[INTRODUCTION]

Hal Elrod: Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Achieve Your Goals podcast. I’m your host, Hal Elrod, and today is the first installment in a new series that I’m calling Why We Do What We Do. I’ll spread the series over the course of the next few months because I’m having interviews with guests in between. But together, we’re going to dive deep into human behavior, breaking down the patterns, the beliefs, and the habits that shape our lives so that you can take intentional steps to achieve your goals and become the person that you want to be.

Now, today, we’re tackling one of the most common barriers to success, and that is procrastination. How often do you find yourself putting off the important things in life, whether it’s tackling a big project or making an important decision or having a difficult conversation with someone that you care about or even taking the first step toward just a goal that matters deeply to you, but you’re pushing it off into the future? And this is one of those common struggles that we all face. But why? Why do we delay the very things that we know will help us grow or improve our lives? And more importantly, how can we stop doing that? How can we stop procrastinating?

So, today, we’re going to address procrastination from three different angles. Number one, why we procrastinate. It’s important to understand why we do something so that we can address the root cause and create lasting change. Number two, we’re going to address the cost of procrastination. It is important to shine a light on the negative consequence of our behavior, especially over the long term, so that we can change course before it’s too late. Often, we don’t see the direction that we’re heading and we just look at, oh, it’s okay if I don’t do it today, I’ll put it off today. And today turns into a week, in a month, in a year, and all of a sudden, years go by and this procrastination can rob us of the goals and the dreams that really matter to us.

And the third aspect of procrastination we’re going to address, the most important, well, equally important, the other two come before it, but it’s how to stop, how to stop procrastinating. Once we’re clear on why we procrastinate and the cost, the consequences, I’m going to give you five strategies to choose from. Like a buffet, you can apply all five or just one, and actionable steps to stop procrastinating for good.

But before we dive into the episode, I have a question for you. Have you ever wished you could wake up every day with more energy, clarity, and focus? What if you had a personal guide to help you stick to the Miracle Morning routine and transform your life one morning at a time? Well, now you do. Introducing the Miracle Morning app, we have a new updated version that we just released. It is designed to help you master your mornings and elevate your life. This app is like having a dedicated coach to guide you through your Miracle Morning journey, features like guided meditations, customizable affirmations, visualization prompts, and space for journaling with over 500 guided prompts. The app makes practicing the SAVERS simple, effective, and fun and never boring. It’s different all the time. There’s hundreds of ways to approach your Miracle Morning in the app.

It’s also the ultimate accountability partner to stay consistent, track your progress, and achieve your goals, whether it’s improving your health, relationships, finances, or just your overall mindset. Tens of thousands of users are already transforming their lives with the Miracle Morning app. And now, it is your turn. Download the Miracle Morning app today and make every morning a Miracle Morning.

All right, so today, we’re talking or we’re taking a deep dive into procrastination, why we do it, how it holds us back, and most importantly, how to stop doing it and start doing what matters most to you. Here we go.

[INTERVIEW]

Hal Elrod: Okay, so let’s start with the big question. Why do we procrastinate? Because in order to really move through something, it’s important to understand the root cause of the thing. You can put a Band-Aid on it, right? Now, it might work for a while, but usually, it’ll rear its head again. So, really, deeply understanding the cause of something that we do habitually is important to overcome it, to move through it, to change the behavior. So, most people think procrastination is about one of two things, neither of which are really accurate, the first is laziness and the second is poor time management. So, either this identity of like, oh, I procrastinate because I’m lazy, I’m not motivated, or I just… either I’m not good at managing time or I have so many things to do, I can’t get them all done.

But here’s the truth. Procrastination is not about either of those things. It’s related, but those are really symptoms, those are really surface level. The truth of it is something deeper. However, I’m going to take a few minutes to unpack these misconceptions because they do play a role in how we think about procrastination and how we feel about ourselves when we procrastinate, so if you can relate to any of this, right? So, number one, the first misconception and what causes procrastination, laziness. Is it really the problem?

