The Enemies of Procrastination: 3 Key Factors That Will Help You Follow Through With Commitments

Welcome back to another edition of Real Estate Team Builders. Lars Edinburgh here, the founder of Real Estate B School. We're going to title this episode the Enemy of Procrastination. And so I am surely hoping that I'm not alone in all that I'm about to share. But have you ever skipped a workout and, like, ate a bag of Doritos in front of, like, a tv? Have you ever chose a rack of ribs and french fries over salad? Right. You know, you're supposed to eat the salad, but you choose the gluttonous food. Have you ever. This is one I do all the time. Have you ever cleaned your office when you should be prospecting or working on a project or recording a podcast episode? I've just done that recently. I've done all of these things recently. So I surely hope I am not alone in some of this. And this is my everyday, every day, I am confronted with all these choices that make it really hard to achieve at high levels in multiple areas of my life. And that is really what I have set out to do. And it is just super hard and it is never ending. It feels like there is always the devil on one shoulder and there is always this angel on the other, but, like, ribs, french fries, and salad on the other. And so there are a few things that I have learned that hopefully will help you. And none of this is preaching. I am in it all the time, failing. Most of the time I am winning. And a good chunk of the time I am failing. And I think it is just a willingness to keep going that makes the big difference over the long term. So a few things that I find have helped me here when I am looking to crush business and build net worth and build residual income, and I am looking to show up in my home in terms of my role as a husband and as a dad and my spiritual walk. I am actually going to seminary now. God is sort of guiding me into a new level of understanding of my faith and who knows what's on the other side of that. I also want to maintain my physical body, and I also want to have fun and I want to be emotionally well. So all of these different things I want to show up and achieve at a high level. And so here are the few things that I think will. Will help you. Number one is, is making a commitment. And so let's take the. The example of physical body. I think everyone can relate to that. So I've made what I thought were commitments at different points of my health, my physical health journey, and things have pivoted more recently for me in this area. I think you need to get to a point in an area of your life where it really hurts. So I don't think real commitment to change comes when there is not enough pain or there is not enough frustration or to me, there has to be like a catalyst or a spark, you know, where, let's say you're not where you want to be in your financial life. There has to be some sort of like rock bottom where, you know, let's say you want to give your child this thing and you look in your bank account and there are no funds. And you think about, like, man, some of the choices I've made with my time and I've not done the right things and I've not focused as much on my business. And there's some sort of pain without beating yourself up over it, because we can only move forward. There's some sort of pain that comes to motivate you to make a commitment and follow through. A commitment is immovable. A commitment is non negotiable. Right? So I found myself making less commitments. But when I do make a commitment, it is a real commitment in terms of, like, you said you were going to do this thing, and now you have to do this thing. Recently, I, I didn't want to work out. Like, this was just the other day and it was Saturday. So technically, no, I mean, technically, Sundays is my only really day off from working out. And I was just dragging, you know, I was procrastinating for sure, and I was just dragging in the morning. And finally I said, you know, Lars, you committed to this. Like, this is not, you know, you committed to X number of workouts a week. You committed to eating a certain way. Like, this is not, I mean, this is the internal dialogue. So I just got up to the gym, I did 30 minutes of cardio, I did 30 minutes of weights, and I got into the sauna and it was. Wasn't my best workout, right? But I did it and I felt in. I felt congruent with myself as a result of doing it. And you just feel better when you follow through on the commitments you make with yourself. You don't feel great when you make commitments and you don't follow through. Essentially, you become a liar and you feel. You just don't feel great about it. So my advice is to do less commitments, but have them be more meaningful. And the question I will ask you as we move into 2022 is, what are the two or three areas of your life that, you know, things have to change and you have to make a real commitment. And I am going to get into another tool here in a second on how to follow through. But what are two to three areas of your life where, you know things have to change and you have to make a real commitment? One that you'll follow through no matter what. All right, so number one is make a commitment. Number two is you have a choice, and sometimes you will use both the carrot or the stick. And so different people in different areas of their life are motivated more by pleasure or more by pain. So when it comes to working out, this is not something that comes natural to me. Or eating healthy, for sure, isn't something that comes natural to me. But I use a couple things to motivate me to follow through on the commitment I made. The carrot I use actually let me go through this stick first because it's a little bit of a downer, and it really works for me. So my dad, when he turned, let's say this was 2000, what, 13? I don't even remember at this point. Golly. Anyway, he had a stroke five years before he passed away. And it was a miserable five years. The stroke took him out. Miserable five years. And it could have been avoided. He just made some decisions with his physical body. So this could have been avoided. And who knows if this was God's plan all along yet I just think he didn't have to go out this way. And he did. And what it did for me was that it provided the stick. So when I. When I. If you guys aren't familiar with the carrot of the stick, the carrot is in front of a horse and. And makes the horse keep walking. The stick is the thing you hit the horse