Welcome to another episode of Live Your Dream podcast!
Before I start the show today, I want to read you a review from one of my listeners.
Cat in Philly wrote
Good Vibes for your AirPods
Put this on your morning commute list! It is so positive and inspiring. The hostess has a great way of simplifying the mysteries of the work-life soul search. I love listening to the interviews with Michael Kim, and have re-listened to several of the podcasts depending on the day/week. I attended one of her talks, and her approach and advice have resonated with me while I was making a career switch to the job of my dreams. Listen, subscribe, read, and attend her talks if you. Huge fan. Thanks, Celina!
Wow! Thank you so much Cat!! I’m so grateful that you attended my talk and also listened to my podcast and wrote me this amazing review! Thank you Thank you! You totally made my day!
Doing this podcast is a labor of love. And I do it in the hope that it will inspire and help a lot of people. But I need your help. If you enjoy listening to my podcast, or if it helped you in anyway, I’d be so grateful if you can please tell your friends about it and also share on social media.
As you know, I’m a one woman show, and I don’t have a huge advertising budget, so I’m relying on you to help me grow the podcast so I can help a lot more people.
Another way you can help me is by writing me a review. I love reading your reviews and it means so much to me. And it keeps me motivated to keep creating new episodes even on days when it’s really hard to do so.
So I’d be really grateful if you can please write me a review on Apple Podcast or on Podchaser if you listen from an Android phone. I’ll include both links on the show notes for today’s episode.
Just open up your podcast app and click on today’s show notes. Or you can go to celinalee.co/episode46 that is celinalee.co/episode46.
Are you in the Clubhouse? It’s this new audio app and I’ve recently joined and would love to talk to you there! My ID is @celinalee if you want to follow me. I am thinking of hosting a room soon. So please let me know if you have any topics you want me to talk about.
I also have a few invites and happy to invite you if you need an invitation. Just message me on my website, celinalee.co/contact that is celinalee.co/contact. And I’ll also include the link on today’s show notes.
Ok, today we are talking about procrastination. And I have to admit that I procrastinated to record this episode about procrastination.
So I was supposed to be working on this episode yesterday and I found myself all of sudden super interested in reading about this bakery in Paris. I think it initially popped up on my Instagram feed and then I started googling to read all about their history. And then I read about the current owner about how she inherited this bakery after her parents died, and then I read about her father, and her mother, and then about her grandfather who started the bakery. So I learned all about their family history.
I then started googling all the press articles and read those too. And before I knew it, it was midnight 🙁
And of course I felt terrible and I was feeling really guilty, and started beating myself up.
“What’s wrong with me? Why do I always do this?”
I opened my laptop around midnight because I felt this sense of urgency, knowing that my audio engineer is waiting for me to give him this episode to edit.
But of course it was very late and I got very little done and I had to go to sleep.
So does this sound familiar? Well, if you are listening to an episode about procrastination, I’d think that you probably struggle with this too.
And I want you to know you are not alone.
I procrastinate a lot and it definitely has not been easy dealing with this very bad habit.
So I have a long to do-list and whenever I’m about to do some work, all of sudden, the things that I normally am not interested in seem like the thing that I have to do right now.
Like cleaning my desk or my room.
Or I’m like, oh I didn’t respond to those people’s emails. I should do that right now. And I start replying to them even though that’s not as important or urgent as the things on my to do list that I am supposed to do right now.
And sometimes I even look for distractions. When I get stuck while working on my podcast episode, I check my email to see if someone has emailed me. I know, this is really terrible.
Or I’ll go to Instagram and look at all these cute dogs and cats. And these days I’m obsessed with these dogs that talk with buttons. Have you seen them? They are so cute! There’s one in Korea called 뭉이 and Bunny in the U.S. and of course 뭉이 talks in Korean and Bunny talks in English, all with buttons and they are super smart and so cute. There’s also a cat named Billi who talks with Buttons.
And the problem is I can’t help stop watching these videos, even when I have important work to do.
Ok, so I’ve shared with you how I procrastinate and how much I procrastinate, even though it’s really embarrassing, and I hope you are feeling better about yourself right now 🙂
So when I’m procrastinating, I know it’s a bad idea, and I should stop and get back to work already, but I do it anyway. And why is that?
So I did some research about procrastination and I’ve learned that it’s because we are trying to avoid the difficult emotions that come up when we are faced with a challenging task.
We may be feeling self-doubt, frustration or insecurity about not being able to do a good job.
I definitely have experienced this too. So I started to observe myself when I procrastinate, and I have noticed that when I am feeling stuck, like I can’t think of what to say next, like the next line while working on my podcast episode, or when can’t think of a new idea, that’s when I go to check my email or to Instagram to look at cute dogs and cats.
So we procrastinate to avoid the difficult feelings of working on a challenging task.
We are afraid of not doing well or not doing a good job, so we’d rather do this other thing instead that is a lot easier like checking email or social media.
And avoiding the difficult task provides a temporary relief.
But we all know that later this causes even more stress. And brings even more difficult feelings of guilt, self-blame, and even self-hatred.
So what can we do about it?
I can’t say I’ve mastered procrastination, and I deal with it everyday, but I have learned some strategies that have helped me so I wanted to share them with you.