So, when you procrastinate, do you ever tell yourself, I’m just lazy or I’m not motivated? It’s an easy excuse, right? But laziness isn’t usually the problem because laziness implies a lack of care or a lack of motivation. But most of the time when we procrastinate, it’s not because we don’t care. In fact, it’s often the opposite. We care so much that we feel paralyzed by the task. So, for example, imagine a student who avoids writing an essay until the last minute. Now, are they lazy? Probably not. Most likely, they’re overwhelmed by the fear that their essay won’t be good enough, and avoiding it feels easier than facing that fear. Or thinking about someone who procrastinates on cleaning their home, for example, it’s not necessarily laziness. It could be that they feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work and don’t know where to start. They’re not lazy. They’re overwhelmed. Very different. So, while procrastination might look like laziness from the outside, it’s often an emotional avoidance of discomfort or fear.

Now, the second misconception, poor time management, right? Is that really the root cause? That second misconception is because that procrastination happens because we’re bad at managing our time. And yes, time management can play a role, but it’s usually not the root cause. Think about it. How many times have you told yourself, “I just need to plan better,” only to still procrastinate? If time management were the problem, wouldn’t better planning solve it? Think about that, right? Like, what if… I’ve been there where I’ve got everything planned out, my schedule, and then when it comes time to do the thing that’s out of my comfort zone, that I’m scared of, that I feel overwhelmed by, even though I’ve planned to a tee how to do it, when to do it, etc., I still put it off.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’ve been working on a big work project and you’ve set aside an entire day to focus on it. You’ve planned your time perfectly, but instead of starting the project, you find yourself scrolling through social media or reorganizing your desk, or going through the mail. Like, the issue isn’t your schedule, it’s the emotions tied to the project. Maybe it feels overwhelming or maybe you’re afraid you’ll get stuck halfway through and not know how to finish it. As an author, you know, writer’s block, that’s a big fear that prevents you from even starting because you’re afraid you don’t know how to get to the end. So, time management isn’t solving those deeper issues, or take a parent who delays planning a family trip because it feels stressful. I just plan some trips for my family and I kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. Even if they block out time to plan, the emotional discomfort of juggling logistics and making decisions might still cause them to put off the task.

So, while improving your time management, yes, it can be helpful, it is not the magic cure for procrastination, and that is because procrastination is less about managing your time and more about managing your emotions. And that’s what we’re going to dive into. So, what’s really going on? Why do we procrastinate? At its core, procrastination, I mention this… when did I mention this? I mentioned it recently. But at its core, procrastination is about seeking, one word, relief. It is an emotional response to discomfort.

So, when we’re faced with a task that feels overwhelming or unpleasant or scary, our brains look for a way to escape the pressure, and the escape, that escape often comes in the form of procrastination. If I don’t do it now, I get a sense of relief. Think about that. We’ve all indulged in that, that relief, it’s an emotion that’s not often talked about, but it’s literally the root of what’s happening. We feel pressure to do the thing that we know we need to do, that we know that we should do. And if we just put it off till tomorrow, right, you’ve been there, where you’re just like you make that decision, like, I’m not going to do it today. I can do it tomorrow. In that moment, you go from those uncomfortable emotions, oh, to a sense of relief. It feels so good to have that temporary immediate relief, right? It’s like taking a drug, whatever. It’s like some immediate, like immediately, you get to give yourself relief from that emotional discomfort.

And here’s how it works. Let’s say you have to prepare for a big presentation at work. The thought of standing in front of an audience might make you anxious, and that anxiety feels uncomfortable. So, instead of working on the presentation, you distract yourself by scrolling through emails or watching YouTube videos on your phone. And in the moment, it might feel good or it does look good, right? It feels great. You’ve escaped the anxiety and you experience temporary relief, but here’s the catch. That relief is fleeting. When we procrastinate, we’re not solving the problem. We are postponing it.

