Rethinking Procrastination

Are you a master of procrastination? You know that subtle art of avoiding what you really need to do by getting creative with distractions like making that cup of tea or scrolling through your phone. Today, we’re diving deep into why we procrastinate, how we get so clever with it, and how it’s holding us back from what’s ours to do, whether it’s filling out paperwork, following that online course, or even calling your mom. We’ve all been there. So let’s explore why we avoid and how to finally break free from those habits. Ready to conquer procrastination? Let’s get started.

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I’m Igor Kheifets, and this is the List Building Lifestyle, the podcast for anyone who wants to build a wildly profitable email list working from home. If you’d like to make six figures, travel the world and help people improve their lives in the process, this podcast is for you. I also invite you to claim a free copy of my best selling book, the List Building Lifestyle Confessions of an Email Millionaire at igorsbook.com. Get the free book plus $3,000 bonus package that includes my best capture page templates, email swipe files and traffic blueprints, visit www.igorsbook.com for details. And now it’s time to claim your List Building Lifestyle. 

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Procrastination is an act of avoiding to do what is yours to do? So usually what happens is, you know you need to do something. Could be filling out paperwork. Could be following your course that you bought from a really cool guy from Toronto who just set up his camera and really enjoying it. It could be making a phone call. You know, for example, I know I need to call my mom tonight, but I’m gonna procrastinate the crap out of it, I assure you.

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So there’s something that needs to get done, but you choose to avoid it. Now, we humans, and I include myself, of course, in this group. We’re really good at avoiding. We’re so great at avoiding, oh my god, we’re so great at distracting ourselves with all sorts of crap. In fact, if we weren’t great at distracting ourselves, there would be so many things that didn’t exist in this world. For example, alcohol wouldn’t exist, drugs wouldn’t exist. Video games wouldn’t exist. Gambling wouldn’t exist. Um, you know, overeating wouldn’t exist. There would be so many different things that just would not exist if we wouldn’t be terrible at distracting ourselves from just getting things done, the things that we need to do, the things that you know we planning to do, the things that we really have to do because there’s a deadline and they just have to get done.

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If we weren’t great at distracting ourselves from doing what’s ours to do. Oh, boy, this would be a really boring world we would live in. We would probably be so much further ahead as a species, for sure, but it’d be a boring place, I assure you, right. Hollywood wouldn’t exist. And I mean, anything, most things just wouldn’t exist. So we’re really good at distracting ourselves. And procrastination is an art and I call it an art form because people get super creative about it. It’s an art form to distract yourself, to avoid through distraction, to distract yourself, and thus avoid what’s yours to do. And it comes in different forms. Most of the time, the avoidance doesn’t come the form of you just refusing to do it. No usually, because that would, you know, create too much.

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They would create a dissonance inside of you, in you, because it would basically mean that you’re just not doing what you’re supposed to, and therefore you’re quote, unquote, a bad person. And that’s just too painful, too painful to bear, too painful to admit. So what do we do? We get super creative, and we come up with unnecessary things that we must do instead of the thing that we have to do.

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So think of a time when you had to do something, and then you sit down and you started doing it, or just before you started doing it, you felt a sudden, incredibly powerful urge to make yourself a cup of tea or a cup of coffee. Tell me that did not happen to you ever. Put it in the chat, because that happens a lot to me in my household, and it’s especially used to happen a lot back in the day when I was just learning and developing habit of writing sales letters and via sales and other another material that would get me sales, including emails, by the way, I would sit down. I would get into my email autoresponder in my email sending software. 

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I would open it up, and I would, you know, be staring in the blank screen, and I was like, okay, and I would wait, and I would stand up, and I would walk to the kitchen, and I would put on the tea kettle, and I would make myself a cup of tea. I would open the fridge and look into the fridge and, you know, kind of look for something to snack on. Make myself a sandwich. I would do anything. This really is an art form. Like I said, I truly believe that it is an art form because people get so creative. One of those creative feats is getting the big picture. It’s a very common way of distracting yourself from actually just sitting down and following one lesson after another, even after Igor said, Do not skip ahead, right?

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I specifically said, Do not skip ahead. Do not run ahead. Do not go looking at lesson number 20 if you’re not on Lesson number 19, don’t do it. Just don’t save yourself trouble. Make it easier for yourself to become successful. Just take it one step at a time, just like a child going to school, going to first grade, you know, taking it one day at a time, one lesson at a time. It’s the same process you followed all your life. Just let the process do the work. I know the big picture. You know, there is a big picture, you know, that I have your best interest in mind. So let’s just follow the process. That’s all I’m asking. Don’t go skipping to day 30. Don’t go skipping to day 27, don’t go trying to just get a feel for it and on and on and on. That’s just distracting yourself, guys, that’s just distracting yourself from what’s yours to do, okay? And you don’t want to do that, because that is actually going to slow you down. It’s not going to help you. It’s only going to it’s basically you getting creative about, how do I not do what’s mine to do?

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That’s really, that’s what it comes down to, procrastination in every area of life, usually comes down to that it’s you not really wanting to do what’s yours to do. But then you get super creative about how you’re going to avoid it, you know, by developing an urge and a desire and a sense of urgency to go do something else.

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Thank you for listening to the List Building Lifestyle. Get access to the previous episodes, transcript of today’s show, as well as other exclusive content at listbuildinglifestyleshow.com. Also remember to claim your free copy of my best selling book at www.igorsbook.com. It explains how I made millions with list building, starting from scratch, plus I’ll give you $3,000 worth of free bonuses, including my Best landing page templates, email swipe files and traffic blueprints. Go to www.igorsbook.com now to claim your free package.