Reprogram Your Mind to DESTROY LAZINESS

If that goal has any risk associated with it, like failure, like succeeding and failing, like causing you to be mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially hurt, your brain's got another check mark to say. Wait, stop. Put on the brake. Stop. Motive for action day to you and welcome to my Achieve Even More program. Every Tuesday morning at 9:00 clock San Diego time and 12:00 clock New York time. Let me know where you're from. And if you're looking forward to finding out more about procrastination, here's the first question I have for you is what are you procrastinating the most about? All right. What is it stopping you from achieving? Are you procrastinating? Starting your business? Are you procrastinating? Getting on a proper eating plan so that you can be healthier and happier and more energetic? Are you procrastinating? Leaving a job that you don't like or love? Are you procrastinating? Leaving a relationship that you're really cozy and comfortable and even though you might be miserable, what are you procrastinating about? So procrastination, it's a huge topic. It's one of the silent killers of dreams. Have any of you heard of the story of the frog that they say if you put a frog in warm water and put it on the stove and you put it on boil, the frog won't jump out because it's really comfortable. And. And before it knows it, it's actually boiled to death. Whereas if you put a frog into boiling water, it'll jump right out. But procrastination is a little bit like that as you let it go on and on and on and on. One of the biggest things that it does is you start to identify yourself as a procrastinator. And some people are consciously aware of it, but most people are unconsciously unaware. Unconsciously unaware. So you don't even know that. You don't even know that you're procrastinating. So let's talk a little bit about what are the four key reasons why people procrastinate? Can anybody guess one of them? That's really an unusual one. A lot of people don't know. There's one reason people procrastinate. From a brain science perspective, that is really an interesting phenomenon. And about 2 or 3% of the population procrastinates. And because of this reason. So here is one that most people don't even think about. It's called arousal. Procrastination for arousal. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, like, what do you mean procrastinate? Because of arousal. There's a very small percentage of people that when they procrastinate, they actually are activating the nucleus accumbens and insula part of their brain, and that releases dopamine, which actually makes them feel. Feel good that they are procrastinating. And then if they have a deadline or a timeline, they actually get a pile of work done in the last, let's say, week or three days or one day or a few hours. And some students think they procrastinate because of arousal, but it's actually avoidance. And so I'll share with you why we avoid. So how many of you are actually procrastinating because of arousal? You just happen to be the type of person that you get so excited as deadlines approach that you do it because of excitement, not because of fear. Procrastination is a subconscious mechanism that is triggered. So procrastination is an effect. Whenever I work with any of my CEOs or athletes or clients around the world and we talk about procrastination, the first thing we try to do is identify what type of procrastinator are they. And so what do you do if you're a procrastinator because you're getting excited? You know, procrastinating, waiting till the last minute? Well, the answer is you've got to create some counterbalances of consequences for work that's going to get done in a shoddy way. That's not going to be your absolute best work. You've got to take a look at what are the consequences of waiting to the last minute when you could be planning, organizing, executing, and having a hell of a lot less stress and cortisol released in your bloodstream, causing a negative counter to the arousal. And so with arousal control, what you're doing is you're using it almost like a drug. And although it may feel good, it's really not a good technique to use when you have goals that you want to achieve. For, for the most part, it's because of quality. So the quality is usually not going to be your very, very best work. So give some thought as to how to break free from that arousal. Who can guess the number two reason? I've got my notes over here for you of why people procrastinate. I'm trying to read as we do this at the same time. So Valerie says motivation. And although motivation is reason, it's not one of the top four reasons. Most people, when they want to, you know, want to write a book or want to start a business, or want to leave a relationship, or want to finish a project. There's a couple of other reasons. Motivation would be number five, Valerie and so if we break down that word motivation, one of the things that you want to take a look at is motive for action, right? The word motivation is motive for action. So in the absence of a strong motive for the action, you're not going to do it. So for example, if you