And by doing so, we’re not only delaying the task, we’re also amplifying the emotional discomfort that we’re going to feel later. Because guess what? The presentation still has to get done. And now, you’ve amplified your fear or anxiety because now, you have less time and more pressure. Now, one more day goes by where you didn’t work on it, and now, again, you are exacerbating the emotional turmoil that you feel inside, not solving it. And this is what researchers call short-term mood repair. Short-term mood repair. We procrastinate to avoid the immediate discomfort of a task, but in doing so, we create even more discomfort for our future selves. We make things worse.

So, let me ask you this. Let’s reflect for a minute. How often are you trading temporary relief for long-term discomfort? How often are you indulging in that short-lived instant gratification and exacerbating the problem, amplifying the emotional discomfort that you’re going to feel in the future? Think about that. How often are you doing that? Is this a daily thing? Are you putting off the things you know you should do? Are you a perpetual procrastinator? I think that we all are. I think there are certain things we procrastinate on, I think for most people. And part of that is true, that you can’t get everything done.

So, there’s actually a great book by my friend Rory Vaden, Procrastinate on Purpose, in which he talks about, like, procrastinate on the things that don’t matter. Like, procrastinate on purpose, but procrastinate on things that the lowest value tasks. So, yes, procrastinate, but not on the things that move the needle. Don’t procrastinate on working out. Do that. That’s important. Don’t procrastinate on quitting smoking or getting rid of some really unhealthy habits. Like, do those now. So, procrastinate on purpose means you purposefully procrastinate on the low value tasks in your life.

So, again, back to you, how often are you trading this temporary relief that you get from procrastinating for the long-term discomfort and, not to mention, the long-term fulfillment? Like, think about that. You’re giving up long-term fulfillment in exchange for short-term relief. And what would change if you faced the discomfort of doing the thing that you know would add value to your life, what would change if you faced that discomfort now instead of letting it snowball into something bigger later? This is where we are heading today.

All right. I want to take a few minutes to talk about the cost of procrastination. When I say cost, I mean consequences. The truth is procrastination has a cost, right? And it’s bigger than we think. So, little bit of research I read from Harvard Business Review shows that chronic procrastination increases stress. You know this, right? I’m not telling you something you don’t know, but it’s important to shine a light on it. So, chronic procrastination increases stress. It lowers productivity and it even damages our physical and mental health over time.

In fact, a 2022 study published in Psychology Today found that 88% of people feel worse after procrastinating. Now, why? Because deep down, we know we’re sabotaging ourselves. We know that avoiding the task isn’t moving us forward. It is holding us back. I’ll share a personal story right here, like an example of when I was writing the Miracle Morning, there were moments where I found myself procrastinating. In fact, it took two and a half years to write less than the first half of the book in six months. So, let’s say two and half years to write roughly a third, give or take, it was 40%, little more than a third, but roughly two and a half years to write 40% of the Miracle Morning because I would procrastinate and procrastinate and procrastinate.

And then, when I finally committed, I finally actually hired a writing coach. And we’ll get into solutions as we move forward. But I hired a writing coach to hold me accountable. That was their main… they gave me some feedback. They gave me feedback, but primarily, their job was we’d get on a call every week and we would review what I wrote. And then we would clarify. I would commit, “Okay, here’s what I’m going to write between now and when we talk again.” And it was the accountability. And once I did that, once I had accountability to overcome my habitual procrastination, six months later, I had written the other 60% of the book.

So, what is two and a half years is how many months, right? That’s 12, 12, 6. So, we’re looking at, in 30 months, I wrote 40% of the book in 30 months. And in the next six months, I wrote the other 60% of the book. That’s what procrastination cost you. And here’s the thing, like, if I hadn’t hired that coach, I don’t know if there’d be a Miracle Morning book. Maybe. Maybe it just would have taken me 10 years or whatever to write it. Like, that’s possible.

