If you are even remotely like me, you likely convinced yourself to put off today what could be done tomorrow..

You may found yourself thinking things like:

  • I got a lot done already today…
  • I’m oh so tired..
  • I deserve a break

My favorite one though that my self talk likes to use is:

“Tomorrow, I’ll have plenty of time to address this when… (Wait for it).. My mind is clear.”

At which point I have 2 choices

  1. Believe it and attempt nothing.
  2. Or ask myself ‘oh really though? Will your mind be any clearer tomorrow really? Will you be any less tired? What will come up tomorrow to encourage you to avoid it then too? ‘

All of these questions help me to re-focus my mind and my body but there is more to it.

In the book Eat that frog by Brian Tracy, he talks about attacking the hardest things first… The biggest baddest task on your list.. Stop putting it off.

This is true but I struggle in that arena because I fail to make lists on a regular basis.. I DO have a list but it’s all in my head and rarely organized..

A couple of years ago though, I found a book called Self Discipline in 10 days.. I didn’t want to read it but decided I should.

What I found in this book was that we must convince our self conscious to do what we want it to do and not allow it to control our bodies… The author suggested using arm motions and speaking aloud what we were going to do as well as changing our choice of words.

I thought he was a tad bit crazy until I put it in acrion.. At the time I was completing my MBA and I had a slew of homework in addition to the kids needs and the housework.. I was exhausted due to the long week at work and just didn’t want to do a thing. (or so I thought)

So jokingly I sat up straight on the couch, swung my arm in a decisive swing and said “I WILL get my homework done so I can spend some time with the kids.”

Wouldn’t you know I got that homework done AND got the housework done and even got to spend some time with the kids.

From then on, I’ve learned that not only do I need to make a list, tackling the biggest ones first, I also need to control my self talk. Don’t believe me? Try it. I dare you.. 😉