhat you are capable of, and put one foot in front of the other. Little stepsadd up to the most fulfilling journeys, so long as they are pointed in theright direction. If you do consistently what is already in your capacity,working at the edge of your comfort zone to push it out a little wider eachday, you will soon have a lot more space to move around in there. Onceyou have achieved a noticeable change, for example that you find it fairlyeasy to write three pages a day (instead of horrendously difficult andanxiety-provoking) you can make a further change to your way of being bydoing it in the morning instead of later in the day.3

If you do not have the willpower yet to do what you want when you want,don’t let that get in the way. Just focus on ticking off all the items on yourchart whenever you can in the order and time that comes easiest to you.Later on when you are already doing many of the things you want to do ona daily basis, say at least five, then you can begin to commit to doing oneat a certain time. When that habit is locked in place add the second one.Gently does it! Remember you are undergoing a heroic transformationhere! Be your own best friend and coach yourself gently along. Don’tberate yourself for not being able to do everything you want when youwant yet. Just make small changes and give yourself time to adjust. Itmight not seem like much now but it will all add up in the long run!

3 Interestingly, I recently returned from a trip to India where I startedwriting this book, and showed some of the material about the dragons tosomeone dear. She told me, completely independently of reading thissection, that she had been able to “get back to her morning pages” recently(which she had stopped) by “not doing them in the morning.” So there’ssome evidence that this method need not only work for me!

Make it as Easy as Possible to Succeed!

Most people try to self-attack or bully themselves into doing their tasks,but clearly the negative emotions associated with doing the tasks is evenstronger than the pain of self-criticism otherwise there would be noprocrastinators left. That’s why my method trains people to coach andencourage themselves through difficulties by making change as easy aspossible. Through self-motivation, self-acceptance and self-discovery weraise ourselves up into assertive people who can take initiative to achievetheir aims – not just automatons who respond to internal commands. Putthis method to work and you won’t just improve your productivity, but willimprove your relationship with yourself as well. You’ll become your ownbest friend. Here is some general advice for effective self-coaching withthis method.

If you are a couple of months in and have several items on your list anddon’t know what to start with don’t worry too much about “eating thefrog” (doing the hardest thing first). Generally, after you do anythingproductive your energy rises and your state changes which will make iteasier to move on to the next thing. At the risk of repeating myself: Doingsomething is always better than doing nothing. Use the first item as a rampto help you get uphill easily. After that you can do the hardest thing. If youstill can’t make yourself do the hardest thing, then do the second hardestthing. If not that, then the third hardest thing, and so forth. Go easy onyourself. It might seem like a cop out, but remember you’re still in theprocess of building your self-coaching muscles. Doing an easier task todaywill lead you to being able to do a harder task tomorrow.

The more you can learn to negotiate with yourself the better. For example,one night I had wanted to get back to this book but I’d been embroiled insome heavy editing for a few days and was burned out from trying to getsome turgid sections to read more fluidly. It just wasn’t fun anymore. Itook a realistic assessment of what I could manage in that mindset anddecided on an easier task. I’d re-listen to the two videos I had on myyoutube channel concerning procrastination and transcribe them so I couldinclude any good ideas in the text. Before long I was passionately engagedin fitting my notes into the structure of the book and had lots of energy andenthusiasm about it. That helped me tackle more challenging sections.

I also know I have a two-pint trigger. If I don’t feel like writing, oftenagreeing to “just read through what I’ve done so far” gets me startedbecause I begin making little edits. Then bigger edits. Before long I amadding all sorts of new ideas and finishing up the clunky bits that are stillin note form. Why is this phenomenon called a two-pint trigger? Becauseif you invite me out for “a beer or two” chances are we will be out untilthree in the morning! Perhaps one in twenty times I just can’t get intowriting no matter how I persist, but that’s natural. Things can’t always goyour way, and sometimes you just won’t be able to get in the mood. If youcan learn to persist despite not being in the mood that will serve you wellin the long run. It takes some experience. If you can’t yet, try and findsome kind of work-around. If I can’t seem to make one section of the bookwork I will eventually try and look for another section that still needs myattention and see if I can get that one in order instead. I can always go backto the previous section on a clear head, and usually it’s much easier to seethe wood from the trees when you can get some perspective on it. It tooksome practice to learn when to persist and when to let go.

Starting with the easy bits is better than working on no bits at all which isoften the real alternative so go easy on yourself. All you have to do is bestraight with yourself and make sure you are actually choosing relativelyeasy tasks that further your priorities – not just engaging in busy work.Everything is a balance. Choosing something easier than what you arealready capable of to help build your self-discipline is great, but make sureyou are progressing down the right track.

Another thing that will help is to have clearly defined parameters set foreach sitting. You should know exactly what is required for you to finish thesession before you get started. It’s better to choose a length of time orspecific amount of content which is under your control, rather thansomething open-ended. For example: “draw for 30 minutes” and “write300-500 words” are better instructions than “complete my comic” or“finish chapter five.” How do you know how long each of these tasks willtake – or if you’ll even be able to finish them in one sitting? Similarly, it’sbetter to write “walk around the block” or “walk for 20 minutes” than tojust write “take a walk.” You might suspect you are cheating if you onlytake a short one, or avoid it if you think you have to take a lengthy one toeven make it worthwhile. Be clear on what you expect from yourself.

Having a fixed time limit will help you tolerate difficult moments whenyou know there is a fixed and achievable end on the horizon. Sometimes Iget to the 20 minute point in my writing and feel like I can't be botheredanymore, or I have come to the end of a section and want to conclude thesitting, but knowing that I only have ten minutes left to do to reach mytarget helps me push on a bit further to reach my target. I get a sense ofpride in achieving what I set out for myself to do. Other times I get veryinto my writing and want to keep going long past my alarm. I have learnedto navigate the easy parts and the hard. It's all just part of the process.

