Procrastination Isn't About Time

We do what psychologists call catastrophize. They make the problem bigger than themself. You are tilting into venting right now. By focusing on a problem. You zapped yourself, zoomed in, the problem attached self punished yourself. Now let's zoom out and search for how to work through the problem. How do you screw up a thought? How do you continually ruin a mindset? Well, if you haven't studied this with me before, this will be a helpful reminder. Okay, what do we do? We zoom into the problem. We zoom into a problem. So what does this mean when we're going through life and we interpret it as negative, we zoom in on it. We just zoom right into the problem and we go, oh, this is terrible. This is gonna be disastrous. We do what psychologists call catastrophize. We make this thing ruin us to our whole life. What is a problem? You zoom in on way too much. Like people zoom in on it and they make it a big, big, big, big, big, big thing. A lot of people have self esteem issues. They zoom in onto their body composition and they're always looking in the mirror and judging self so harshly. Right? It's zooming in. Oh, I got this love handler and I hate my face and I don't like my nose. And they're like, it can be a beautiful person and they don't like their nose. But when they look in the mirror, all they see is the nose. Does that make sense? They're always zooming in on the problem. They do this at work. It's always, oh, she's the roadblock, or this system doesn't work. And all they do is zoom, obsess and complain about the problem. And they make the problem bigger than the opportunities. They make the problem bigger than themself. They make the problem bigger than all the other tools, all the other systems, all the other opportunities. It is just a zooming in and a freezing. And so I want you to notice your mindset is driven by focus. Are you focusing on the problem only or are you focusing on finding a solution framework? Am I focused on just one problem or even a systematic problem? Am I focused on that more so than a solve or a solution system? My focus is going to determine my positivity, my negativity. My focus can determine my aim, my affect, my achievements, and my sense of agency. So your attention and your focus to problems or solutions is so basic. But a lot of people forget that during the day. I work with a lot of people, as they talk to me, I'll pause them as their coach. And most of the people I work with now are literally billionaires. One on one. I work with four one on one billionaires right now and in different industries, all incredibly capable people. You'd be shocked how many times I stopped them in a coaching session. To go, let's pause for a moment. I want you to let you know you are tilting into venting right now by focusing on a problem. Our job is to work things through and to get a sense of progress here. So let's shift our orientation, let's shift our focus right now and let's move into what other opportunities, what other tools, what other resources, what other people. Let's brainstorm through the problem versus talk more about the problem. Does that make sense? Okay, have we acknowledged the problem? Yes. Now let's zoom out and search for how to work through the problem. We don't need to take seven more microscopes into the problem. You already know exists and has existed. Does that make sense? I always tell people, like, hey, if you want to zoom in on a problem, go for it. I'll give you a day, maybe a week if it's a severe problem. But at some point acknowledge the problem and go, got it. That was a problem. Don't like it, is not supportive of me. I'm going to move through it now. But why don't people do that? Because they attach identity. This is me hitting that other framework. From another angle, you zoom in on something, right? Information comes in, you zoom in on it. You interpret it as negative, as a problem, then you attach identity. You see these coming together, okay, now I've attached my identity. Oh, this problem is attached to me. I'm going to take this problem personally. I'm going to take this problem personally. But one of the great agreements in life, if you've read the four agreements, is don't take things so personally. The more you take things personally, the more unjust life feels. Now, if life is unjust and unfair, what's the point of trying? As soon as I what's the point of trying because it's unfair to me, then guess what? My agency goes down. As my agency goes down, every element of my mood, of my mindset, of the way I move through the world, of my positive outcomes, it goes down. As soon as I say everything's unfair, it's unfair to me, I stop action. It's really important. You need to be careful about applying a problem to self. I don't take pretty much anything personally. The other day I'm listening to a podcast and a guy who I know mentions one of my book titles, and it sounds like he's saying something negative about one of my book titles. And then I listened to it again, and my first interpretation was, well, I think he's saying something negative and then moved into identity. And I thought, dwight, is this about me? Is this about me? And I thought, I can't know that. Why would I take this personally? He might have said the wrong book. He might have never read the book. If he wants to reach out to me, he can. I don't even know if he knows that's my book. And I start thinking through it, I'm like, huh? Why would I take this personally? I have no. All I have is evidence of someone said a title that's one of mine. I didn't take it personally at all. At all. Like, my mindset didn't go there. And I think that is a mental conditioning you have to have. You have to stop taking everything personally. Everything your spouse does in the house when they leave the laundry around, it's not about you. I'm sorry. When, you know, the kids do something out with their friends, it's not about you. Mom, dad. When you know the governor of your state or the leader of your country does something. Sorry, not about you. And they're not even thinking about you. They're probably not even aware about you. Why are you internalizing it as about you? The more you think it's about you, remember, the more likely it is you go, it's unjust, unfair against me. If everything's against me, why try? Because you start thinking the world has negative intent. If the world has negative intent, Unsafe. I'm not going out the front door mentally. A lot of people won't go out the front door because they think everything is unsafe. Why? Because they learn to make everything about themselves. And now once you realize that, wow, that's so much that person's experience and worldview. It's not about me. And if you can get back in it, it's not about you. I think it can really change your life. But if you keep attaching yourself to every problem in the world, everything becomes unjust, unfair, unsafe, and you don't move in the world no more. And so what do you do in that reality? You punish yourself. You punish yourself. What does that mean? That means you either shame or stop. That's what that means, punishing yourself. It means you speak ill of yourself. You shame yourself. Or like, I'm so bad, I'm terrible. I suck. I'm never deserving this. And you just Negative self talk and you diminish yourself, you darken yourself. Or if you don't do that, you just procrastinate. You just don't move forward. You just stop good habits that you know to do. Why? Because you're so focused on the problem. Why even try? Everything's against you. Why even try? The why even try mindset is why a lot of people procrastinate. It's not laziness. They develop the mindset of why even try? How do they develop why even try? They zoom in on the problem so many times, they think it's about them. They assume negative intent about the world. They go, why even try? So why even try? They don't realize procrastination more often comes from why even try? And what if this negative thing comes out? Or what if this negative thing happens and what if it makes me identity look diminished or darkened, shamed? Why try? And they don't realize that that's where that's coming from so often. And you know, everyone else will try to, you know, biohack them or give them, you know, simple morning routine, and yet they don't change their procrastination. Well, the procrastination is coming from a bigger mindset, isn't it? Not just a momentary morning routine. It's a mindset issue. Procrastination is a mindset issue, not a time management issue. It's a mindset issue. And often that mindset came from this. Over and over and over. They kept zapping themselves out of progress. Progress started. How many times have you started a project? You started, things were going good, you were even getting progress, you even felt good some days. And then what did you do? You zapped yourself, zoomed in the problem attached, self punished yourself. See how important this is? These things are all developing your mindset.