How To Stop Procrastinating and Being Lazy

Rob Dial argues that procrastination and laziness come from being misaligned with your purpose. Misaligned work drains you with bad exhaustion, while purposeful work creates good exhaustion that feels fulfilling. He uses his own story of leaving sales jobs and writing a book to show how finding your purpose makes action effortless.
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Welcome. Today I'm going to teach you why you are so lazy and how to stop being so lazy and how to stop procrastinating so that you can start taking action and create the life that you want. Let's dive in. You don't have energy to do the thing that you want to do because you are fully out of alignment with the purpose in your life. Some people say, oh, you're lazy because of this. You're lazy and you need to have more coffee. You're lazy and you need to force yourself to do it? Well, what if. What if the reason why you're so fucking lazy is because the thing that you're doing in life is not the thing that you're meant to do, and you're trying to drive yourself to do something that you truly don't want to do? So I'll give you an example in my own life, okay? Before I started my podcast and had a coaching company, I worked for somebody else. I worked for a few other people, five or six different sales jobs, and my last one, I was just very unmotivated to do anything. Why? Because I saw that if I worked my ass off and I got my manager's job one day, I would not want that job. That job was not in alignment with who I was. So why would I be motivated when I'm just trying to make money? And what am I going to do? Go up the corporate ladder and go up a ladder that I don't want to go up? Well, then the next thing I did was I started an Amazon business and we started selling foam rollers we imported from China. We designed specific ones. It was cool. It was fine. It was a fun thing to start with, but I lost motivation for it. Why did I lose motivation for it? Well, because. Did I want to sell foam rollers for the rest of my life? No. Did I want to teach people how to be successful on Amazon once I became successful on Amazon? No. It wasn't in alignment with me. So of course I was lazy because I didn't want it. But then one day I was like, I really want to coach people. I really want to start this podcast. And then it felt really good. It felt like the right thing to do. And now, nine years later, 10 years later, I still have more motivation, more drive than I ever have to do what I'm doing. I have more drive now than I have ever had. And sometimes it's hard for me to stop working because I love what I do so much. And so what if the reason why you're lazy is because you're fully out of alignment for what it is that you're supposed to be doing here. What if you're out of alignment with the universe? If we want to speak in a little bit more woo woo terms, you're living a life that is not in line with your true soul's purpose. The things you do should give you energy, not take energy away from you. You know, if you come back at the end of the day and you're exhausted and you're just, I don't know if I can do this anymore. It's not for you, it's the universe telling you, hey, do something different. And realize there's a good exhaustion, there's a bad exhaustion. You know the difference between the two? You know, if you have like a really good day and you come home and you're tired, but you're God, that was great. That's a good exhaustion. A bad exhaustion is just like, oh my God, I'm so exhausted, I don't know if I can do this anymore. A good exhausted is like you're tired but your heart is full, you're fulfilled, like after a really good workout, or you do something that you really love to do. You played pickleball for three hours, you're like, I'm exhausted, but that was so amazing, right? A bad exhausted is like you come home exhausted, you're tired, you're dragging. Your mind is just thinking about, oh my God, I don't even wanna wake up tomorrow and do this again. Think about that for a second. What if the reason why you're so lazy is because you're trying to force yourself to do something that you don't want to do? You know, if you look at this as far as like, let's get a little bit on the woo spectrum, right? Let's get a little bit woo woo. The universe is completely in alignment all of the time. It works off of the principle of alignment. Everything from the stars to the sky to the cells inside of your body function optimally when they're in harmony. What if the reason why you have no energy is because you're not in harmony with what you actually want to be doing? Everything in this world, everything in this universe is made of energy. You know, if you zoom in on my hand and you look at the cells, they're just vibrating. Everything in this world is vibrating. You know, when you look at my skin, my skin's vibrating at a certain frequency. When you look at this microphone, this microphone is just vibrating at a different frequency. You might not be able to see it, but it is. If you look at it at a cellular level, energy is the most important thing in this universe. Similarly, our energy levels are directly influenced by how aligned we are with our life's mission. When you're in sync with your purpose, your actions become way more effortless. We're invigorated by doing tasks. We're excited to go and do something that's a huge undertaking, right? We're excited to kind of just check off things on our to do list because it's gonna get us closer to what we feel like we're supposed to be doing. Like, when I was first writing my book, I took time when I was first writing my book level up. And I went to Sedona and I was in Sedona and I was by myself, and I rented this Airbnb with this incredible view. And I was thinking the day before, as I was driving into Sedona, I was thinking, oh, my God, this is gonna be so hard. It's gonna be so hard because so many people. I've heard the ph. Writing a book takes years off of your life. And I started thinking, oh, my God, this is going to be hard. This is. This is going to be hard. And then as I was walking into the Airbnb and I saw the mountains, and I was all inspired by it, I said, you know what? I'm not going to say this is going to be hard. I'm going to say this book is going to be easy and effortless. That this book was. I was made to write this book. This book will flow through me. It's not from me. It's just. It's not from me. It's not from my intelligence. It's