It’s often harder to get started on a project when you are not quite surewhat the commitment entails, when it will be finished, how long it is goingto take to complete, or at least what is required to complete a particularsection of the work which has not yet been clearly defined. Make sure youknow what success would actually look like in practical terms. How willyou know when your goal is met?

What needs to be done? In what order? Roughly how long is each tasklikely to take? What can be done in one sitting and what is likely to takeseveral? What is the highest priority? What is something you can do to getstarted if you’re not psychologically prepared to do the most importantwork right now? What do you have the information to move on and whatdon’t you? Having clearly defined answers to all these kinds of questionsis likely to make it a lot easier to get to work and make the work you getdown to more productive. If you can’t work on one bit don’t let that deteryou from working on the bits you can work on.

Anything that is nebulous and vague will create additional resistance.Anything that is clearly defined with specific parameters will be easier toattend to. For example, my to-do list it might say: “Work on Making itEasy section of book”, rather than just “Work on Book”. What does “Workon Book” mean? It’s too vague. Does watching YouTube videos onovercoming procrastination by other people count as working on the bookor does only writing count? What about editing sections that are alreadycomplete in content but could still be sharpened up? Does that count? If Ijust keep doing that I will never get finished. I need to balance editing withwriting – and be aware of what counts as writing and what counts asediting.

If you want an exercise to take action on this, get out your notebook andsee if you can write a list of things you’ve been avoiding looking at orgetting clarity on. It could be finding out what is in that email from yourboss, how much exactly you owe the electricity company, or what youwrote in those messy notes you made for scene three of your play whileyou were out last week.

After you have written your list find out what each item on this list “feelslike” to consider. What emotions are you trying to avoid by not gettingclarity on these issues? Write down your findings. Keep adding to the listas you go along your day when you notice you are avoiding gaining clarityon something. When you get the chance you can sit down with your listand demystify yourself.

On this point, I’m a big believer in making lists in general, because havinglists helps bring clarity, and having clarity helps limit anxiety which saveson mental resources and makes things easier to get to. Plus, the mind is forhaving ideas not for storing them, it’s easy to forget things you mean toattend to if you don’t write them down and read them. The more specificthe better.

One of the challenges for many people is getting to work that can’t befinished in one sitting – work that might even take any number of sittings.If you don’t feel like you can trust your moods yet, then it’s hard to make acommitment to something that seems so open-ended. And, you don’t wantto spend lots of time working on it only to realise at some point you don’thave the resilience to take it to fruition because that’s just heartbreaking.Earlier on I suggested building your confidence on smaller projects if thisis the situation that you find yourself in. However, if you’re ready to takethe plunge, make sure you chunk things down as much as possible intosub-tasks and know exactly what is required of you and in what order.Have a list of sub-tasks for each major project you’re working on so thatyou have clarity and can get the satisfaction of scoring each item off of thelist one by one.

When you add a task to your plan, ask yourself: “What context do I haveto create to guarantee my success on doing this one thing every day?”

For example, I had a client that found it hard to get to journaling but hereally wanted to integrate it as a habit of his daily practice because he wasconvinced of its benefits from what I and others had said – includinghelping him achieve the clarity we have talked about.

When he set the situation up as a problem to be solved, rather than apersonal failing he began to dream up imaginative ways of scoring a“perfect week” or “seven out of seven” on journaling. (My client workedin the computing industry and loved playing video games, so gamifying theprocess of achieving his daily goals was a great help to him.) One thing heremembered was that back when he was at high school he had a realproblem doing his homework at home, so he blasted through his resistanceby staying at school until his homework was done. The added incentive ofgetting home earlier rather than later helped him persist. That memorygave him the notion that maybe he could stay at work to complete hisjournal, or even go to a café or park on the way home.

This is the exactly the kind of thinking to apply your challenges. Don’tworry too much about whether you have done things, turn your attention tocreate the conditions that make it easy enough for you to get things done.

Use all the resources at your disposal – including your friends and lovedones. There is no shame in asking your room mate to kick your lazy buttout of bed at 9.30 AM if you can’t rely on your alarm, or telling yoursignificant other to deny you internet access until you have gone for yourdaily run (or kisses until you have flossed your teeth.) We might think weshouldn’t need the help since we are adults, but in reality getting the helpin the short-term might help us build good habits so that we don’t need thehelp in the long-term. Self-reliance is a good thing, but a healthy self-reliance means knowing when to ask for help!

Know Thyself

If you find that you always tend to procrastinate around the same time ofday, activities, and situations, I suggest you become very aware of whatthose are and note them down. Then you can take preventative action bypre-committing to what you are going to do in those situations in advance,and on a clear head. I can think of two examples right away that might becommon to you. First of all, I am very good at procrastinating in themorning on my smartphone before I do my morning meditation –especially if I am still feeling drowsy. But if I am not ready to meditate Istill want to use my time constructively – I don’t want to waste it. So whatI have found effective is to choose a book I want to read and I leave it onmy bedside table. If I am too tired to meditate in the morning I can grabthe book and read for a while instead of checking my notifications. I leavenothing to chance. I have what section of the book I want to read clearlydefined in advance. Since I mean to read for at least half an hour a day Ican get ahead of achieving that goal on mornings when I’m feeling tootired to meditate as soon as I wake up.