And I’ll be honest with you, it wasn’t because I didn’t want to write the book. I cared deeply about the message, and I believed that could help people, but I was scared. What if it wasn’t good enough? I kept writing and I would get writer’s block and I’d go, I remember constantly, how am I going to convince people to do this? Like, yeah, what I’m writing, they’re going to go, yeah, it makes sense. I should wake up early. Sure. But I’m not a morning person. Or I read your book, Hal, and I tried it, but I didn’t stick with it. That was my fear. What if it wasn’t good enough? What if people didn’t like it? What if it didn’t get them to do the thing that I wanted? Like, am I wasting my time? And every time I sat down to write, I had to confront those fears and those limiting beliefs. And sometimes, it was easier to avoid them. So, I would just put it off.

But here’s what I learned. The longer you avoid something, the harder it gets. You’re not just delaying the task, you’re delaying your growth, you’re delaying your evolution, you’re delaying your success, you’re delaying your results. And the question becomes for you to ask yourself, and I had to ask myself, are you willing to sit with short-term discomfort now so you can create long-term success later? And here’s another way to frame it. Let me ask you that again, just so it sits with you. Are you willing to sit with short-term discomfort now, the discomfort of doing the thing, just doing it? You’ve heard me talk about acting your way into feeling, just do the thing. And when you do the thing, you’re glad you did it.

And then you create a new neural pathway in your brain, which is like, oh, when I do the thing that I’m afraid of doing that I could have procrastinated on and I used to procrastinate on, I always do, but I did it, I felt good, I felt accomplished, I felt productive. So, are you willing to do the thing that’s uncomfortable now so you can create that long-term success and achievement and fulfillment later? That’s the question that you have to ask yourself. And I hope the answer is yes, yes, I’m ready to stop procrastinating. I’m ready (a) if that’s your identity, let that go. You are not a procrastinator. Procrastination is a behavior. It’s a habit. And like every habit, the good news is you can change it, right? You can change any habit.

So, let’s talk about how to stop. How do you stop procrastinating? How do we break the cycle? How do we stop procrastinating and start making progress? I’m going to give you five strategies right now that can help. And you don’t need to implement all five of these. You could think of this as like a buffet of options, right? You can consider all five. You could incorporate all five. But maybe you realize, ooh, just one of these. If I just do that one thing, that would help me to overcome procrastination.

But before I read this, and I’ll probably say this again at the end because it’s important. I wrote this in the Miracle Morning. Like, you have to draw your line in the sand. You can’t be interested in something. I forgot whose… there was a famous self-help guru that used to always decipher the difference between being interested and being committed, right? If you’re interested in something, like I’m interested in improving, right? Then, like, it’s weak, it doesn’t get you there. You’ve got to be committed. You only get in your life, not what you’re interested in, what you’re fully committed to.

And so, I’m going to invite you right now, before I even share these five strategies to draw your line in the sand and go, today is the day that I decide that I am no longer willing to procrastinate on the things that will move the needle in my life. Today, you might even, if you have a pen, write that down. Today is I’m drawing my line in the sand today and deciding I will no longer procrastinate on the things that are important to me, the things that will move the needle in my life. And you can use different wording, the thing… you might know the exact thing you’re… I will no longer procrastinate on exercising or writing that book or starting that business or improving my marriage or whatever, like whatever the things are in your life, and it could be even just like as a whole, I’m done being a procrastinator. Like, I’m done identifying, is that no longer, I’m an action taker. I’m a doer, I’m a finisher.

I just had Dan McCormick on the podcast last week, and he wrote the book Awakening Who “I Am.” It’s really about the power of I am affirmations, and one of his favorite affirmations, because I guess, he used to be a starter and not a finisher, right, where you start a project, you’re like a visionary. You get excited, but you don’t finish it. You don’t follow through. And that was one of his affirmations, including writing the book, because he’d want to write a book for like, I think, 10-plus years and he hadn’t done it. And so, he affirmed, “I am a finisher,” right? “I am a finisher.” So, if being a procrastinator is part of your identity, let that go. It’s not who you are. It’s just a habit. It’s a behavior. It’s a habit you put off the things that you need to do.

