Battling The Fear That Creates Procrastination

No matter how straightforward the class you’re taking, there’s always one step that makes you break out in hives.

Wait, I have to email someone and ask for ______?!

Hold up, I have to actually tell someone, “Your order totals $2,391”?!

Which brings us to Reason #4 that people never finish their classes:

(Reasons #1-3 are here and here.)

Stepping outside what you normally do brings on a rip current of fear that sweeps you right out to procrastination sea.

Education, like swimming, is best done with the buddy system.

Here are two ways to buddy up:

1) Set a check-in time with a friend.

Your friend doesn’t even have to be taking the class with you. We all have stuff we’ve been putting off. All you need to do is grab a pal, ask them what they want to have done by 1pm today, tell them what you’re going to have done, and check in. Hey, did you get it done? Did you?

We humans are adorable and funny in that we wouldn’t fill out a worksheet to save our own lives, but we WOULD do it to save face, so dang it we’re getting it done before Marilyn texts.

2) Say the scary thing out loud to a friend first.

Oh good grief, the first time you have to say “That’ll be $xxxx, will that be credit or check?” can be horrible. Same with the first time you ask “Hey, if you were recommending me to a friend, what would you say? Can I use that on my website?” Gaaaah all the cultural training you have about not promoting yourself and being nice kicks in and makes you want to hide forever.

If you need to say words you can’t believe are coming out of your mouth, hear yourself say them to a friend first.

The world changes in an instant when you actually see for yourself that no one blows up when you say the thing out loud.

It may feel ridiculous, you may giggle, but I don’t care if you have to stick out your pinky and thumb and hold it up to your ear like a pretend phone, all I can tell you is, it WORKS.

I’ll never forget when we used this technique in a therapy class. A woman who never, ever thought she could confront her brother about the terrible things he was doing agreed to pretend I was him, and started talking to me. As she spoke, her entire being changed. Her spine straightened and she realized for herself the truth of what she was saying. She marched out of there and got on the phone for real.

Sometimes hearing yourself say something out loud makes you realize how badly it needs to be said. You also see that no one thinks less of you for asking for help, or naming a price. People are far too concerned about their own actions to freak out over yours.

A friend can help you see that before you ‘go live.’

I hope this little overview of procrastination triggers has given you ideas to carry you through your next business or creative class.

If you’d like to jump in on the class I’m teaching this summer, know that I have anti-procrastination tools baked right in. For one thing, I will personally be your accountability buddy. But we also have clear goals, tiny manageable steps to get there, and I promise to talk you through anything that feels scary (but I swear…it’s really just going to be a lot of fun). Details below!

Go get ’em!

P.S. Registration for my summer class is OPEN!

Irresistible Email: It’s Time To Gather Your People

This live online class runs June 3rd – June 28th. Capped at 25 spots.

You already scribble and send dozens of emails a month.

What if just one reached hundreds, or thousands?
What if that one email were simple to write, and eroded people’s barriers to booking whether they realized it or not?
What if you could train people to open your emails and take action from the get-go?
What if you could actually stick to this with no guilt whatsoever?
What if marketing felt like helping instead of…well, marketing?
What if we could work together on this?

We can. Get details + sign up here.