I also have a propensity to procrastinate in between a writing session andstarting another activity. Sometimes I am not quite sure whether I am doneor not. I might knock out a little more writing... then again, I might not. Ijust browse, do a bit of research, read some of an article, check mynotifications a little... Sometimes, a little can turn into a lot… Then I’m notsure if I’m working or doing some research for work or just messingaround, or a combination of all three. The lack of clarity is costly in timeand energy. Every time you stop something and then start again, your mindneeds to do a little reset so it’s better to be focussed. To minimize thisproblem I do a bit of pre-commitment. I have a list of “little” activities thatI can pick up that aren’t too demanding. They could be replying to emails,journaling, flossing my teeth, jumping up and down on my rebounder forfive to ten minutes, watching a specific video for a specific reason,researching a particular point, or anything along those lines. I can pursueone or a few items on the list to have a proper break before gaining clarityon what my next step is so I can follow through with it.

Try and identify the times when you regularly procrastinate and make acontingency plan for each on a clear head. You can add your plan to yourlist and try practising it for two weeks without missing a day.

Minimise External Conditions That Create Resistance.

Be conscious of external factors that might create additional andunnecessary resistance for you. For example, if it’s too cold in the houseyou might just feel like closing up and protecting yourself. It might be hardto leave your bed in the morning, or you just might want to curl up on thecouch with a blanket and watch a movie. If it’s too warm you will feel likegoing back to sleep. Watch out for foods that zap your energy and makesure you’re also well hydrated as being thirsty can produce a drowsy effectalso. Oh, and get some fresh air. Turn your breaks into walks and openyour windows every day if you want to keep your energy levels aboveaverage. Much of our energy comes from the air we breathe rather than thefood we eat.

Are you well slept? If you don’t sleep well in general look into exercisingas we’ve discussed, as it will undoubtedly help you sleep better. Don’t useelectronic devices two hours before bed, and don’t put anything in yourbody for a couple of hours so your digestive system doesn’t have to runwhile you’re asleep. Meditation, yoga and mindfulness practices can alsohelp. You can also look into supplements, or investigate whether you haveany deficiencies which might be exacerbating the problem. However, Idon’t want to veer into giving medical advice because I’m not qualified todo so. If the problem persists consult your physician or see a sleepspecialist. If you suffer from anxiety, PTSD, or suspect that some traumain your life is a contributing factor you can look into EMDR or SomaticExperiencing.

Restfulness is the basis of activity, so it’s really important to get this onedown. They say if you sleep too much it can also produce a lethargic effectthat lasts throughout the day. And don’t tell me you love sleeping in! Noone loves sleeping. How can you love it when you’re not even there? Whatyou love is the restfulness that comes from a good sleep. If your sleep istruly restful, you won’t want to go back to bed because you’ll be so full ofenergy that you want to channel into your exciting projects and days ofadventure.

For me another hugely limiting factor would be having a hangover! Irarely drink these days, not because I don’t enjoy the odd pint or a glass ofwine, but because I value my energy too much. Having a couple tonightwill leave me feeling languid tomorrow, and likely to avoid doing anythingthat takes emotional commitment. I don’t want to waste a day, so it’sspecial occasions only for me. (See you at my book launch!)

Another important thing to consider is the effect of the people in your lifeon your own state. What kind of people do you spend most time around?Are they creative? Are they conscientious? Are they busy? Do they do thekind of things you yourself would like to do? Do they understand you andsupport you emotionally when you talk about their challenges, or do theyshut you down and leave you wishing you’d kept your mouth shut?

They often say in self-help books that we are the average of the five peoplewe spend the most time around. Seek out people who have the kind ofqualities you desire and learn from their example. Go to classes inwholesome things, lead by wholesome people. Get a mentor (or several) ifyou can. And get some ambitious friends! It’s sometimes hard to finddriven friends when you’re an adult because they’re usually already busyworking their magic somewhere, but you can try meetup groups forentrepreneurs for instance.4 You can even start your own ProcrastinationAnnihilation meetup in your area and coach people in this material. Theresponsibility of being a leader will make you take your own work moreseriously and you are much more likely to succeed in your endeavour.

According to the ancient Hindu proverb, “To learn – read, to know – write,to master – teach.” If you want to master anything you should always havesomeone better around to teach you things about it, someone worse thanyou that you can teach things to to reinforce your own learning, and somepeers to support and discuss your challenges with.

Having people around that are doing cool stuff in your social circleexpands your vision of what it may be possible for you to achieve in thislife. Some people shy away from their betters because it reminds them oftheir own untapped potential and that can really hurt. It’s a good painthough. If you notice that tendency in yourself I suggest you make aconscious effort to expose yourself to the fire. It will purify you. 4 The mobile phone app Shapr is also good for meeting ambitious people in your area – and it’s free! You putyour interests in and it matches you with people who share them so you can choose who to talk to.

By the same token, having people around who are unambitious in areasthat are important to you may prove unwise. Firstly they are not exactlygoing to be giving you a vivid demonstration of what might be possible foryou if you apply yourself. Secondly, they might even undermine yourconfidence in your plans with subtle suggestions, take the wind out yoursails when you are doing well by being negative or fatalistic, and speak asthough you are being overly optimistic in your expectations when youexpress your enthusiasm. When you talk about your flaws and how youmean to take action to change them they will suggest you lower yourexpectations of yourself instead. “Don’t push yourself so hard”, “Everyoneis like that”, “You do a lot more than most people”, “What’s the point?”. Awise friend may even sit down and help you with your plan to improveyourself rather than console you.

Sometimes people do these things out of genuine concern because theyhave a generally negative outlook on life and are just trying to protect youfrom disappointment; they really believe that life is just a matter of take-what-you-get. Other times seeing others soar reminds them of their ownmediocrity and they have to discourage others from taking action in thedirection of self-improvement. Regardless of their motivation, thebehaviour won’t serve you. Limit your exposure to environmental toxins –including people. Strive to be the best and most supportive friend youpossibly can. Become wise and helpful, and teach the people in your socialcircle how to be a good friend to you by your example.

