Clement Stone built an insurance fortune worth more than $800 million dollars. In his book Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, he wrote that the repetition of the affirmation “Do it now!” was a key factor in his rise from poverty to great wealth. By constantly disciplining himself to “Do it now,” he became one of the richest men in the world.
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Throughout his company, with branches throughout the United States and around the world, the entire staff would come together each morning and shout out the words, “Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!” 50 times before starting the day. This repeated affirmation had a tremendous impact on the salespeople and staff of his company. Even after they went on to other jobs and companies, they still repeated it to themselves. Many successful men and women all over the world today trace their success back to their association with W. Clement Stone and his motto “Do it now!”
You can develop any mental habit you desire by repeated suggestions, in the form of affirmations and mental pictures, from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind. At a certain point, your subconscious will accept these words and pictures as new commands. These commands will then become your new operating principles. Soon, you will find that acting with a sense of urgency is just as much of a habit for you as breathing.
4. Set Clear Deadlines for Yourself
Set deadlines for yourself on all important tasks. Put yourself on record. Tell other people that you will have the job done by a specific time. You will find that promising others motivates yourself. We all work very hard to fulfill our promises and to avoid disappointing other people. Often, promising others that you will have something done by a certain time and date is more powerful than promising yourself.
Setting a clear, specific deadline also programs the task or goal into your subconscious mind. You will then find yourself internally driven toward 218
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getting the job done. When you set a deadline for yourself, your subconscious mind installs an automatic override on your tendency to procrastinate.
5. Refuse to Make Excuses
Refuse to rationalize or make excuses for procrastination. All procrastination seems to be accompanied by rationalization. And rationalization is best defined as “attempting to put a socially favorable interpretation on an otherwise socially unacceptable act.”
Rationalizing is explaining away and making excuses for unproductive behavior. You will notice that people who procrastinate always have what they think is a good reason to let themselves off the hook. Don’t allow yourself the luxury of making excuses. Commit yourself to completing a particular task by a certain time, and then burn your mental bridges. Refuse to consider the possibility of not working on your task. Never seek for reasons to justify non-completion.
6. Reward Yourself for Completion
Create a reward system for yourself. Give yourself a reward for successful completion of each part of the job, as well as for successful completion of the whole job. We talked about this in an earlier chapter. You can actually program yourself into being eager to start a job, and to continue with it until it is finished. Just give yourself a reward at each step.
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In behavioral psychology, this is called “operant conditioning.” It is used to train both humans and animals. Behavior is shaped by designing a specific result or consequence that follows every act of the individual. Rewards tend to reinforce and encourage specific behaviors. Punishments tend to discourage those behaviors. Over time, the habits of the individual can be shaped and their responses made automatic with repeated rewards.
Develop Positive Habits
Fully 95% of everything you do, or fail to do, is determined by your habits, either good or bad. One key to success is to develop good habits and make them your masters. You develop the habit of overcoming procrastination by rewarding yourself every time you do it until you rewire and reprogram your subconscious mind permanently.
Creating a reward system for yourself only requires a little imagination on your part. For example, if you have a big task to do, and there are five parts to the task, give yourself a reward upon completion of each step.
The reward can be something simple, such as a cup of coffee, a break when you get up and walk around, or even lunch. If it is a major task, or a major part of the task, you can reward yourself by going shopping, buying something you like, taking yourself out for dinner, or even taking a vacation with your spouse or family.
When you put a reward system in place, and you discipline yourself not to take the reward until you have completed the task, or part of the task, you 220
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eventually find yourself internally motivated to start and to finish your tasks and responsibilities. In a way, your focus of attention moves away from the difficulty of the task itself and onto the enjoyability of the reward.
Overcoming Call Reluctance with Rewards
For example, to help salespeople overcome the fear and reluctance associated with cold calling on the telephone, we set up a simple reward structure. The salesperson sets a specific time and place to telephone. He sets a specific goal for a number of calls, appointments or sales. He then gets a fresh cup of coffee and puts it in front of him. Every time he makes a call he is allowed to take a sip of coffee. Soon, he becomes motivated to make as many calls as possible so that he can drink the coffee before it goes cold.
Sometimes we take a cookie and break it up into small bites, or place a bowl of jellybeans in front of the salesperson. Each time the salesperson makes a call and gets through to a prospect, he or she is allowed to eat a piece of cookie or jellybean. In no time at all, like the Pavlovian response, where the bell rang and the dog salivated, the salesperson becomes eager to make calls and enjoy the reward. It sounds simple and even childish, but it is extraordinarily effective in developing the habit of overcoming procrastination.
You can practice operant conditioning with your children to train them in the good habits that they will need as adults. Offer to take them to McDonald’s or watch television if they clean up their room or complete their homework.
Refuse to allow them the reward until the job is done satisfactorily. You will 221
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be amazed at how quickly they get started, and keep going until the job is finished.
7. Accept Complete Responsibility for Completion
Seventh, program yourself to overcome procrastination by accepting 100%
responsibility for the completion of the task on schedule. Look only to yourself. Rely only on your own ability. No matter what the obstacle in your way, resolve to find a way over, around or past it. Refuse to make excuses.
Accepting complete responsibility for results, and never allowing yourself the luxury of a mental escape hatch, is the equivalent of putting your own feet to the fire. It is amazing how much more you will get done when you eliminate your excuses and reasons for putting it off.
Five Ways to Get Yourself Started
Overcoming procrastination permanently requires that you use every method and technique possible to get yourself organized and motivated into starting and completing the job. Here are five things that you can do in advance to reduce your tendency to procrastinate.
1. Create a detailed plan of action
Begin by creating a clear, written plan with each part of the plan and each step organized in order of priority. Put an A, B or C next to each step.
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Determine the most important thing that you can do to get started and put a circle around that item.
A written plan leads you into action. It gives you a track to run on, and a blueprint to follow. The more you break down your goal into individual steps, and then list those steps, the easier it is for you to take the first step.
Often, that’s all you need to get going.
2. Clean Up Your Workspace
Clean up your workspace. Begin with only one thing, the most important thing, in front of you. A clean workspace is a real motivator to action. A good time planner or system of organization can be very helpful in this regard because it keeps you focused on the next task.
3. Separate the Urgent from the Important
Remind yourself that important tasks are usually not urgent. An urgent task is usually not important. Start off working on the tasks that are both urgent and important, the tasks that have short time fuses, which must be done immediately. Then move onto the tasks that are merely important but not urgent. It is these important but not urgent tasks that contain the greatest potential consequences for your career and your future.