need to clean your garage or clean your kitchen pantry, the motive is really that it's going to take a lot of work. You're going to get dirty, you're going to maybe sweat, you prefer to be outside having fun. And so the motive for action, you have more motivation to go do something else than that. So that is a valid one. But what happens with motivation is if we don't have an emotional reason why we must do it, we won't do it because it's logical. So emotions control our behavior more than logic does. So if we have a goal, if we have a task that we want to complete, like cleaning out the garage or cleaning up the pantry or, or organizing our closet, the motive for that action is, yeah, we're going to have a nice closet, we'll be able to see our clothes better, or the garage will be easier to navigate through. But if there's something that has a higher emotional value than that, we are going to veer towards doing that first. Because doing those things requires effort. And our brain does not want to use up any effort. It wants to conserve energy or use it towards gaining pleasure versus doing something that it perceives as being painful. And so keep that in mind as you're doing that. So here's one of the problems that when we don't do the things that we have to do, or they're getting your smaller tasks that you could do over time. Because what that does is that builds your self confidence, that actually builds your motivation. And once you get into action, you tend to stay in action. Remember Newton's law of motion? An object at rest tends to stay at rest. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. And so what you want to do is create some counter reasons why doing it will actually be a benefit for you. So it's going to be a benefit to your motivation, it'll be a benefit to your self esteem, it'll be a motivation to your self worth, and it's going to give you the benefit of having a decluttered environment. But I want to talk with you about one of the biggest ones or not. Number one, but one of the key reasons that some people procrastinate is because of arousal. They get that arousal for waiting to the last minute. But number two, when people have a goal that they want to achieve, whether it's writing a book, starting a business, leaving a job, fear is one of the biggest reasons people do not take action and procrastinate. So how many of you, I'm just curious, don't take action because of fear? Fear. Don't take action because of fear. I'm curious, are you afraid of something happening or not happening? Yeah. I mean, fear deactivates the motivational center in the brain. So when the fear circuit is activated, we actually deactivate a couple of other circuits. First is the thinking center in the brain, the left prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that I call is the Einstein part of the brain. And the other thing that it does is when blood is taken away from that left prefrontal cortex and the motivational circuit is deactivated because fear is activated, and there's cortisol or epinephrine or norepinephrine in our bloodstream, we actually move into a safety mechanism, and that is for protection. So a lot of people are talking over here, you know. Yes, that. That's fear. So, fear. So what is fear? Fear. Right. What is fear? And why does it hold so many people back? And the answer is, because we're projecting into the future a potential negative, either emotional, mental, physical, financial pain or outcome. So whenever we think of, let me write a book. And then in the very next nanosecond, your brain is thinking about, well, what if people ridicule you? What if nobody reads it? What if people judge you? What if you're embarrassed? What if you're ashamed? What if, what if, what if? So whenever we have fear as a reason why we're not doing something, your brain is running what we call as a what if if pattern, or it activates that what if circuit, and all of the things that could go wrong is what your brain is running automatically. Now, I want you to just think about this for a moment. Right. Does that make sense? First of all, are you operating consciously and subconsciously at the same time? Yes or yes? Well, yes. So when you say consciously, I want X, I want to write a book, I want to leave a relationship, I want to leave my job, I want to start a business, I want to ask for a raise, I want. Fill in the blank. Your brain is counterbalancing what if scenarios. So whenever we're running destructive disempowering or negative. Let me repeat that. Destructive disempowering or negative what if scenarios. Motivation is almost zero. And your brain does that as a protective mechanism, right? So it's doing its job. It's saying, well, what if this happens? What if that happens? And it's also counterbalancing that with your comfort zones. You could say, well, what if I stayed the way I am? Can I handle that? And the answer is, for the most part, yes, I can handle it. Because it's the devil I know. It's the disempowering emotion I know. It's the feeling I know. It's the state that I know versus the disempowered state I don't know. Except when you know what it feels like to be embarrassed, ashamed, ridiculed, judged. When