- Observe myself when I procrastinate and become aware of my feelings
Rather than beating myself up and feeling guilty when I’m procrastinating, I just observe myself when I procrastinate and pay attention to what I’m feeling.
So for example, I’d be working on my podcast episode, and I see myself go check my email. So right there, I just notice myself doing that. “Hmm I’m checking my email when I should be working on my podcast episode.”
What’s really important here is to simply observe myself but not judge myself. Because judging myself creates even more negative feelings.
And then I ask myself, “How am I feeling right now?”
And then I notice, I’m feeling frustrated because I’m stuck and can’t think of what to say next. Or I’m worried about this episode not being good or not being helpful to people.
And just this alone, helps me to become more aware of what is going on, and I can stop the cycle of feeling bad and feeling guilty.
And I just acknowledge my feelings and say Ok, I’m feeling stuck and I’m really worried. And it’s okay. It’s okay to feel this way. And then I go on to number
- Think about the moments in my life when I succeeded in doing something difficult and was proud of myself.
So I may think about how I’ve felt stuck before while working on my previous episodes but was still able to do a good job and share stories that helped a lot of people. I may even go and read some of the reviews you’ve written for me. And this is why your reviews are so helpful and so important 🙂
And this helps me to turn the negative feelings I’m experiencing at the moment into positive ones which then motivates me to keep trying.
As I’ve said before, the reason why we procrastinate is because we are trying to avoid the negative emotions while dealing with a challenging task.
So reminding ourselves about the times when we were able to overcome a similar challenge in the past, will help us to change the feeling from a negative one into a positive one. Because our thoughts lead to our feelings.
So next time you see yourself procrastinating, stop beating yourself up and think about the times in the past when you were working on something difficult, but you overcame the challenge and achieved your goal.
Think about the moments when you were proud of yourself. And this will give you the motivation and the encouragement to keep going.
So I’ve talked about in episode 44, the episode titled “How to Feel Better,” about writing a list of your accomplishments, and the moments when you were brave and proud of yourself.
And how that will help you to change how you see yourself and to improve the relationship you have with yourself.
So next time you are procrastinating, you can go and read your accomplishment list. I think this will be more helpful than checking social media.
If you haven’t yet listened to this episode, episode 44, I highly recommend it. So many people have reached out to me and shared with me how much it helped them.
I’ll include it in today’s show notes, and the title of this episode is “How to Feel Better,”
- Remind myself why this is important to me.
We are wired for instant gratification and to avoid difficult emotions, so this is why I’d rather watch videos of cute dogs and cats rather than work on my podcast episodes.
Because in the moment, watching cute dog and cat videos is much easier and more fun.
But of course working on my podcast is more important to me for my long term goal. But I need to remind myself because I often forget.
So I remind myself, why working on my podcast is important to me, and it’s important to me because I believe stories are powerful in transforming lives as I’ve experienced in my own life, and I feel so grateful that I have this opportunity to share the stories that I believe will be helpful to many people.
And I already have so many people who have shared with me that what I’ve shared on my podcast really helped to change their lives.
So when I think about that and remind myself why this is important to me, I have more motivation to keep working on creating new episodes even when it’s difficult to do so.
And I also think about my future self. I think about how if I work on this episode now rather than avoid it, I won’t be stressed out because I will not have to do it last minute, I won’t be so rushed, and how great I will feel when I finish, and how amazing it would be if this episode can help many more people.
- Just do it for 5 minutes.
Well this is what I tell myself to trick my brain. I say, “Ok I’m just gonna do it for 5 minutes”. Or I tell myself, “I’m only going to write down a few ideas”
I’ve often seen that the biggest obstacle is getting started. To stop whatever it is I’m doing to avoid the task, and actually open my laptop, and stare at the blank screen, and then start typing.
So rather than telling myself that I have to do this whole thing and finish it today, if I say, I’ll just do it for a few mins, or I’ll only do this very small part of it. Then I’ve noticed that it’s much easier to get started.
And once I’m doing it already, it’s easier to continue and keep going.
So try it next time.
Make it easier for you to get started by making the goal less overwhelming and less intimidating for you.
Ok! So I hope what I’ve shared with you today is helpful. And please let me know how you’ve applied these strategies to your own life.
And I’d love to hear from you, about what has helped you to stop procrastinating.
And I want you to remember to be kind to yourself. If you are listening to this episode while procrastinating, I want you to give yourself the full permission to just enjoy this break.
And please know that you are not alone. So many of us struggle with it, and it’s okay to not always be productive.
And please forgive yourself for procrastinating. Studies have shown that forgiving yourself for procrastinating actually helps you to be more productive later than beating yourself up about it. Because beating yourself up generates more negative emotions which makes you want to avoid the task even more.
So try these strategies and please be kind to yourself.
If you want to see the show notes for today’s episode, just open up your podcast app and click on today’s show notes. Or you can go to celinalee.co/episode46 that is celinalee.co/episode46.
If you’re looking for guidance on how to find happiness and fulfillment in your career, I put together a guide to the three steps to finding true career fulfillment.
In this guide, I share the three common themes of the people who have achieved incredible amount of success and if you find what those three things are for you, I can guarantee you that you’ll not only have a successful career, but also a very fulfilling life. So if you want to check it out, you can download it by clicking on today’s show notes on your podcast app or on my website, celinalee.co that is is celinalee.co
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