If you want to make big changes in your lifestyle, those around you aregoing to react – that is for sure. Some of them will support you and cheeryou on. They may even be inspired to change for the better themselveswhen they see the changes you have made begin to succeed. Others willquestion your efforts or undermine your confidence (knowingly orunknowingly). Finally, there are some who will simply disappear from thescene. Since most of us are just bumbling around trying to get our lives inorder and onto the right track, whatever that means, we can each use all ofthe encouragement and positive influences we can get along the way. Noneof us need any additional negative ones.

Social Media Guidelines For Recovering Procrastinators.

Chances are you wouldn’t have heard of me or this eBook if it weren’t forsocial media so I – for one – am glad we have the technology. However,most of us struggling procrastinators are also painfully aware of itspotential to distract us and waste our valuable time. A lot of our time onsocial media sites is often regretted in hindsight as unnecessarily spent.Many platforms are programmed full of gimmicks to keep you on site withconstant notifications and the juicy potential of receiving a notification,scroll features that go onto infinity, bringing you content targeted to yourinterests, and other hypnotic innovations.

In an ideal world we’d be able to focus on one task at a time withoutgiving in to temptation, but the reality is most of us do not have an iron-strong will. What’s more we are up against companies with billions ofdollars of research in figuring out the best ways to take you off task andkeep you on their website. We need to be intelligent in the defence of ourown attention and habits that will support us in using social media wisely.Here are my suggestions.

Don’t do any social media in the morning until you have done at least oneimportant task. If this serves you gradually increase the number. It’sprobably best if you define exactly what tasks you’re meant to do first. Forexample, I will meditate, do a little stretching, and my first writing sessionafter I wake up. If I’m too drowsy to meditate right away, I grab a bookand read a few pages to resist the temptation to check notifications. Thereason for this is that checking emails and notifications, or watchingYouTube or Netflix, or even listening to a podcast first thing when youwake up puts you in a passive/receptive state right at the start of the day,when actually the chances are that you want to be in an active/creativestate.

Recently I have taken to watching my emotions wherever they correspondto in my body if I am drowsy. This is an ancient meditation techniquewhich I never used to have the patience to practice, but I find now it helpsme dispel any unpleasant feelings that were raked up over night and setsme up for a good start.

In case you want to try out this technique I will say a little about it.

Watching your emotions in your body may appear a little woo-woo butthere is a real confluence of evidence regarding its efficacy. Practisingbody awareness is the “bread and butter” of many contemporarymindfulness practices, and has also been taught by the psychotherapistEugene Gendlin in his book Focussing. Gendlin noted that clients whowere able to tap into their general notion of what they were experiencing –or felt sense – got the most out of therapy. I have also seen NLPpractitioners also teach people it as part of a “radical acceptance of one’semotions.” More recently, Tom Stone, creator of a field he calls humansoftware engineering, wrote of a particular practice of body awareness thathe calls The Core Technique in his book Pure Awareness. This technique isused to process an emotion by looking for the centre of it within our body,and focussing on its “core” for as long as it takes to dispel.

When I used to practise the piano a lot I realised that if I played for evenhalf an hour before I watched TV or went on the internet, then while I wasbrowsing a part of me would be pulling at me to get back to playing. Onthe other hand, if I watched a couple of YouTube videos first, I’d bewanting to get back to the computer the whole time while I was practising.Be honest with yourself. What are the tasks that become harder after socialmedia and are easier if you do them before? See if you can get used todoing those things before firing up your Instagram.

Also, just kill the thing while working. Turn your mobile phone onaeroplane mode while you’re at it and for large chunks of the day. As foryour laptop, it’s pretty tempting to flick back and forth between what youare doing and your browser, because it can take some of the terseness outof a task when you punctuate it with a quick, cheeky comment and apicture of a cat in a bow-tie with a party hat on. The problem is your brainneeds to do a little flip every time you switch between tasks. This takestime and energy and prevents you from entering into a deeper level ofconcentration so you can access the flow state.

(Sorry, I couldn’t find a happy enough looking cat.)

Sometimes it isn’t always possible to disconnect from the net completelyduring work. As well as self-help stuff I write popular articles on thingslike economics and review theatre performances, so I often need theinternet to do some research (or consult the thesaurus). That’s fine, but tryto be wise about it. Close any tabs that will give you temptingnotifications, and turn off your sound settings on sites like Facebook whichgive you a ping when you get a reply or a message (this has saved me somuch time!). Turn off all push notifications and pop-ups as well. Turn offthe feature on YouTube where it plays the next suggested videoautomatically when you’re done with the one that you’re watching. Get ridof everything that is made with the specific purpose of grabbing for yourattention. The world can wait another half hour, I promise.

I also advise against any TV, video, podcasts, and especially video gamesduring “short breaks” or in between two significant activities. All of thesethings are compulsive and will lure you in for longer than you intend. Ifyou’re anything like me, you will keep hitting “snooze” on your alarmbutton, even if you’ve set it to limit your time.

You could schedule ten minute Facebook breaks at particular times, orbetter still schedule all your notification checks to two specific periodseach day. Having one time in the morning and one time in the eveningdedicated to replying to all email and social media notifications will saveyou quite an unimaginable amount of time. There are so many forums nowwhere you may be receiving private messages or responses, but nothingthat can’t wait for a couple of hours. And yet, the compulsion to keepclicking onto Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn,WhatsApp, Snapchat, Skype, and a million other apps for that littlemoment of gratification can be quite a draw. It’s up to you whether it’s apleasure you want to give up or not. I find there isn’t much there to look atif I check several times a day, so it’s as often a disappointment as it is apleasure!

Hack through your responses all at once rather than in sporadicincrements. I attend to the most important things first and if I’ve got sometime left over I can use it to see who has sent me some nice cat pictures orwhatever.