All right. So, if you’ve drawn your line in the sand and you’re ready to implement these strategies, because I don’t want you to just be interested in them, I want you to go, “What are the strategies, Hal? Tell them to me because I’m ready to completely transform how I take on my tasks.” All right, number one, start small. Start small. Sometimes the hardest part is just starting. And in fact, James Clear, author of the bestselling book in the last decade, I think, maybe in the last, I don’t even know, but Atomic Habits is probably the best book ever written on habits, which is why it sold, I think, over 10 million copies now. But James talks about the power of micro-actions. So, instead of focusing on the entire task or the entire project or the entire pathway that you’ve got to take to get to the end result, just focus on one small step.

For example, if you’re procrastinating on writing a report, commit to writing just the first sentence. Once you start, momentum takes over. Think about that. Like, oh, I got to write this report. I don’t want… you keep putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. Wait, I have to write a sentence. I could do that. One sentence, easy, right? If you’re wanting to go for, start running and you’re like, “Oh, I need to be running a mile a day,” no, just run to your car and back. Like, run to the end of the street. Just make it so small, because the first step is almost always the most difficult one to take.

If you want to start doing pushups every day, just do one pushup. Do one. You could right now, pause this and do a pushup, right? Pause this and write the first sentence of your report. Just start small. Make it so easy. Momentum takes over. And again, you’ve heard me talk about one of my favorite strategies to overcome procrastination, or just, I usually don’t frame it as overcoming procrastination, but in this context, it makes sense. I usually frame it as how to do the thing that you need to do even when you don’t feel like it, which I guess is procrastinating, but it’s… what’s his name? John Maxwell. Act your way into feeling, right? If you just take that first baby step, that first action, you write the first sentence of the report, momentum takes over. The first action generates the momentum to take the next first step, to take the next step and the next step and so on.

So, here’s their actionable tip. Pick one task that you’ve been avoiding and set a timer for five minutes and commit to working on it for just those five minutes. You can do anything for five minutes, no matter how big and scary it is, but often, you’ll find it easier to keep going once you’ve started. So, again, that’s an actionable tip for you to take. Pick one task you’ve been avoiding that’s important, that would make a difference in your life. Or that simply is on your to-do list that needs to get done, but you’re putting it off and adding and exacerbating the stress and emotional overwhelm. Set the time for five minutes and just get started.

Strategy number two, address the emotion. Address the emotion. As I mentioned earlier, procrastination is about avoiding emotions. That’s it. That’s what we are doing. We seek relief to avoid the uncomfortable emotions. So, to overcome it, you need to acknowledge those emotions instead of running from them or ignoring them or pretending they don’t exist, right? Self-compassion. There’s actually research from Behavioral Science & Policy that shows that self-compassion reduces procrastination, being compassion with yourself instead of beating yourself up. Beating yourself up, and you’ve done that, I’ve done that, we’ve all done that, right? Like, now, you’re adding guilt and shame into the negative emotional stew that you’re dealing with. You got overwhelmed and fear, which is why you’re procrastinating. But then you procrastinate, now you add shame and guilt on into the emotional stew and you’re like, “Oh, my gosh, I’m terrible. I’m a mess. I’m not following through.” And then you get hard on yourself. Think about it. People that are successful don’t beat themselves up and tell themselves that they suck and that they’re worthless and that they can’t follow through. No, people that are successful are like, “You know what? I might have made some mistakes, but I am awesome. I am capable. I am a finisher. I am taking action. Now, let’s go.”

All right. So, here’s an actionable tip for the address-the-emotion strategy. It’s the next time you feel stuck, pause and name the emotion. Are you feeling anxious? Are you feeling overwhelmed? Afraid of failure? Remind yourself that it’s okay to feel that way and that you’re capable of moving forward despite those feelings. It’s so empowering. If you’re not aware of the emotion that’s holding you back, the emotion continues to hold you back, but when you shine a light on it, you’re like, oh, oh, okay, I’m feeling… I’m scared. And again, remember what I just said, that research from Behavioral Science & Policy shows that self-compassion reduces procrastination. So, once you name it, once you shine the light on the emotion and you acknowledge yourself and give yourself a little self-compassion, remind yourself that it’s okay to feel that way and that you’re capable of moving forward despite those feelings. I’m going to feel the fear and I’m going to do the thing I’m afraid of. I tell my kids that all the time since they were little, right? The way to overcome fear is to do the thing you’re afraid of. Fear disappears, or at least it dissipates. It melts in the face of action, in the face of doing the thing.