you know what it feels like to fail. When you know what it feels like to succeed and then fail. There's over 50 different types of fears that your brain is playing through. Whenever it is that you think of achieving a goal. It could be a health goal. So what if you're procrastinating, getting on a diet and sticking to it? But why would you not stick to it if you feel better and you're healthy? And the answer is because it takes energy to change into a new habit. But even more than that, your brain is running this script of what if? What if I lose the weight and then I gain it back? They say, ah, why should I try? Then I'm going to be embarrassed because my children, my mother, my father, my sister, my brother, my husband, my co workers, my wife is going to have, you know, their comments about it. I don't want to deal with that. Now. Your brain's working on all this stuff beneath your level of awareness you're dealing with. Or you have the most powerful tool in the known universe, your brain, right? And so when you're dealing with your brain, you have the conscious part that is there for imagination, for choosing, for deductive reasoning, for will and willpower, for resolve and tenacity. But beneath the surface, the bio computer is checking and balancing against what if scenarios. Does that make sense? And so what I always share with people is there's a part of your brain that chooses the goal, but there's another part of your brain that is running its own software and checking and balancing all of these what if scenarios to protect you. Safety first. So emotional safety, physical safety, financial safety, that's the way your brain works is safety first and then energy conservation second. So if there's A goal that requires effort and energy, that's like a negative check mark in your brain. If that goal has any risk associated with it, like failure, like succeeding in failing, like causing you to be mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially hurt, your brain's got another check mark to say, wait, stop, put on the brake, stop. Motive for action. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? Okay, so how do you counter some of that? Let me give you a little inner size to do, alright? First and foremost, one of the first tools that I teach people in all of our programs, winning the game of fear or procrastination, or weight loss or money or business, is how to control your brain better. Now, I want you to remember something. You have a brain, but you are not your brain. There's a part of you that can control your brain. And one of the best things to understand, to learn how to do, is to understand your brain has circuits that turn on and off. Stress circuit, fear circuit, spiritual circuit, love circuit, motivational circuit. Does that make sense? It's circuits that go on and off that trigger neurotransmitters that are released into your bloodstream. And that's called a feeling. But all these circuits are triggered on or off, 95, 98% by your subconscious conditioning. And so the first inner size you want to learn is what we call as take six, Calm the circuit. So let's say you have a goal. Write down any goal that you have, or think about any goal that you have. What I want you to do is take a look at that goal in a calm, relaxed way. And the way you do that is you take six deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth as if you're blowing through a straw through your lips. So, ready? Why don't you just do one with me? Ready? 3, 2, 1. Inhale. And then exhale very, very slowly. Now, when you inhale through your nose six times and exhale through your nose, okay? In small, short, long, rhythmic breaths, the first thing you do is you deactivate the fear or stress center in the brain. Now, why is that important? Well, it's important because if you learn how to control your breath, number one, that's just one of many inner sizes, you can deactivate fear or stress or any of the disempowering circuits that are activating. And the first thing is when you can actually look at your goals in a calm, relaxed way, then you could do what we call inner size number two. And that is called aya A I A and AYA stands for awareness, intention, and action, awareness, intention, action. So what is it that you want to become aware of? Well, you want to become aware of what's causing you to procrastinate. Is it number one, arousal? Is it number two, fear? Is it number three? And I'm going to give you number three right now. Is it your self image? Okay? Now why would self image hold you back? And the answer is if you have a goal, okay, that you want, but in the deep parts of your brain, you really don't feel you deserve it. You don't deserve to be an author. You don't deserve to make more money. You don't deserve to have a better job. You don't deserve to get a raise. You don't deserve to be happy if you don't feel you deserve it or you are worthy of it. There is going to be circuits that motivate you, okay, because you think of that goal. But then circuits that demotivate you because they're counter to what you want to achieve. And that creates neural chaos in the brain. And so when you do inner size one and inner size two, you