Episode 80: 4 Tactics to Use To Beat Procrastination and Break Through Resistance To Achieve Business Goals
In this coaching episode with Fiona, she discusses the 4 tactics she uses whenever she feels like she’s procrastinating or discouraged to finish her goals - both personal and for business. Inspired by a quote on resistance from Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art, this episode will encourage you to keep pursuing your goals (no matter how hard they are) until you reach the finish line.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
4 Tactics to beat the resistance
#1. Incentives/rewards
#2. Break it down.
#3. Come back to why you are doing this.
#4. Find a way to stay accountable.
Conclusion
Resources mentioned in this episode
Episode transcript:
Hello and welcome to Episode 80 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast.
I am super excited that you are giving me your time right now. I really, really appreciate it. And I hope that today's coaching episode gives you a whole lot of things to think about when it comes to running your small business. So without further ado, let's get stuck into it, shall we?
So there is an author called Steven Pressfield, you may or may not have heard of his books, but he's written lots of different books. And in one of his books, The War of Art, he talks about resistance in terms of business or in terms of taking action on something that you really, really want and kind of breaking through those creative barriers that can really interrupt action, as you know, artists or entrepreneurs or even athletes. But, yeah, it came out in 2002, and it's just been one of those kind of really interesting books to read as a small business owner. But he talks about resistance and he talks about resistance is greatest just before the finish line. And he says the danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight. At this point, resistance knows we're about to beat it. It hits the panic button. It marshals' one last assault and slams us with everything it's got. Now, I don't know about you, but I definitely have felt this myself in business when I am just about to, you know, play on a launch, when I am about to do something different, when I am writing an article, when I'm working on a documentation process for process documentation for my virtual assistant, when I'm doing things where I just am coming up against kind of, oh, can I be bothered? Is this all worth it? I've got imposter syndrome going on. And so I found this quote and it just really, really spoke to me. The whole idea that resistance is going to come up strong massively when you are closest to the finish line. The amount of times in my career I've been a published writer for a long time and the amount of times I've been writing an article and I'll get to say eight hundred words. And the article needs to be 2000 and I just cannot be bothered. I just cannot be bothered. I go through all the things of “Oh my gosh, why am I even writing for this magazine? I'm really crap. I don't really know that much about this subject. Why did I say I would? Why did I pitch them and all these questions when actually I should just get on and finish the thing and sort of beat that resistance that's coming up to try and quash my dreams.”
So today I thought I'd talk about the four tactics that I use when I'm trying to beat the resistance that is coming up strong right near the finish line.
#1. Incentives/rewards.
I use this all the time. Now, I know there are a lot of people that are against the whole reward based system, particularly when it comes to, say, childhood learning. And, you know, all for that. But in my own life, I do use reward-based system quite a lot in terms of getting my work done. So one way that I'll do this and I've talked about this before is I will if I do a certain amount of work or if I get through to a certain point of something, I will go and have ten minutes in the hammock that I have in my house, get a cup of tea, sit in the hammock or lie in the hammock and just, you know, chill. I also watch trash TV. Another thing I'm proud to put my hand up and admit to. I do watch trash TV and I use it as a reward. So if I get through a certain amount of stuff, I will, you know, go and watch 20 minutes of whatever trashy thing that I'm watching at that point in time. The other thing I'll do, and it's a bit different, but if I hit my financial goal for the year, I will take off all of January. So I will not book in clients for the January holidays. And that is just a reward to myself because I worked in head office retail, which means you can never take January off because it's always so busy, especially when you're looking at reviewing campaigns and looking at sales figures and analytics. So that is a big reward. So the first one, incentives and rewards. So if you haven't already, it would be great for you to list out five things that incentivise you. Some people it's money. It's like if I hit this amount, I can go shopping and I can buy that bag. Some people it's time. Some people it is going and getting a massage. Some people it's, you know, like me having ten minutes, I'm going to have a cup of tea and just really enjoying that time in the hammock.
So list out your incentives and rewards and consider how you might apply those to yourself, to getting yourself to finish something if you're finding you're coming up against resistance and it doesn't need to be big. Like I said, it can just be ten minutes in the hammock. I have an amazing client who uses doughnuts as a reward. She really likes them. And I love like when we talk when we do a client coaching call and we'll talk about, “OK, how are you going to celebrate?” And she's like, yep, already organised it. We've got the doughnuts and I'm like, awesome, whatever works for you. And that is going to be enough of an incentive to get you across the finish line. And it really if you don't know what you know, what sort of rewards that you like or it's not something that you've thought about before, definitely take the time to do the sixteen personalities test - 16personalities.com. It'll actually talk you through the kinds of things that drive you. And so you might think, oh, I'm motivated by money, but actually that's not a big enough incentive for you to get across the line with something. I hope that makes sense, but yet really figure out what it is that is going to incentivise you to finish something and then write five of those things down, put them on a Post-it, put it on your notes, on your phone, or put it somewhere that you can refer back to it and try and consider how you might incentivise yourself to get something done. So that's number one, incentives and rewards.