All right. The third strategy, reframe the task. Sometimes we procrastinate because a task feels too big or too boring, right? It might be like, I don’t want to do that. Isn’t that true, by the way? Boredom is an emotion that we avoid as well. We procrastinate not just because of fear, not just because of overwhelm, but because I don’t want to do it, it’s boring, right? It’s tedious. Like, tedious is boring. So, by reframing the way you think about it, you can change your perspective. Ask yourself, how does this task align with my bigger goals? How will completing it help me grow or move forward?

So, once you look at it in the bigger context, once you change your perspective, and I’m trying to think of an example, I just did this recently and I had it. It’s not in my notes, I forgot. Anyway, I can’t think the exact example, but I just remember how I had been putting something off, putting something off, putting something off because I was not looking forward to it, I did not want to do it. And then I looked at how it was integrated into my purpose in life and it completely shifted. I mean, I can give you an example. I can give you a broad example.

My purpose, I have multiple purposes in life. This isn’t the episode to talk about those. But I talked about these recently on, I think it was one of the recent episodes, but one of my purposes in life is to serve my family at the highest level, to serve my family, just to add value, just to make my wife’s life amazing and to love her the way I imagine God loves her unconditionally, seeing her beauty inside and out. That’s one of my purposes. And then, for my kids, to serve them, to be their biggest fans, to also guide them and instill values and principles and lead them and so on and so forth. So, serving my family at the highest level is one of my purposes.

So, if I ever don’t want to do something that involves my family, like I don’t love… don’t tell my son. I mean, you could tell him, actually. I’m honest. I’ve told him. But I don’t love jumping on the trampoline, right? Like, I don’t love… I’m looking at, it’s funny, I’m saying that because I’m looking at our trampoline right now out my office window. I don’t like jumping on the trampoline. I just don’t like it. My son loves it. And so, I will procrastinate. I would avoid it. But then when I remind myself, wait, my purpose is to selflessly serve my family whether I feel like it or not, and jumping on the trampoline brings my son joy. I’m jumping on the trampoline.

So, shifting your perspective, reframing the task, that’s strategy number three. Reframe the task. When we shift our perspective, it completely can shift how we feel about the task, about the thing. Again, ask yourself, how does this task align with my bigger goals? And how will completing it help me grow or move forward? So, the task might be boring or tedious, but it’s going to move you closer to the vision that you have for your life.

So, here’s an actionable tip to reframe the task, write down one sentence that connects your task to your bigger why. Or you can use the word purpose, like I just did. So, for example, if you’re procrastinating on exercising, you might write, exercising today will help me stay healthy and have more energy for my family. So, again, write down one sentence that connects the task to your why, to your bigger why or to your purpose. And again, the example I just gave, if you’re procrastinating on exercising, you might write, exercising today will help me stay healthy and have more energy for my family.

Number four, strategy number four, to overcome procrastination, I mentioned this one earlier in my own life, use accountability. Accountability is one of the most powerful tools for overcoming procrastination. Now, research from the American Psychological Association shows that sharing your goals with someone you trust increases your likelihood of follow-through by up to 65%. Now, accountability, I believe it’s the single most unused tool or strategy to overcome procrastination, but it’s the most effective, I believe the most effective. And you think about, well, the example I gave you earlier, right, 30 months of me trying to write the Miracle Morning without any accountability. Nobody was holding me accountable. In 30 months, I wrote 40% of the book, in two and half years.