can become aware of what's causing the procrastination. Procrastination is any fact. It's not the cause of itself until it becomes part of your identity, then it causes itself. But procrastination is an effect of either arousal control, fear or self image, self esteem, self worth issues. And so that is the number three reason for procrastination. But when you do inner size one and inner size two and you become aware of thoughts, emotions, feelings, sensations and behaviors of what's causing your behaviors or lack thereof. Now you're able to observe it. And as long as you do it without judgment, blame, shame or guilt or justification. Let me repeat, without judgment, blame, shame or guilt or justification. Just pure awareness. Now you're able to see patterns. And when you learn how to see your own patterns, you can actually interrupt your patterns. And one quick technique with Aya is awareness. First. Then what's one intention that you have? Well, my intention is to clean the garage. My intention is to leave this relationship. My intention is to ask for a raise. My intention is to start a business. My intention is to write a book, whatever the intention is. And then here is the key. Are you ready? Here is the key. Action. What is one small action I can take towards that goal, towards that thing that I want to achieve? You don't have to take three or four or five massive actions. You want to take one small action towards your goal and dream. And when you take One small action. Guess what you do. You interrupt that pattern of procrastination. And now you say to yourself, hey, even though I may be afraid, even though that my self esteem may be in the way, even though I'm procrastinating, I can take one small action step towards my goal and dream. And just in doing that, you actually change the neural structure in your brain. So that's just inner size one and two. Take six. Calm the circuits first. Number two is eye awareness, intention, action. And that leads me to reason number four, that people procrastinate. All right, number four. Can anybody guess what number four is? So when people. I'm going to speak to you directly, Oli. Are in a state of overwhelm, that's not the. It actually falls into the number four reason people procrastinate. And that is decisional. So number four is decision. Number one. We talked about arousal. Number two, fear. Number three, self esteem. Number four is decisional. What does decisional mean? Well, when we have too many competing priorities or projects in our brain, we actually flood our nervous system with too many neurochemicals that cause us to freeze or try to fight it or to run away from it. And so when we're in a state of overwhelm, that's because we don't have a process to overcome our feeling of overwhelm. Overwhelm is a feeling. Feeling is an effect. If we don't focus on what's causing the overwhelm, guess what happens? We lose motive for action. The motivational center decreases. So when we have a decisional issue where we don't have the knowledge, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to do it. I don't have the skill. Then in the absence of the how, our brain defaults to its comfort zone. Let me repeat that. In the absence of how, how are we going to achieve this goal? How am I going to write this book? How am I going to take care of myself? How am I going to make more money? How am I going to ask for a raise if we have a decisional issue? How am I going to overcome this? Over. If I don't have a process for dealing with the emotion or feeling of overwhelm, if I don't have a how to achieve the goal, even the first three or four or five steps, we default to our comfort zone. And so the key here is to understand something. A couple things. Number one is procrastination is an effect. Number two, overwhelm is an effect. Lack of motivation is an effect. If you want to really master your life, if you want to master your mindset, then we know how to. So here's what I want you to think about. What is procrastination costing you? What's it costing you in your personal life? What's it costing you in your career or business? What's it costing you in enjoying your life even more? There's a cost for procrastination and we all face it. And the sooner you learn how to eliminate procrastination, the faster you're going to be able to be in control, raise your self confidence, gain more knowledge, gain more skill, gain more awareness. And most importantly, you'll start achieving more of your goals and dreams faster and easier than ever before. The reason I started neurogym is because too many people are focusing on effect and I like to focus on cause. And your brain is at the center of all, all of it. All right, so quick recap. One reason is arousal. Two is fear. Three is self esteem, self image, self worth. Four is decisional. All the rest falls under that. When you learn how to retrain your brain to be able to use it to empower you, you will stop using it to disempower you. And you will start achieving more of your goals and dreams. Hey this John. And if you like that video, watch the next video because it is packed with things that you can do right now to achieve success way faster than ever before.