flowing through the universe out of me. I'm just the conduit for it. And I must stay aligned with that and not get in the way. My thoughts of this is gonna be hard. Must not get in the way of this thing flowing through me. I don't wanna dam up the flow of this. Me being the conduit of just having this come out of me. And so what happened was I went there and the very first day was just. It was like I said, it was crazy. Just the thing flew out of me. And I had the three parts of the book completely done as far as, like, okay, part one is this. Part two is this. Part three is this. Every single chapter was figured out, and then all I had to do is just write the ch. And I was like, oh, my God, this is way easier than I thought it was gonna be because I was made to do this. I was made to put this out there. That's the way that I view it. And so it makes it really easy to wake up in the morning and do something that you feel like you're made to do. Or click the link that's down in the description because that's not the thing that it was meant for you. And the universe speaks in energy. So if you don't have the energy to do it, what if. What if this Rob Dial guy's right? You know, it's like when you're doing something that you feel like you're supposed to be doing, it's like jumping into a nice river that's just nicely flowing and you jump in, you can have your, you know, your inner tube and you're just chilling. Might be drinking a beer, looking at the beautiful scenery, and you're just flowing with the river. That's what being in alignment is, is flowing with the river. Being misaligned is like swimming against the current of that river. No matter how hard you try, you're gonna exhaust yourself. And you ever have the feeling of like, oh, Rob, like, I really wanna do this, but I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. I feel like I'm self sa sabotaging. What if that's because you're swimming against the current and you're doing something that's the thing you're not supposed to be doing? If you consistently feel drained, hey, it's a sign that you're out of alignment with what you're supposed to be doing. It's a sign that. A sign that you're out of alignment with your purpose. It's the universe's way of, like, nudging you and saying, hey, I can't speak words to you. I can speak to you in energy. Are you listening to me? Right. So if you're exhausted, maybe you should stop swimming upstream. Maybe you should find what your true purpose is. You have to find what is that you love. Well, how do you do that? Well, I've made other episodes on how to find your purpose. I recommend going back and listening to those. But it's not really as straightforward as you would think. You know, more often than not, it requires you stepping out of your comfort zone and doing things that you've never done before. Maybe your purpose is something that you haven't discovered yet. And so if you haven't discovered it, if you keep doing the same things you've always done, you're never gonna find it. And so it's crazy to me when people are like, rob, I want to find my purpose. I've been trying to find my purpose. I sit down and I ask myself and I journal through it and I meditate on it. And I'm like, cool, when's the last time you did something you've never done before and like, got completely out of your comfort zone? Oh, I don't know, it's been a really long time. Well, how are you gonna find it? It's like not downloading a dating app, sitting inside of your house, not going out to different places like the grocery store or bars or places where you might find another person that could be your partner. And just sitting inside of a closet and being like, why am I not finding my partner? Why is my partner not coming into this closet with me? You've got to do something, You've got to put yourself out there. Leave the frickin house, right? You can't find your purpose. Same way you can't find your purpose by just doing the same shit you've been doing. If you don't know what your purpose is right now, it's because you haven't found it doing what you're doing. So now you need to go on a mission to find it. If you're unsure about your passion, doing the same things repeatedly isn't going to bring you clarity. It's not going to make you have ideas of what else there could be. And so you've got to start doing new things, new experiences, try new hobbies, you know, travel to a place you've never been before. It doesn't have to be like another country, but it could be literally just a different part of your city. Going to a different coffee shop, eating at a different place, going to, you know, rent an Airbnb at a place that's two hours from you. It could be learning a new skill. Maybe you're like, man, I really used to be an artistic kid. I haven't done art in a really long time. Alright, well, what interests you as far as art goes? You know what? I always thought pottery was cool. Maybe I'll see if there's any spinning classes and just use the wheel in my, in my city. Oh my God. There's a guy that's 20 minutes from me and I can learn pottery from him. All right, go do it. And so you're just trying to expose yourself to different experiences. You know, like I saw someone the other day who was just very passionate about pottery and he just uses the wheel and he Makes pottery, and it's really cool to see. And so he's like, I'm gonna start a TikTok. He starts a TikTok, and he just makes a TikTok and has tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of followers that just watch him create these things. And then he sets up an Etsy shop, and he's making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year just doing the thing that he truly loves to do. He's a computer engineer by trade, but he didn't want to be a computer engineer anymore. He wanted to do pottery. So he just literally followed his fucking passion. The thing that he wanted to do. He put it online. People started following him. People started buying the things because they liked it. Well, doesn't that sound like he found his true purpose? So that's one thing that I think is really important, is just doing something different. If you're not finding your passion, do something you've never done before. Put yourself out there. Another way to do it is to make a happiness blueprint. So I got this from one of my friends. He called it a happy list. And one of my friends, and I've told this story before, but he was one of the very first employees at Facebook. He was fired from Facebook at