If you really want results make a policy of noting the exact time andminute you start and finish each social media check and note it down in adiary. You will soon be appalled by how much unnecessary time you wasteand amazed by how much you can free up by cutting down to two or threespecific times.

Be honest with yourself when you’re flipping between working, researchand not really working. If your allotted time is up, has your attention spanactually ran out? Do you need a proper break or to do something else? Ifit’s a break you need don’t do it on the computer. Go into the kitchen andget a bite, or go for a walk round the block to get some fresh air. Get anotepad and sit on the couch and do some journaling about what you’vejust done and figure out where you are in relation to where you want to be.

Can you get clarity on just the next step? What would be the ideal thing todo first to push forward? If you don’t know yet what do you need to learnto find out what your next step is? Can you do the necessary research ormake calls today, or does it have to wait? If it has to wait, what can you dothat will be useful and effective and make you feel accomplished? Evensomething easy is fine. See, all of this is just about slowing down andtaking some space and time to gain clarity and encourage yourself. Themore you do it the more of a positive attitude you will cultivate towardsyourself and your work. You are training up your inner coach.

If you are a YouTube or podcast addict like me you can set aside times forwatching and listening, and of course add times while you’re cooking,hanging your washing, or whatever activities you like to listen to mediawhile you’re doing.

Final three guidelines:1. Don’t check your notifications on your smartphone in the morning whenyou wake up in bed.2. Don’t check your notifications on your smartphone in the morning whenyou wake up in bed.3. Don’t check your notifications on your smartphone in the morning whenyou wake up in bed.

You do not want to put yourself in a passive/receptive/reactive mode rightat the start of the day or you may carry it through until the time you go tobed. At least it will be harder to make a start on anything serious and youmight find that even if you have the day off it takes until the afternoon toget started on realising your dreams. Do something productive as soon asyou are able to, and certainly before checking any emails or notifications.That will set you up into the right state to take on the day, and checkingnotifications will become an aside rather than a meandering activity youhope will fight off the drowsiness.

There we go, don’t you feel better now?

A Few Cool Things to Add to Your List

One of the great things about having a list of things you want to do eachday is that you can put things on that you usually don’t get around tobecause you don’t give yourself the permission to do them. You alwaysthink you have something more important to do. Having something on thelist, or your habit tracker, means you see it as a priority and have a purposefor doing it. You also get the satisfaction of scoring it off your list onceyou’ve completed it and know you are meeting your goals. Here are someactivities I think you might benefit from having on yours.

Help Around The House

A lot of people, including yours truly, have a lot of trouble getting down toa little house work because we have so many other things on our mind thatseem of greater importance. As a consequence the dishes in the kitchen canreally stack up, or the hall can go unclean. I like to have an item called‘help around the house’ on my list. It started out as a 10 minute task, whichmeans it’s perfect for taking a break between writing sessions or clients.Having it on my list helps me give myself permission to forget abouteverything else for a while and attend to little things that need doing. Evenif I am staying at my parents’ or at a friend’s place I still make a point ofcompleting this item, which is nice. If you live with a housemate orsignificant other they will definitely appreciate the extra effort, no matterhow little the thing you do may be.

Admin

If you are as slow to respond to emails, fill forms or pay bills as I havebeen notorious for in the past, you can add “30 minutes admin” to the list.Set aside a period for attending to these things and keep the ‘admin list’updated. Then when you get to sit down to them you will have thesatisfaction of scoring each one off your list. Try the most important onesfirst and if you can’t do it then try the second more important, etc.

Certain tasks seem to be bottomless. For example, clearing out an inbox,or “work that makes work”, such as replying to emails, notifications, orprivate messages. Rather than leave them “unopened” and hope you willget round to them at some point, you can put your important replies onyour admin list. Then you can hack through them at once instead ofsporadically throughout the day, which creates a lot of task-switching andzaps your focus.

You can get a little shoe box and mark it “admin”. Put all of your unpaidbills, unanswered letters, unfilled forms, and notes with things you shouldbe doing in it. When it comes to admin time, enjoy seeing the pile emptyitself out. If anything is urgent place it on the top. And remember the two-minute rule, courtesy of David Allen, author of Getting Things Done: Anytime you touch a bit of admin that would take under two minutes tocomplete then you have to complete it right away. This will save youwasting time handling the same bits of paper over and over again.

For more on how to make the most effective use of your admin list andhack through unfinished business check out a video I posted to YouTubesince first writing this eBook called How to get through your pile ofunfinished tasks....

Inspire Yourself

Slip in 10-30 minutes of reading books and articles (or listening topodcasts) about and by people who have accomplished the kinds of thingsyou want to accomplish with your life. If you want to be a famousmusician start reading biographies about the outrageous careers of yourfavourite bands and stars. If you want to be a great entrepreneur read abouthow the big boys like Steve jobs, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates got to wherethey are. If you long to be a stand up comic start listening to podcastinterviews of top comedians talking about life on the road, how they puttheir material together, and how they make jokes work. Not only will youlearn from their experiences, but you will start to long to have theirexperiences. This will help motivate you to put the work in to make yourdreams a reality. You will start thinking, “Well, if they can do it, there’s noreason why I can’t do it.”

I remember how inspired I was to form a band when I read biographies ofQueen and Led Zeppelin when I was a teenager, but I never thought to turnit into a spiritual practice to help me get serious about music. (Maybe If Ihad I’d be a rock star by now – haha!) The trick is to always be readingsomething that speaks to your dreams, even if it’s just a few pages a day. Alot of procrastinators think the purpose of a book is to get through it. Theywant to have finished reading the book so that they already know what isin it, can say they have read it, talk about it, and so that it is off their list.This is not the purpose of this exercise though. It’s a practice. The point isto read a few pages of something inspiring every single day. If you want tobe inspired every day then you have to seek inspiration every day. It’s notabout data input, it’s about generating the correct state to help you achieveyour goals.