And then I hired an accountability coach, a writing coach whose primary function was to hold me accountable each week. That was it. Like, think about it. I already knew what I needed to do. Although that’s also partially not true, because meaning, like if I would have sat down and asked myself, I would have clarified, okay, I probably need to write these many pages per day, per week, yada yada yada. But the accountability coach helped me to every week go, okay, in order for us to achieve your goal of publishing this book on time, you’re going to need to write these many pages this week. Okay. Let’s break that down to a daily goal, right? So, the accountability did help with the clarity, but by having accountability, I got 60% of the book written in six months as opposed to 40% in two and half years.

So, here’s an actionable tip for you. Tell a friend or a family member or a colleague about the task you’re avoiding and ask them to check in with you. Or better yet, partner with them to work on your goals together. I learned about the value of accountability initially 25 years ago with me and my good friend, who’s actually now the chief growth officer at the Miracle Morning, Jeremy Reisig, a.k.a. the musician, J Hobbs. And Jeremy and I… it was my last year selling Cutco and I wanted to have my best year ever. And so, I reached out and I said, “Hey, let’s be accountability partners.” And that actually turned into us leading an entire group of 20 of our colleagues on Sunday calls. We had a one-hour call every Sunday to ask, “Okay, what did you get done this last week? Here’s your commitment you gave.” So, we would have them start by making their commitment for the week ahead in terms of how many calls they’d make, appointments they would do, what their sales goals were. And then we would know, okay, we’re going to check in with you in a week to make sure you followed through. And I would coach them on the value of integrity and doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it, that you need to be a person of integrity that values your word at the highest level. It’s the ultimate superpower. And I’d remind them of that every single week. And then we would have our call the following week.

And there were so many days… and by the way, think about this. This accountability works… so many days, I’m like, “I don’t want to make my 20 phone calls today. I’ll just do it tomorrow.” And my habitual nature was all just procrastinate. But because I had given my word to the people, to Jeremy, my accountability partner, and then the group that was our accountability group, right, I’d given them my word. I’m going to make 20 calls a day whether I feel like it or not. And so, that leverage, that’s what accountability is, it is leverage. You now have leverage to get yourself to do the thing that you don’t… you said you would do it whether you feel like it or not, because someone you care about, someone you respect, someone who you desire their respect, you’re not doing this in the shadows anymore, right? Like, they know what you’re going to do. So, again, ask them to check in with you, or better yet, partner with them to work on your goals together, that it’s a mutual accountability relationship.

Strategy number five, focus on progress, not perfection. Perfectionism is one of the biggest drivers of procrastination. I’m going to say that again, maybe three times, probably two. But get that, perfectionism, and this is coming from I am a perfectionist, so I have to deal with this all the time. Maybe you relate to that. But perfectionism is one of the biggest drivers of procrastination. So, we tell ourselves that if we can’t do something perfectly, we shouldn’t do it at all. But progress, not perfection, is what leads to success. Nobody executes perfectly. Nobody, right? But executing imperfectly is, in and of itself, progress because you go, oh, man, I did it. Okay, like, I could have been better. And then you go, oh, yeah, I could’ve been better. So, I’ll do it better tomorrow. And then you keep getting better and better and better and iterating and improving, making progress that then compounds on itself. So, the progress becomes more effective, more exponential. Progress over perfection. And you’ve heard that before.

But here’s the actionable tip. Give yourself permission to do a messy first draft of what… and that’s a metaphor, if you will, but of whatever you’re working on. So, for me, when I was writing the Miracle Morning and I forgot who it was, pardon my French, but it was some author. And this is a popular teaching. For authors, it’s like, just your first draft can be crap. It could be, like it doesn’t need to be good. Just get it out. The hardest thing is to get it done. And then once it’s done, you can go back and you can edit it and you can improve it and you can ask your friends for feedback and you can improve it more, right, but just that messy first draft of whatever it is that you’re working on.