the moment that they went public a couple of years later. Basically, he could have sold those shares of his stocks if he wasn't fired. If he wasn't fired, and he could have sent, like, just taken those shares that he was originally given. He could have sold all of them for over $180 million. And because of this whole firing and all this stuff, he got really depressed. And then one day he woke up and he realized he was so depressed, and he said, you know what? I will not let my happiness or my depression be left up to chance. And so what he did was he created this thing called a happiness list, and he just wrote a massive list of everything that made him happy. Activities, food, puppies. Everything that makes you happy. Just put it down there. It could be ice cream. It could be puppies. It could be traveling. It could be hanging out with your wife. Put every single thing. It could be hundreds of things on this list. And then what you do is you wake up in the morning, you think about what you have going on. You think about your schedule. You look at that list, and you say, how many of these things can I put into my day? And then you start prioritizing your happiness. Remember, like, prioritizing your happiness isn't a luxury. It's really a necessity for a fulfilling Life. And so doing things that make you happy is like. Is like hitting the power up button on a video game. Like, it just gives you more energy. It gives it more. Gives more color to your life, you know? And you might not know exactly what it is that's your true purpose, but it's. And this is one of my quotes that everyone always quotes me on. But if you don't know what your purpose in life is right now, it's okay. But now that you're aware that you don't know what your purpose in life is, it is not okay for you to wake up every single day and not be constantly trying to find what that purpose of your life is. Right? You. You have to just figure out what it is. So what's your purpose? You know, it's easier to take action. It's easier to work towards something when you know what your purpose is. Like, cliches are cliches because they're true. But the actual quote in the cliche of when you do something you love, you never have to work another day in your life, it is true. Like, I absolutely love what I do. Are there things that I don't really necessarily love that I have to do in order to get this message out there in order to run my business? Of course there are. But 95% of what I do, I just love doing. And it's really easy for me to do because it feels like it just flows out of me. And so wouldn't it be nice if you just felt like it was just flowing out of you? And so there's a thing that's. That I also wrote about inside of my book. It's called Ikigai Question. So the fifth question is my question. So question number one is, what do you love? Which we talked about the happiness list. So what do you love? Number two is, what are you good at? Number three, what can you be paid for? And number four, what does the world need? If you can find where all four of those overlap, that's pretty much your reason for being your ikigai, your reason for being alive, your purpose for being here. The fifth question, which is just an addition that I like to put in there, is what are you interested? Like, what are you really interested in learning more about or trying to do more often? Like, what is it that you like? I really am interested in psychology and neurology. Most people on this earth don't care about it, but for me, I just really geek out on it. So I learn about it all the time. And then it helps Me create better episodes and be better as a coach and understand people better. And so like I would learn about it even if I didn't have what I do now. So what do you, what do you love? What are you good at? What can you be paid for? What does the world need? And what are you really interested in learning more about? And this is why time flies when you're having fun, is because the energy is there. You don't have to come up with the energy. It's like the universe provides the energy for you. You know, it's a. There's a quote that I heard one time and I'm going to butcher it. But it basically said when you're doing what you're butcher when you're in alignment and doing what you're supposed to be doing in this world. I told you I was going to butcher it. When you're doing what you're supposed to be doing in this world, the universe will provide the energy for you. When you're doing things out of alignment with what is it you're supposed to be doing? You, you have to provide the energy for that. And so basically what it means is that when you're out of alignment, you have to come up with the energy yourself. When you're in alignment, the universe is just gonna let the energy flow through you, you know, and that's why time moves so slow when you're doing something that you hate, but it moves so fast when it's something that you love. Oh my God, I've gotta do this thing. And you're dragging your feet and you have no energy. It's the energy's way of just telling you, dude, this ain't it. Do something different. The universe is always speaking to you. Are you listening? It's why, you know, two people can be 50 years old and one of them looks 65 and the other one looks 35. What are they doing in their life? You know, I guarantee the person who looks better is probably having more fun and doing something more in aligned with what they want to be doing. Doing something that you hate. I've done it before, I did it for years and thank God I had the awareness to stop doing it and to do something different. But doing something that you hate feels like soul sucking. It feels exhausting. What a waste of life. I know you don't wanna do it anymore. So if you don't wanna do it anymore, find the thing that you're meant to do and you need to be like a heat seeking missile for just like every day you're waking up trying to find that thing. You're doing different stuff. You're going different places. Cause ultimately, you will find it. Seek and you shall find. I promise you that one. But you just gotta be seeking. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, if you learned something new, please do me a favor. Share it on your Instagram stories and tag me obdialjr. R O B D I A L J R. And with that, I'm gonna leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's day better. I appreciate you, and I hope that you have an amazing day.
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