#2. Break it down.
I feel like I'm always saying this. Let's break it down, break whatever you need to do down now. We are talking about the Steven Pressfield quote, which is resistance is greatest at the finish line. At the finish line, you can still break it down. So when I was finishing my book, Passion, Purpose, Profit, I didn't have that much time to actually write the book. I only had about four months and I had a newborn baby. I had an elderly father. I did not have a lot of time. And so I got through, you know, parts of it. And I guess at the start when you're doing that, you're really excited. Oh, my gosh, I've got a book deal. And then as it gets through and has, you've got to do things like check the manuscript, check proofs again. And, you know, it's a two hundred and forty something page book to go through line by line, checking, checking, checking. It's exciting at first and then it gets kind of tedious and then you're sort of like, “oh, I just want it done. I want it done. I want it off my plate.” And then of course you're really scared because it's going off to prison. You can't do anything to change it. But in that time, that final before I was able to really get it off my plate, there was definitely things that I had to break down. So instead of saying, oh, my gosh, I have to proofread the whole 246 pages, I would be like, okay, this this today you just got to get 350 pages. That's it, just 50. And once you've got 350, you're okay. And you can leave the rest till tomorrow. And so you want to break it down. So if you if you're about to launch an online course and you've done all the videos and now you're kind of up to the part that you're uploading it to a platform like Teachable or KJB or you're, you know, working with a virtual assistant to help you do that, you will still have moments that you're like, oh, stuff it like, it's all too hard. So what can you do to break it down? And it might be I'm just going to upload the videos today and then I'm going to upload the worksheets tomorrow or I'm just going to upload the worksheets or I'm just going to do this one email sequence, which is three emails that I need to write. And other than that, I'm just going to say no for today. So what can you do? Have a look at what your finish line actually looks like and then consider how you could break that down into things that are really manageable. Again, when I was writing my book, instead of looking at, oh, my gosh, I have to write 70000 words, I broke it down literally into 300 word increments to just go to get through 300 words, 300 words I can do. So the second point is, you know, chip away at it and really break it down.
What can you do? What can you make smaller? What is seemingly so huge that you could actually just knock it down into smaller parts that will feel more achievable and possible to get through.
#3. Come back to why you are doing this.
Why does it matter? So you might want to list out the reasons that it matters. You might want to have an image that is reminding you of why it matters. So with my book, that was a lifelong dream to have a book, I did not think that it would be a business book. I always thought I'd write a creative fiction. Maybe, maybe that will still happen. But having a book deal with a proper, you know, traditional publisher, having an international book deal, that was huge for me. That was such a important goal. It was something I thought about, talked about for years and years and years. And so that was a big enough kind of reason to keep going. It was a huge goal of mine. And so there was no way that I was really going to just give it up right at the finish line. Similarly, when I launched my first online course marketing for Small Business, I did that just before having a second child. And a part of the reason that I launched it when I launched it was to get a chunk of money in the bank so I could rest easy. During the first few months of my maternity leave with my first child, I had been paid maternity leave from Audible in the UK where I was working at the time. And it was very, very different scenario to running your own business with a young baby. So there was no fallback plan that wasn't you know, I didn't have a H.R. department that was paying me. I had to earn that money. And so part of putting a big cash injection into the savings was launching a course. And so, again, I came back to that reason when I felt really resistant to finishing it. When I was close to the finish line, I came back to why am I doing this? So again, whether it's an article you're writing and you're thinking, well, I'm doing it because it's going to give me exposure in this particular region or exposure in this particular niche, why am I doing it? So that is step three.
Whatever you're working on, you keep getting resistance to or you're almost about to finish and you just almost want to give up. Come back to why are you doing this? Why is it important to you?
So that is, number one, incentives and rewards. Figure out what incentivises you no to break it down, chip away at it, make it smaller, make it more, you know, into bite sized things you can get through without feeling overwhelmed. And number three, understand the reasons that you're doing this. What is the why behind this thing that you're about to launch or this thing that you're working on? Why does it matter to you?
#4. Find a way to stay accountable.
So whether that is being part of something like group coaching, whether it is joining a mastermind, whether it is finding an accountability buddy, whether it is going to, I don't know, something like B and I or any other kind of free membership made up kind of groups that are out there find a way to stay accountable to what it is that you're working on. I've talked about this before on this podcast, and I've talked about it many times in, you know, workshops and other things that I run. We break promises to ourselves all the time, you know, how many times have you told yourself, tomorrow I'm going to get up and I'm going to go for a run or tomorrow I'm going to get that thing done so I'm not stressing about it. Or tomorrow I'm going to get back to those people on Instagram. And then tomorrow comes and you've forgotten about it. If you had said that same promise to somebody else, like tomorrow I'm going to get up and go on a run with you. Chances are you'd actually get up and go on the run because that person's waiting and you don't want to let them down. Unfortunately, we don't feel the same way about ourselves. And so all of these things that I've said can be great and they can work. But if you are somebody who doesn't necessarily feel like you're that great at self motivation, it could be that finding somebody to keep you accountable will be the difference between you giving up or pushing through that resistance and getting to and past the finish line. To use Steven Pressfield’s quote.