Great example, when we built the Miracle Morning app, it was a messy first draft. We’re like, let’s just get out a first draft and then we put out a really simple habit tracking app and then we got tons of feedback. Much of it was positive and much of it was negative, right? Like, hey, this part sucks. This part’s confusing. I don’t like this feature. This part’s glitchy, right? And as fast as we could, we’re like, okay, let’s iterate, let’s improve, let’s make it better. And then now, the Miracle Morning app has 4.9 out of 5 stars with almost 4,000 reviews in the App Store. Like, that’s exceptional. That’s the top, I don’t know, like 0.01%. Don’t quote me on that. I think I’m guessing, but I think I had looked that up before.

But anyway, but it’s like, it’s top rated. So, think about that. That’s one of the highest rated apps, like 4.9, doesn’t go much better than that, out of almost 4,000 reviews. But we started with a messy first draft. And by the way, oh, gosh, this is so important, the Miracle Morning app took me 10… yeah, like 10 years to create and it’s been the most requested resource that we’ve had for the last 10 years. Why didn’t I do it? Because I was a perfectionist. And the quotes that I got for someone to build… there’s a little behind the scenes, for someone, I’ve gotten two to three different quotes over the years for people to build what my perfect Miracle Morning app that I wanted, which was like basically six apps in one, right? It’s a meditation app, a visualization app, a journaling app, an exercise app, a… what else? An affirmations app.

And to build the dream app that I wanted, the quotes were like $150,000 to $200,000. And y’all, I don’t know about you, but like, I don’t have that lying around to just spend on an app that I hope people like. Like, that was way too much money. And so, Josh Eidenberg, who is the president of the Miracle Morning app, for years, he’s like, “Hal, you need an app. The community wants an app.” And I’m like, “I know, but I can’t afford it. And I don’t… it’s just, I don’t know.” And he finally said, “What’s the minimum? What amount of money would you be willing to invest and to risk knowing that the app might not work out and people might not like it and all the things you’re afraid of, it might not be perfect, but just to get a basic app that we could then reinvest any profit from to gradually build the dream Miracle Morning app?” He said, “What amount of money could you be willing to risk or invest?” And I said, “$10,000.” Like, I’d be willing to invest, to risk $10,000 to build a basic app, and then we could build it over time.

And now, we’ve invested like half a million dollars in that app. But it was just starting with that messy first draft. Same thing with the Miracle Morning, the first draft of the Miracle Morning wasn’t great. And then I sent it to my sister and my mom and dad and my friend Jon Vroman and Jon Berghoff and a handful of other people and my writing coach, and I sent it to them. And then they made notes and they sent it back. And it was like, the whole thing was, like, “This is terrible and this is confusing and this is…” But eventually, because I was willing to take that first step, that messy first draft, so that’s the actionable tip, give yourself permission to do a messy first draft of whatever you are working on. Fail your way forward, make mistakes, that’s okay.

So, there’s five strategies to overcome procrastination forever. Number one, start small. Number two, address the emotion. Remember, you name it, name the emotion. Number three, reframe the task. Number four, use accountability. Number five, focus on progress, not perfection. And I’ll close out by saying this, again, procrastination is a habit, but like any habit, it can be broken. And it starts with understanding why you procrastinate, addressing the emotions that you’re avoiding, the emotions behind it, and then taking small, intentional steps forward. However, it also is about drawing your line in the sand and committing that you’re done procrastinating.

So, here’s my challenge for you. What’s one thing you’ve been procrastinating on? Pick just one task. Just one task and apply one of the strategies that we talked about today, whether it’s starting small or reframing the task or leaning on accountability, whatever it is, pick one strategy that we talked about today and take action today. So, again, one thing you’ve been procrastinating on, not everything, not your whole identity, just pick one. And then pick one task and apply one strategy that we talked about today.

And if this episode resonated with you, I’d love to hear about your progress. Reach out to me on social media or send me an email. I’d love to support you on your journey. And remember, procrastination is temporary, but the progress you make today can create lasting change. There’s nothing stopping you from overcoming procrastination today. You’ve got this. I love you so much. I will talk to you next week.

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