What is there that you know you need to do
that you want to do this,
but for some reason or another
you've been holding back?
for some reason or another
you just have not been able to work
through the procrastinating
or putting it off, or justifying.
and you know you ought to do this,
You really want to do this,
but you don't know why you haven't done it.
There's times when you're looking at it and you say,
I know I need to do this but I don't feel like it.
I don't wanna do it.
Do you know
you'll know
1,000 people at least
over the course of your life
And they'll know 1,000 people each
And that puts you one person away from a million
and two persons away from a billion.
And so that's how you're connected and the things
you do.
they're like dropping a stone in a pond.
The ripples move outward
and they affect things in ways that you
can't fully comprehend,
And it means that the things that you do
and that you don't do
are far more important than you think.
And so if you act that way,
of course
the terror of realizing
that is that it actually starts
to matter
what you do.
And you might say,
well, that's better than living
a meaningless existence.
It's better for it to matter.
But I mean, if you really asked yourself,
would you be so sure if you had the choice
I can live with no responsibility whatsoever
The price I pay is that nothing matters
or I can reverse it and everything matters
But I have to take the responsibility
that's associated with that
It's not so obvious to me
that people would take the meaningful path.
There's always gonna be a reason to wait
There's always gonna be a busy schedule
There's always gonna be something unexpected that happens
It's always gonna be that way.
You have to f*cking work through it
but a lot of you motherf*ckers just don't want it.
It's easy to fall into the
loving the idea of something
and it's hard to fall into
the habits of action
to actually achieve something.
It's not about after the vacation
or after this, or after that,
It's about right now.
Now resolutions
re the only thing
that get f*cking results.
And I found out that the same things
can happen to two different people.
One gets rich and one stays poor.
Why is that?
It's not what happens, it's what you do.
Two men wake up one morning there's a rainstorm on.
One of 'em looks out his window, sees the rainstorm,
and he says, wow, what a storm
With weather like this,
they can't expect you to go out and make sales
He stays home.
Same morning, the other guy looks out his window,
sees the same storm, says, wow, what a storm.
But he says, you know what, with weather like this,
what a great day to go out and make sales
Most everybody will probably be home
especially the salesman.
See, that's the difference in how your life works out.
It's not what happens, it's what you do.
Here is your great soul—
the man who has given himself over to Fate;
on the other hand, that man is a weakling
and a degenerate who struggles and maligns
the order of the universe
and would rather reform the gods than reform himself.
You will only get one shot at today.
You have only twenty-four hours with which to take it.
And then it is gone and lost forever.
Will you fully inhbit all of today?
Will you call out, "I've got this,"
and do your very best to be your very best?
What will you manage to make of today
before it slips from you fingers and becomes the past?
When someone asks you what you did yesterday,
do you really want the answer to be "nothing"?
It is not that we have a short time to live,
but that we waist a lot of it.
Life is long enough,
and a sufficient generous amount
has been given to us for the highest achievements
if it were all well invested.
But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity,
we are forced at last by death's final constraint
to realize that it has passed away before we know it was passing
As for us, we face things that are not nearly as intimidating, and then we promptly decide we're screwed.
This is how obstacles become obstacles.
In other words, through our perception of events, we are complicit in the creation-
as well as the destruction-of every one of our obstacles.
There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception.
There is the event itself
and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.
when you catch yourself procrastinating
forgive yourself
step one
the next time you catch yourself procrastinating step one is forgive yourself
and there is a really profound reason why
procrastination is not about laziness
it's not about a lack of discipline
it's not something you do because you're dumb
procrastination is a coping mechanism
you just have a desire to feel good right now and you deserve that
you have a desire to lessen the stress in your life
and you deserve to lessen the stress in your life I get it
when you're somebody that procrastinates you're really hard on yourselves to begin with
in fact being hard on yourself is one of the major causes of why you're so damn stressed
and so taking a moment and forgiving yourself and you've got to actually have a talk with yourself
where you are sitting there like oh my God two hours just went by wow I must be really stressed out
I forgive myself for just blowing off two hours on social media and you know what
I can spend the next hour setting my day up tomorrow for success
the next step that you're going to take once you forgive yourself you got to recognize that you're doing it
why? because patterns and habits repeat unless you replace them
and so noticing that it's a pattern catching yourself forgiving yourself
that is a way we're going to break this pattern
is the step two based on Research
you must identify what you're stressed about
When you identify what you're actually stressed about
it loosens its grip on you
it comes out of hiding and see I think that stress backpack is an important analogy or metaphor
if you're sitting on the couch two glasses of wine in
and you realize you've procrastinated for the last five hours
and you've acknowledged it you've forgiven yourself for doing it you've acknowledged the stress that you feel
because you know you are in a fight with a friend or a boyfriend or whatever
what is the you that's going to wake up tomorrow morning want you to do right now
I'll tell you what that you wants you to do
they want you to get off the couch they want you to pack lunch for tomorrow
they want you to brush your teeth and turn off the TV and the phone
and read 10 pages of non-fiction and get a good night's sleep
that's what the future you wants you to do
the future you does not want you to slip back into that vicious cycle
and spend another three hours watching cat videos and memes and Tick Tock videos
which we both know is exactly what you would do
if you didn't break the cycle by forgiving yourself for doing it for three hours
acknowledging what you're stressed about and then deciding what the future you
wants you to do instead and then finally use the five second rule
use the five second rule it's one of the most effective
science-backed starting rituals on the planet for creating a new habit or pattern
and all you're going to do is you're just going to start
because after you've forgiven yourself and you've validated what's stressing you out
and you've tapped into the future you who is kicking ass and taking names and needs you right now
the problem isn't your ability to do what you need to do
the problem is you've been trapped
in this stress and Trauma and nervous system
triggered vicious procrastination cycle
Don't waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people- unless it affects the common good.
It will keep you from doing anything useful.
So there are two reasons to embrace what happens.
One is that it's happening to you.
It was prescribed for you, and it pertains to you.
The thread was spun long ago, by the oldest cause of all.
The art of living...
is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other.
It consists in being sensitive to each moment,
in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.
When you start to lose your temper, remember:
There's nothing manly about rage.
It's courtesy and kindness that define a human being- and a man.
That's who possesses strength and nerves and guts, not the angry whiners.
People seek retreats for themselves in the countryside by the seashore,
in the hills, and you too have made it your habit to long for that above all else.
But this is altogether unphilosophical,
when it is possible for you to retreat into yourself whenever you please;
for nowhere can one retreat into greater peace or freedom from care than within one’s own soul,
especially when a person has such things within him that he merely has to look at them
to recover from that moment perfect ease of mind
(and by ease of mind I mean nothing other than having one’s mind in good order).
So constantly grant yourself this retreat and so renew yourself;
but keep within you concise and basic precepts
that will be enough, at first encounter,
to cleanse you from all distress and to send you back
to cleanse you fro without discontent to the life to which you will return.