with. Right. I think that's the analogy. A horse or some kind of animal. So the stick for me now, when I don't want to work out, is like, I think of every weekend for five years, I took my kids to see my dad, their grandfather, and it was just horrible. Like, it was just horrible. And because he had a stroke and he really took him out kind of stroke, and he just. He died essentially, for five years. I feel like we watch. Watched him die. And so that left a mark, not to be all downer about it, that left a mark in me that I am just going to make different decisions when it comes to my physical body. To put myself in a situation in my 60s and 70s where I am going to be completely healthy and vital and energized. And so that is the stick, whatever the stick may Be for you in whatever area of your life you are talking about. It has to be something that can sort of instantly, in a moment get you to do the thing you know you need to do. The carrot for me is a little bit more of a bright side and I have got a couple. One is that I just want to have maximum energy and vitality and be super energized and engaged when I am with my family or when I am doing my craft, which this is my craft. Communicating and you know, reaching people that are struggling in some kind of way and get them to make different choices so they can going a different path in multiple areas of their life. Business for sure, their finances and their relationships and all that good stuff. And so that's one carrot for me is that I know if I take care of my physical body, I'm going to be able to do this work at a higher level and show up my family at a higher level. Another carrot for me is that I envision playing with my children's children, my great grandchildren, which even if they have kids early in their journey and their kids have kids early, it puts me at like 95 on the. The youngest 95, but maybe 105. So I want to live to 95 to 105 so I can play like physically play with my great grandchildren. So that is just a thought I will have as I am like, I really feel like sitting on the couch here. I really feel like doing nothing, watching TV and eating a bag of Doritos. I am motivated by that carrot. So that is character stick. That is number two. Number three is to begin with the end of mind. This to me is the most powerful of all. I really believe in order to succeed in any area of your life, you have to have as clear a vision as possible in terms of where you are going in that area. So let's say it's in your finances. Most people ignore their finances. Most people don't track their net worth. They really have no idea where they are, financially speaking. They just hope if they keep pushing and keep their head down and just keep going about life and business the way they are, that something good will happen one day and suddenly they'll be in a good financial position. I don't believe that to be the case. I believe you have to know exactly where you are and you declare ahead of time where you want to be in the future in that area of your life. So if it's your finances and you're not where you want to be today, you just have to make some decisions that you follow through on, actions that get you closer. So if you have a bunch of consumer or credit card debt, or you don't own your cars and you keep buying new cars and you keep spending as much or more money than you bring in, and you're not tracking your net worth, you just have some things you need to do to end up at a different point in the future. And I do typically do a three year vision. And so another good example is in your physical body. It doesn't really matter where you start today, three years from now, your vision could be whatever. You could maybe not even walk a mile today and you could run a half marathon three years from now. And of course, there are extenuating circumstances and there are limiting factors for some people in some areas of their life. But for the most part, you can do much, most of anything in a three year period. So the question is, do you have a clear idea? Are you willing to face the truth and just deal with where you are today without shaming yourself to go backwards and retreat? Right. We don't want to shame here. We just want to be real with ourselves about where we are. And are you willing to cast a vision, a bold vision for where you want to be in the future and then we just break it down. I have talked about 3190 on the podcast. It is a three year vision, a one year plan, 90 days at a time. Your weekly cadence and your daily rhythm, right? It is not rocket science after that, but it really follows through with hitting a point where you make a commitment. You got that carrot or stick thing going on and you're clear about where you're going. Because if you're not clear about where you're going, the chances that you'll drift are high, right? Nobody intends to get married. Well, nobody intends to get divorced when they're getting married, right? So 20 years after you get married, you end up in a spot with your spouse where you're like, I don't even really love you anymore. I don't like you anymore. I don't want to be with you anymore. Right? That doesn't happen in a moment, you know, 20 years out. It happens over time, every day, week, month, year. You're drifting a little bit more apart, right? So without a conscious vision of where you want to be in your marriage three years from now, and break it down to a year and the quarterly and the weekly and the daily, what are the things you need to do every day to achieve the vision you see for your marriage? Or any area of your life. So here's my last thought. Life and business for sure can be hard. There's a quote by Jim Rohn that says, don't wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom. So much love, much respect. As we close out 2021, if there's anything I could ever do for any of you, just send me an email@larsealestatebschool.com if you want to get a good grip on where you are in your business and what's possible in the future. I would say. Actually what I would say is go grab a copy of my book. It is completely free. It's ScaleOrDieBook.com it goes through the actual step by step journey to go from where you are today to to growing and scaling your business to wherever you want it to go goes through the drivers, the accelerators, a bunch of actual case studies and how they did is a bestseller. I will say that and it's yours free@scaleordiebook.com. much love, much respect. We'll talk to you guys soon.