When I am writing about a self-help topic, I will often read other people’sbooks on the subject, and I get so much out of it. Reading what otherpeople have to say on a subject often sparks off my own ideas. SometimesI see other people have made the same point as I am trying to make andthat helps me confirm that what I am saying is universal since others havereached the same conclusion independently. Other times people see thingsdifferently, or add a perspective I have not thought of that I have toconsider. Plus, being on top of what everyone else has to say on the subjectallows me to confirm whether I have something fresh to contribute overand above what is already out there. If I don’t, I’d rather recommend theone that already exists and dedicate my time and expertise to a subject Ican make a unique contribution on. (This is up to you of course, doingsomething original isn’t as important as doing something well.) Ultimately,reading on the topic helps keep me motivated to keep working by havingmy mind work-out on the subject at hand. I also think, “Well if they have abook out on the subject, why shouldn’t I? I better crack on...” … and I’mcracking!

Leisure Time

Leisure time is hard to enjoy for procrastinators because they always thinkthey should be doing something. I remember I used to think I couldn’tleave the house to meet a friend because I hadn’t done any work on myprojects yet, but actually if I went out and met someone often I’d comeback ready to work because I’m an extrovert and get energised by beingaround people. Sometimes the discussion would turn onto my projects andI’d get new ideas and feel jazzed to work on them.

If you are constantly thinking of what you should be doing through yourleisure time you are not really going to enjoy it or get rested, and as I havealready mentioned – restfulness is the basis of activity.

One thing I’ve gotten from being able to write regularly – two to threehours a day – is that I am free of so many psychological constraints whichused to lock me down emotionally. Because I know that I can get down tobusiness without so much resistance I am free to mess around for a whileor do fun things if I choose to. Before that was really impossible for me toenjoy since I’d be giving myself hell while doing it because of theunpredictability. Would I ever be able to get down to work today? Or eventomorrow? Or ever??? I am just saying this to let you know that therereally is a light at the end of the tunnel, and as you build your “do-itmuscles” with the lessons I have articulated in this book you will feel lessconstrained and locked down. Have faith and practice practice practiceyour daily tasks one by one until they are habits and easy enough for you. Ipromise you that gradually, gradually, things will be improving internallyas well and you will be pleased with the results. Until then you canschedule leisure activities into your calendar to give you permission to“switch off” for a while.

NO VIDEO GAMES IN THIS SLOT. You will not be able to put them offand get back to work when your half an hour is done. You will keep onplaying because they are addictive. If you want to play video games do itonce your work is complete or on your day off. Studies show that up tofive hours of gaming a week teaches useful skills that are transferable toreal life, but much more than that begins to take on an addictive tendency.

Keep a Journal.

I believe that everyone should journal three pages a day no matter what.Journaling has changed my life. Here are just some of the benefits I canattest to:

- Writing about what you think and feel pulls things that are on the edge ofyour awareness, like, on the tip of your tongue, into focus and helps youget clarity on things you didn’t actually know that you knew.- Sometimes our minds repeat the same annoying thoughts over and overagain to make sure we don’t forget them, and I find that journaling aboutthem can often help me let them go.- Emotional Catharsis. Writing about things that you feel emotional aboutoften helps you release some of those unpleasant feelings. It frees youfrom carrying the past so you can be more available to the presentmoment.- Journaling helps you “keep your filing cabinet tidy” and gain clarity onany things that you have many vague notions about which you have notfully organised and integrated into your understanding yet.- Helps you focus on finding solutions to your problems.- Gives you an opportunity to encourage yourself through challenges.- Helps you look at a situation from many angles instead of debating backand forth with yourself as you can give each point of view a fair hearing.- Helps you get straight with yourself and know your own mind better soyou understand your feelings, opinions, and what you know from what youare not sure of and have to learn more about. It helps you understand whatyou really believe.- Gives you a chance to confront any things you have been avoidinglooking at. The things that are stealing your energy and attention awayduring the day as you keep thinking about them then trying to put them outyour mind over and over again. Helps you get clarity on these issues andmove forward on them more constructively.

Sometimes I just write what’s on my mind. Sometimes I write hypotheticalletters to people I will never send just to get my emotions out and clarity inmy mind. Sometimes I prepare and plan my week or projects. But nomatter what I always write.

In my opinion, journaling daily will help you with everything else in life.If you don’t believe you can commit to three pages a day start with one.Once you have the habit locked in you can increase it to two, then three.The reason that there should be a minimum is that you will often get to thepoint when you have written two pages and “can’t think what else towrite”. That’s good. That presents you with the opportunity to dig a littledeeper to find something to write about, and usually what you pull out will

be very beneficial. You will be glad you motivated yourself to continue,and soon enough your journal will become your second best friend (afteryourself).

Remember, these journals are not for the eyes of others. Don’t write themin a way that you would have to if someone else were going to read it asthis will lead to you trying to self-censor or be entertaining instead ofbeing real. I don’t even read my own journals! Mostly I just write them forthe therapeutic aspects of writing. I would hate someone to find them andmake a biography of me from them because they would get a totallyinaccurate picture of who I am and what I thought since I am mostly justventing from a temporary feeling and testing out ways of looking at theworld. Not everything I write in them is necessarily my own opinion.

