Procrastination and Personality Types: The Hidden Connection

All right, so today I want to blow your mind. All right, get ready. Today we're going to be talking about procrastination. And I started to talk about it to you a long time ago, but I put it off as long as I can. So today's the day we're going to overcome procrastination together.

Welcome to becoming wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rohm, author and world renowned public speaker, as he shares stories involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good spirited, positive and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rome.

Alright, when we talk about the topic of procrastination, it affects all of us. I mean, has there just been something you didn't want to do? And you can find 101 excuses for why you don't want to do it. It's too hot, it's too cold, it's rainy, it's too dry. I thought somebody else was going to do it. And on and on and on we go. The truth of the matter is if we don't want to do something, we procrastinate. Now I know there's some times that you may be waiting for another person to do something or say something, but the truth of the matter is procrastination is part of life. I'll get to it later. Well, I have something more important. There's something more pressing for me right now. Listen, I am on this journey with you. I had something that I had to fill out for the state of Texas. One of our team members lives in the state of Texas. I live in Georgia, but I had to fill out something for the state of Texas. And I mean, I put that off. I had it on my list in January. I'm embarrassed to tell you about all these podcasts are always going to be real. I had it on my list in January. You ready for this? January, February, March, April. It's due May 15th. Do you know when? I turned it in on May 14th. Now, I'm embarrassed to tell you that, but I think it'll press the point. I did it yesterday. Dog gone it. I had it hanging over me. January, February, March, April and May. Now think about that. Let's just say there's 30 days in January, February, March and April. I know there are more, but 4 times 30 is 120 and then another 14 days. 130. Call it a hundred and over. 135 days. I had this on my list of I need to get that done. Well, why didn't I do it sooner? Well, it wasn't pressing and it Wasn't important. It needed to get done and the deadline was the 15th. But here's my point. It weighed on me for over 130something days.

And if I had just done it, I could have done it on January 2nd, but it wasn't pressing. And so it took a lesser priority. And because it took a lesser priority, I just looked at it on my list every time I looked at it and it bothered me. I'll get around to it. I'll do that later, I promise you. I have learned a good lesson to say to myself, here it comes. Are you ready? Listen carefully. Which was worse? The couple of hours that I actually spent on it yesterday, getting it all finished or the 130something days that it weighed on me? See what I'm talking about? Let's take another more practical aspect. How about this? Getting up in the morning. People procrastinate. I don't want to get out of bed. I want to lay here five more minutes. I want to lay here 10. I'm going to procrastinate. I'm going to do. I'm going to get up. I've got to get up and go to work. I just want to hug the bed. Just a few more minutes now. You ready? Watch carefully now. You got up and you're having to scramble because where are my shoes? Where are my socks? I thought that shirt was at the cleaners. I thought I already got it out. And because you procrastinated, you just created more work for yourself. And so all of us are on this journey together. Procrastination is not about having enough time. It's more about not prioritizing your time correctly. I am not talking at you, I'm talking with you. We all have to stop procrastinating. So let's talk about some things that we can do. We all have things that we need to do. Some are more enjoyable than others. Some things we like to do. If I were to say, I have a bowl of homemade peach ice cream for you, more than likely you would say, well, let me have it right now. Because everybody likes homemade peach or homemade cookies and cream ice cream. We're not going to put that off. But isn't it strange that it's often the important things that we ought to get done? They the important things. Listen to that word. Important things are usually less enjoyable. It's kind of weird when you stop and think about it. The reason I said think about the word important. I distinguish between what's important and what's urgent. You see, when something's urgent. It overrides what's important. I let something that was important bother me for 130something days, but then it became urgent. I've got to get this done today because tomorrow is the deadline. So distinguish between, wait a minute, let me have more margin. Let me decide in my life. I do not want to wait until this is in a crisis situation. We do that. It's so easy to do. We all have 24 hours in a day. No one gets more time. No one gets less. So now that we all agree upon that, we have that settled. Whether you're the President United States or whether you are just a first grader in school, we all have 24 hours a day. So what can we do to deal with this problem about procrastination? Procrastination is real. And as I've mentioned before, the longer you wait, the bigger the problem becomes whether it's real or whether it's perceived. In my mind, every time I looked at that, I could feel one more pound of weight on me until there was over 130 pounds of weight on my shoulder to get this done finally. And I got to admit, I mean, I'm being real with you. It was frustrating. It was a little bit. I had, I had to fight to have a good attitude about it. Do you know who created that problem for me? I did.

I did.