So, an accountability buddy can look as simple as getting a friend that you call each other once a week, or you say to them, you know what, I'm really struggling to launch my online course. I would love to stay accountable to somebody. Is it okay with you if I check in for the next few days and tell you how I'm going? And likewise, is there something I can help you with? You know, it's an accountability body. It shouldn't just be one way. It could look like getting a business coach. Often people seek out a business coach because they want that accountability. They want somebody to, you know, keep them in line is the wrong way to say it. But to be there, to be like you said, you were going to do this. How come it hasn't happened? Let's work through that. So it could be a business coach. It could just be a friend chat. It could be a more formal thing like a mastermind. But and that might be you know, you might join up for a year long mastermind or yearlong group coaching because you want to stay accountable the whole way through the year because you know that you're somebody who really resistance can be very strong when you're trying to do something new or launch something in your small business.
I know that in the past I have had all sorts of accountability, but in my own life, I have a good friend, Natasha Ace. We meet quite often about our business. We also do a quarterly strategy session, which is a full day of planning at everything. I also am part of a paid mastermind in the US and I have had business coaches in the past and I've also had, you know, as simple as a friend of mine we used to call each other at I think it was 6am or 7:00 a.m. on a Thursday. We would talk for ten minutes and then we'd literally put our phone on speaker. And in that ten minutes prior to starting the work, we would say, OK, what are you working on right now? What are you working on? We'd share that, then would put the phone down and for 40 to 50 minutes we would just work straight on finishing whatever it is that we were supposed to finish. So we would kind of pushing through that resistance together. And then at the end of that 45 minutes, we would get back on the phone, assess how much work we'd done, how much we hadn't, and then we get off the phone and we'd go about our week. But and that was you know, we did that for a few years. And it was a really great way to stay accountable and to say, you know what, I've got to do this thing for the course. I've got to launch it. This this next 45 minutes is going to be dedicated to X, Y, Z. And in return, she had something that she was working on for 45 minutes and that really, really worked well. And there's lots of places that you can do that. There's lots of people that you can find to do that. I know in I have a group on Facebook called the Good Business Group and I know recently there's been some people in there sort of saying, hey, I'm looking for an accountability body. And there's been people, you know, responding, saying, yep, I'll be that for you. So if you're sort of listening to this thinking, well, that sounds really good. I just don't know anyone in my life that I could ask. Come on over to the good business group on Facebook. We'll link to it in the show notes and, you know, just post and ask, look, say what you're looking for. And no doubt amongst the 1000 small business owners that are in there, there might be somebody who is the perfect fit. For you, so that is the fourth point, stay accountable, find a way to stay accountable so that you can push through this resistance with the help and support of somebody else.
So to recap, again, we're really discussing here how you can push through the resistance that, according to Steven Pressfield, is greatest just before the finish line. It is greatest when you are just about to do something, launch something, make something, put something out into the world, and that resistance will come up and give you all the reasons that you're not good enough. This isn't going to work. This is a waste of time. Who do you think you are to be doing this? What will other people say? What were your friends or family think? You know, why are you doing this in the first place? Is this going to actually have any impact? And ten thousand other questions that will come up to try to stop you from taking that final action that you know is going to help you in your business or in your life. So for tactics that have helped me have been to find incentives or rewards and set up a way that is going to be enough of an attractor to get me to do the work.
The second is breaking it down to chip away at things, make them small, small steps taken consistently. Add up. I'm saying I say that all the time because it's absolutely true. Do not look at the mountain. Look at the few hundred metres that you have to start the journey with.
The third is come back to why you are doing this. Why is this important to you? What is the reason that you started this in the first place? You might want to have a photograph on your desk. You might want to have a quote or something else that pulls you back to that reason that why that you no need to get this thing done that will help you then take action and do the work.
And then the fourth, find a way to stay accountable. So I would love to hear the things that you find yourself really resisting when it comes to your small business. Please don't be a stranger. Come on over and have a chat with me. I'm usually available on Instagram so you can DM me at @mydailybusinesscoach. You can also, of course, always email us hello@mydailybusinesscoach.com. Yeah, we'd love to know what you struggle with because it could be something that I can either help you with and give you the answer to or give you some possible solutions or something that might be part of a, you know, a bigger conversation. And maybe you can come on to this podcast or we can chat through that and help other people that are listening to this learn from your story.
So, yes, definitely come on over and say hello. So that is it for episode 80 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to go through those steps again, you can find the full transcript over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/80. This is episode eighty. All right, take care. Thank you so much for listening. See you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