When I am done I go back and scan through them to see if there are anyinsights that I might want to transcribe into a more permanent book tobenefit from them in the future. Once I’ve done that, I put themsomewhere for safekeeping then burn them all in a pile. Why? Because it’scathartic. And also, if someone found them and tried to piece togethersome kind of biography of me it would be totally inaccurate since I oftenwrite from a part that is the most emotional, angry, vindictive, etc. – or togive voice to a view I don’t really believe in or am not sure of but is at theedge of my awareness and I want to deal with it by giving it a proper look.If you read many of my journals you might think I was a manic depressivemisanthrope who wants to strangle the people he loves most to death attimes. (Well, maybe at times I do but I’d never...) And while all of thosetraits exist within me they are not representative of who I actually am.Since the journal is largely used for catharsis and the exploration of variantperspectives it is largely at variance with who I am. Don’t be afraid to useyour journal in weird and wonderful ways. If you find any interesting onesemail them to me at antony@beyourselfandloveit.com.

Celebrate Each Winby George Bruce, musician, composer and chef.

We cannot celebrate alone, in fact it is a contradiction of the word itself. ToCelebrate is derived from the Latin celebrare, meaning: “to assemble inhonour” or “to frequent in great numbers”.

Celebration is to gather and support one another in mutual enthusiasm forour achievements or in marking the milestones of our lives. From pinnacleevents such as weddings, anniversaries – even funerals, to more frequentoccasions like birthdays and staff parties; we come together to honour ourconnection as a tribe and in doing so give roots to our identity in thepositive feelings of companionship and trust, and a vital yet neglectedfeeling in our modern, busy world...

Belonging.

Although most of us are experts in partying and partaking of thesecommon rituals of celebration, we also know, consciously orunconsciously, the value they have to our psyche. Therefore, this is not toconvince anyone to go to parties – nor of why they should. People knowfull well why they should celebrate: It’s fun!… Instead, this is an effort toshow why and how we should bring celebration into the everyday, so wecan reap the huge benefits that mutual enthusiasm offers us on a dailybasis.

I have lived with Antony for around three years, and over the course of thistime I have led myself to ever expanding success in my work, my musicand relationships. I believe that this is largely due to a phenomenon that Ihad up until that point in my life not encountered:

Consistent and Healthy Enthusiasm.

(I say “consistent” because it was his habit of enthusiasm which rubbed offon me, and “healthy” because well, someone could as easily beenthusiastic about smoking weed and watching tv shows all day as theycould about something positive and meaningful…)

For every satisfying “smack!” of the high-five after a successful date hadgone home with a big smile on her face, every utterance of “Awesome!” inregards to some good news at work, or a gig I had played, or even smallthings – like nailing a part of a song that I'd been practising for ages, littleby little an idea began to grow and take hold in me, which became amentality. In words it goes something like this: “If I feel successful, I willhave no choice but to succeed...”

Why?

Because success is a feeling not an outcome! And celebration amplifiesthat feeling.

We all know how it feels to have that successful day. Maybe you’ve wrotean essay or finished a song you’ve been working on for months… You’rebrimming with achievement, you share that energy with a family memberor a friend and then they force a smile and give you a lukewarmcongratulations. No enthusiasm. Or worse, they completely ignore you.You feel like the cliché metaphorical balloon – rapidly deflating. Or worsestill, you have success and there's nobody to share your excitement with…Sometimes I think I’d feel better having done nothing at all rather thanachieving something special and having no one to bond with about it!

We need celebration in our lives, and in my opinion, more than the meagrecultural prescription of Birthdays and Christmas time. (I write this uponAntony’s birthday as it so happens.) To put it strongly, celebration must bea way of life to the man or woman who desires success. And I don’t meanmoney, cars, big houses and executive positions. The only measure ofsuccess is the happiness of you and the people in your life. So take anhonest look around and ask, are the people in your life joining in yourparty? Are they excited for you? Areyou excited for you and others? Ifyou’re looking around and findingempty expressions and hollowvictories, maybe you ought to startlearning more about the art ofenthusiasm, because life is a party –and no-one likes to be alone at a greatparty. - GB.

About the Author

Antony Sammeroff is a recoveringprocrastinator living in Glasgow, Scotlandwhere he loves the people but hates the cold.In 2017 he launched the Surviving toThriving program which is designed to helppeople take control of their lives and achievetheir full potential through six lessons:

- How to live in a meaningful pursuit of your long-term happiness ratherthan simply avoidance of short-term discomfort and suffering.- How to meet your emotional and psychological needs.- How to reclaim your long-lost authenticity, and advocate for yourself in away that balances your own needs with the needs of others.- How to take charge of your emotional well-being.- How to take responsibility for improving aspects of your life which havenot yet reached their potential.- How to make your life awesome. (No seriously, Lesson 6 of the course iscalled “Making Life Awesome.”)

If you would like to hear more it can be found atwww.beyourselfandloveit.com/ under the “course” tab.

For work Antony offers personal coaching and counselling services, andruns personal development events. For play he writes articles, goes to thetheatre, plays piano and listens to music. He has also been noted for hislibertarian political views, as expressed on The Scottish Liberty Podcast.

Antony is a self-confessed podcast junkie, and hosts the Be Yourself andLove it Podcast, a weekly personal development podcast in which heinterviews experts on various topics to share practical information thatpeople can use to improve their lives in all areas such as physical health,diet, relationships, dating, mental health, parenting, communication skills,productivity, income, work-life-balance and so on. Subscribe on iTunes orSoundcloud or Android.

Want more help?

I am trying to use my short time on this planet to support and help asmany people as possible. If you think you would like to be one of thosepeople, here are the deets:

Changing can be pretty tough on your own. There is a lot of trial and errorinvolved and you don’t necessarily know ahead of time what will workand what won’t so you can end up exploring a lot of dead ends that provefruitless. Plus, as the old saying goes, “Everyone has a back.” Sometimesan outside perspective can help bring things to your attention that you mayhave never otherwise considered.