I should have said to myself which is better to go ahead and get this done or wait until the last minute when you got a scramble. That's going to help me as I move ahead now in the personality information, do you know who the biggest procrastinators are? They tend to be the S type personality because they don't feel like they want to be rushed. I'll do it later, I'll do it tomorrow. Well, I just don't want to. I don't want to, you know, somebody be upset with me. I'll think about it later. I have seen this. I'm not saying this to put down the S type. It's part of the territory. The D's and I's tend to make decisions. Probably the fastest decision makers, the least procrastinators are Ds, their attitudes. They're going to make a decision, might not be the right one. Big deal. Let's make a decision and move on. I's also because they're outgoing, tend to make decisions pretty quickly unless it has something to do with details or data or information that they're. Isn't it funny? I can put off something forever if it has to do with technical information. See how that works. Technical aspects, not my strongest suit. So for an eye, they like to get things done. Unless it's technical in nature. And then they're going to become a procrastinator. But recognizing that can help me to overcome it. Ss, I'm sorry, I love you. Ss can find a thousand and one ways to put something off because they just don't like pressure, they don't like things to be done quickly. They are reserved. And then probably the second biggest procrastinators are Cs, but it's for a whole different reason. Cs don't like making wrong decisions. Cs want to wait until they have all the details, the data and can make the perfect decision. And if they can't make the perfect decision, they want to make the perfect, perfect decision. They want to make the perfect person exactly right. No mistakes decision. So they put things off. If you're not familiar with the personalities, decent eyes, the dominant and inspiring type are more outgoing. The S and C supportive and cautious or more reserved one's not right or wrong ones are good or bad, they are different. So in dealing with procrastination, let me just be real honest with you and real frank. The only way to overcome this is to first name it. First name it. Just be willing to say, I tend to procrastinate. I have learned in my lifelong pursuit of education. Someone said this to me, if you can name it, you can tame it. That means just admit I'm a procrastinator. I put things off. First name it, then you can tame it. Then you put some new dates or deadlines on things. I don't want this podcast to become a methodology for you overcoming procrastination because that will just be something else you put off. Just learn to say to yourself in general, how can I overcome this? It might be a character flaw, it might be a personality quirk, it might be something that has gotten you in a lot of trouble. I remember a situation that happened to me in 1971.

To show you how bad this can affect your life. Mr. Vance Riley invited me to speak at an event.

He called me on Friday afternoon and said, just want to remind you the meeting's Monday morning. I said, I'm looking forward to it, Mr. Riley. He said, why don't I come pick you up? I said, no, I'd be out of your way. I'll be there. He said, are you sure? I said, yes. More than happy. I'm looking forward to it Mr. Riley had 200 of his business associates who were going to listen to me speak. We were going to have breakfast from 7 to 7:30 and then from 7:30 to 8 I was going to present a project I was working on. It was actually building a building project for a bunch of teenagers. And I was leading it. And they were all there to write me checks. They had their checkbook. But you see, back in those days, I procrastinated by not writing things down. I did not write things down. I trusted my memory.

So on Monday morning about 7:15, I got a phone call. I was still in bed asleep. Mr. Riley said, where are you?

You think you feel bad? Oh my gosh.

It happened to me. I said, Mr. Riley, I'll be there in just a second. I only had to get up, dress, shower, shave, get in the car and get there on time. In the whole. My speaking time started in 15 minutes. I'll never forget what Mr. Riley said to me. Never mind. And hung up.

There is no way that I could put into words what that did to me. Here's what the main thing. And anybody who knows me, anybody who knows me will say, watch how much he writes stuff down. If you ever see me, stop me and say, let me see the notepad in your back right pocket. You ready? You ready? I'm reaching for it right now and here it is. I always, when I die, roll me over and you can look in my back right pocket. There'll be a notepad back there. I want somebody just in case I need to write something down. I always say, why? Because I let Mr. Riley and 200 of his business associates down in 1971 by not showing up for something I said I would do. I trusted my memory instead of trusted my notes. I procrastinated. So I came up with a system that works for me. It's called put notes in your phone. Put alarm in your phone. Write stuff down on your little notepad. I don't want to tell you what to do because I don't want you to to come up with something that works for me but doesn't work for you. Find out ways to overcome things. But here's. I'm going to close with this and I. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you this will make your life better. If you and I could sit down and talk about the topic of procrastination, I could give you 50 methodologies to overcome it and none of them would work until you come to one point. And here's the one point.

Procrastinating is going to create more stress. It's going to cut my life short, it's going to give me high blood pressure, and it's going to cause other people to be disappointed in me. All because I won't do something now rather than later. I won't act upon this and create a plan, a methodology, whatever it is I have to do to overcome this attitude of I'll do it later.

You will be the one to have a better life by do it now. First things first. Don't let grass grow under your feet. The greatest learned thing you can learn is the phrase be a do it now person. Get stuff off your plate so it doesn't weigh on you, so it doesn't increase your blood pressure, so it doesn't make you feel bad, so you don't sleep at night.

I am my own best friend or I am my own worst enemy. Concerning the Texas tax thing, once again, I said to myself, hey, Robert, you've gotten a lot better in a lot of areas. But this Texas tax issue, well, you get a big F on that. Okay, you failed. But that's okay. Next time you'll do better. Next time you won't wait until the 14th of May and scramble. Just get it done in January. Put it in your reminders, put it in your calendar, put it in your notes and have lots of margins. And then, as they say in the fairy tales, you can live happily ever after. I hope this has been helpful. I know it's helpful for me, and I trust that we'll all overcome this problem of procrastination by whatever methodology works best for you as you move ahead in life. Less stress, more. More productivity. Smile. You can do it. And I can too. I look forward to our next time together on our next podcast. Have a great day.

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