I offer personal coaching for recovering procrastinators to help them workthrough the emotional and psychological side of getting in their own wayas well as the practical side. For those who can’t afford one to one servicesI will be launching a group coaching program for readers of this book tohelp each other along Email bookings@beyourselfandloveit.com with alittle about what you are trying to achieve and the struggles your are facingand we will see what kind of help we can arrange for you.

Coaching is not actually a luxury, despite what some people may think. It’sactually part of what it takes for anyone to excel in any area of lifewhatsoever. Top sports stars don't stop getting coached when they leaveschool, top business people hire consultants, public speakers go toToastmasters meetings. Before I was a piano tutor I went for piano lessons.Since then I have had a variety of helpers who have each taught mesomething about myself but also something about how to help peopleeffectively and even sometimes how not to do it. I have seen my clientsachieve in weeks what might have taken me months – or even years, soI’m very keen to connect with people and help them unleash their fullpotential and give to the world those gifts they have always longed toshare.

Second Best Option – Get an Accountability Partner.

If you can’t pay for help, why not start a meetup group for you and friendsor even strangers to gather together, motivate one another, talk about yourprojects and do some work! When I was at university, I started a writers’group and finished plays that were performed at my college. I could neverhave done it without the writers’ group. Having that structure in my lifeforced me to work on it a few hours at least once a week. It was one of themost fulfilling experiences of my life. No man is an island! If there isn’talready a group in your area that can offer you support and accountability,create one. Remember the Hindu proverb, “To learn – read, to know –write, to master – teach.”

The Surviving to Thriving Program

I created my course, Surviving to Thriving, over the course of eight monthsto take the best of what I have learned in over a decade and a half ofdedication to my own process of personal development and greatexperience in helping others do the same.

I was dissatisfied with the trial and error involved in self-help and wantedto distil the core lessons that life had taught me which genuinely improvedmy life into something linear that could be easily digested and put intopractice. I’m incredibly proud of the result. Check it out here:http://beyourselfandloveit.com/en/buy/course

Coaching for Coaches:Are you a personal development junkie, expert or enthusiast? Are you aqualified, or working coach or helper – or do you aspire to be one?

I am particularly eager to work with people who want to have a positiveimpact on others, to pass on everything I have learned about being aneffective helper. I can also teach you how to make money in an industrywhere 7 out of 8 people who qualify don’t even make a living. Email:bookings@beyourselfandloveit.com, Subject line: Coaching for Coaches.

Help for Writers:If you like my writing style and would like help improving your own,email: booking s @beyourselfandloveit.com, Subject line: Help for Writers.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my volunteer proof-readers for being so generouswith their time, helpful comments and out pointing my speling an gramarerrs. Be assured that any remaining mistakes are down to my pigheadedstubbornness with my style rather than any oversight on their part. ChelseaEllen (chelseaellenk@gmail.com if you want her help with your book), mybrother Jonathan Sammeroff of www.meandmyguitar.com – check out hiscool music he has two great albums out, and Hanos, author of Invisible -the hidden reality of our lives, which you should buy on amazon kindle.

I would also like thank Darren Eggenschwiler, my tech and marketingconsultant, for his tireless help, work, support and faith in me and ourproject. Check him out at www.deggen.com if you need a wizard.

Christopher Stefanick for featuring me on his podcast ChoiceConversations again and again and collaborating on a six-part series on thesix lessons included in my Surviving to Thriving course. If you like thisbook you will probably also like Choice Conversations so check it out atwww.choicecoversations.com.

I am grateful to Thomas E. Woods for featuring me twice on The TomWoods Show and helping me reach a wider audience. I got so much love,respect and kudos from his listeners, and am so touched to count myself apart of the community he has created around it. I hope to be back.

Thanks to all my friends and family who have supported and believed inmy vision. Special props to George Bruce for his heartfelt afterword, findhis website here: https://gbtunesandfood.wixsite.com/georgebrucemusic.

Thanks to India where the book was conceived in an airport where Ifuriously tapped my initial thoughts into my smartphone, a look ofcompressed absorption slapped across my face lest I lost something vital tothe gap between the speed of thought and that of my fingers. I wrote this inunder two months – can you believe that??? I can’t believe it. It seemedlike ages. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without yoga, so I have tothank all the teachers throughout all of history who have passed downthese ancient healing practices because they gave me the energy and verveto really apply myself to this project and see it to its completion.

Finally, I would like to give thanks to you for readingmy book and helping it fulfil its destiny. More powerto you if you put what you have read into practice!

Liked this book?

- Let me know what you think!feedback@beyourselfandloveit.com.

- Review it on amazon.

- Send a copy to all your procrastinating friends: www.beyourselfandloveit.com/doit

- Check out my free self help videos.

- Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes or Soundcloud or Android.

- Tell me what I should write about next: antony@beyourselfandloveit.com.

But Wait… There’s More!

I would like to thank those podcasters who quickly and readily agreed tohave me on their shows to talk about this book and expand upon itscontents. I am glad to say that so far each has given me the opportunity tooffer a fresh and unique take on my teachings, so if you’re ever strugglingand need some inspiration to pick you up, you’ll at least have somethinghalf-way decent to listen to while you gather your energy together for yournext accomplish, your next achievement…

Brett Veinotte, School Sucks Podcast:http://schoolsucksproject.com/podcast-541-whats-goals/

Invalid Beard and Tony Rockamora, Don’t Waste Your Hate:https://soundcloud.com/beyourselfandloveit/knowingyoucouldbemore

Tom Woods, The Tom Woods Show:http://tomwoods.com/1090

Dan Elwood and Robert Johnson, Actual Anarchy:https://soundcloud.com/beyourselfandloveit/productivitynutsandbolts

James Fox Higgins, The Rational Rise:https://youtu.be/FnJFhzPD1ZY

Sherry Voluntary and Michael Clark, Speaking Freely:https://soundcloud.com/speakingfreely