How You Can Stop Procrastinating Today

This episode emphasizes the power of personal choice in overcoming defeat and achieving dreams. It highlights the importance of daily decisions in shaping one's reality and becoming the best version of oneself. The key message is that defeat is not inevitable; rather, it is a result of the choices individuals make to pursue their goals and see tangible results in their lives.

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Transcript

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the world has so many dreamers and not enough doers. If you're sitting in a place where you don't like the person that you're looking at in the mirror, it's because you know that there's a better version of yourself. And that, version of yourself it's going to not only help you, it's going to help so many people. And if you don't take action to become that best version of yourself, you're going to feel like you're dying inside because you're going to have a desire and you're not going to have initiative to do it. I'm going to highlight three key mistakes that could be potentially keeping you in the procrastination loop, keeping you from developing into the best person, your best version of yourself, and really prohibiting you from being obedient to what God's called you to do. So mistake number one is

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I don't know why I'm gonna be here today.

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want to just take some time to introduce myself for those of you guys who don't know me. I am an Olympic professional track and field athlete I actually run for Adidas. Which has been pretty awesome. I've been competing professionally in track and field for over eight years now going into my ninth season. So if you don't know who I am welcome. This is actually the first time that I'm doing my podcast on video, those of you guys that have listened to the podcast on the podcast platform or Spotify. Wherever you get your podcast, you can now watch on YouTube. And I'm pumped to be able to deliver. You deliver to you guys. Full on video content. Awesome stuff. Going back to introduction of me, I'm actually from Louisville, Kentucky. I was born in Louisville and then when I was five years old, actually moved my family, moved to Anchorage, Alaska. We were in Anchorage, Alaska for seven years. Pretty cold place. If you like hot places would not recommend it. But that's where I lived for seven years, came back to Louisville, Kentucky. That's where all my family was and basically did middle school, high school here. I went to Ballard high school in Louisville, go Bruins and played basketball and ran track there. And I went on to TCU. Which is Texas Christian university for you guys that don't know. I honestly, it's one of those schools that within the last couple of years people have been recognizing more and more, because we've gotten really good at football. Hey, this year. Not the greatest but we're on the we're on the up and up. So. I thought it was Tennessee when I first got recruited to go there. So I don't blame you if you don't know, but TCU. Go frogs up in Fort worth Texas. I was there from 2012 to 2016. And actually now I'm back in Kentucky training, full time as a professional athlete. My goal is to make Olympic and world teams for track and field and just compete at a high level. And from where I grew up to where I am now actually grew up in the West end of Louisville. It's not the greatest area. It's not, the most luxury and lavish place to grow up in and a lot of violence. A lot of things like that, but from there to where I am now being a professional. I'm in my own nice home in a studio that I built and put together, which is pretty awesome. So I've just had a lot of cool things happen to me. Not really happen to me. I made decisions in my life that have allowed me to be able to get the things that I have now, and also be able to, other people as well. And so really what this podcast is all about, the defeat is optional podcast is all about. It really is about discipline I look back on my life and I look back on all the accomplishments that I have, and I realized that at the foundation of everything that I've accomplished. Is discipline is the ability to do things. When I didn't feel like it, It's the ability to, it's the ability to make decisions, commit to them and stay committed to them, even when I'm not seeing the results. That's really what discipline is guys. And so. Discipline has allowed me to do some really cool things. When I was in high school, actually won four state titles. I was a Kentucky Gatorade track and field athlete of the year, two times, both my junior and senior year. I won those state titles actually ended up getting a full ride scholarship to TCU. At TCU, I won two national titles in the 60 meter dash. I Also broke the collegiate record in 2016, I ran 647, which was actually one of the fastest times in the world at that time. The next year I ran the third, fastest time ever recorded in the history of the 60 meter dash in 6. 40 seconds. It's a crazy accomplishment. I was only able to do that because of the hard choices, the sacrifice and the discipline the time management. Avoiding procrastination, all of these things that, have allowed me to project and also elevate to the next level. So being able to do that I also got a bronze medal in the 2018 indoor world championships. I've won numerous diamond league races, which is like the pinnacle of track and field competitions. If you don't know it's a really awesome kind of circuit that they do every year. all over the world, right? Places like Doha, London, all kinds of places. So really cool setup. I've won lots of races there. And I also competed in the Olympics in 2021 in Tokyo. So being able to make an Olympic team in the U S is probably one of the hardest feats and probably one of the hardest things that I've ever done. And I was able to represent team USA placing fifth in that Olympics, which is awesome. Right. I look at the Olympics and think about how many people have actually been there. Not very many people get to go, but also the amount of people that actually have been in a final, right. There's only been 33 Olympics. So you imagine you multiply 33 by 8, You're looking at 260 270 is the number. Don't worry. I did that math before. This before recording this. But there's only been 200 and so odd people. That have competed in an Olympic final, which is crazy. And I've been, I'm one of those people, and I know that at the foundation of everything that I've accomplished, Is discipline. So the defeat is optional. Podcast is all about discipline. It's not just about my journey and discipline, but it's your journey. I'm here to give you guys tips. And really advice on what I've done to be able to accomplish at such a high level and really what you can do, not just in sport, but in business. In all walks of life, whether it's just getting in shape, whether it's starting that business, whether it's growing your business, whatever it is. I can probably take the principles that you need and boil it down to. What are the things that you're not doing or that you need to do that, you know, you need to do that require a little bit of discipline, a little bit of hard work, a little bit of you getting over your feelings. Those are the things that are really going to take you to the next level. So that's what this podcast is all about. The title defeat is optional. is exactly what it means. Defeat is optional. Every single day. You have a choice to get closer to your dreams, to make your dreams a reality, to start to see the results in your life, to actually become the best version of yourself. And that requires choices that you get to make. So defeat really is in your hands. Whether you choose to make those decisions or not is really up to you. that's what defeat is optional is all about. So how are these episodes going to be structured out? The cool thing about this podcast is that it's going to be in more of a show format. I'm going to switch it up completely if you've been listening. And we're going to have segments in each one of these episodes. If I don't have a guest on, if it's just me and you talking, we're going to have segments and it's going to be in the format of a hundred meter dash. I run the a hundred meters, if you guys don't know, I have been sprinting in the a hundred meters since I was in college in 2012. Actually started off as a 400 meter runner, which is one lap around and hated it, and I ended up getting a lot faster. So I was able to drop down in the events from 200 down to 100. I do 100 and sixties. That's pretty much my specialty. So we're gonna break this down into a couple different segments as if we're mirroring a hundred meter dash race so the first segment is going to be the warmup, and then the warmup in track and field, you've got to warm your muscles up. You've got to get loose in order for you to be able to sprint at a high level and compete. I think that's just not even with track and field. That's just with any sport, right? You don't want to just get out there and just start jumping and running around. You might hurt yourself. You might injure yourself. You put yourself in a worse predicament. And I think that's the same thing with discipline as well, you want to be able to know and clearly define your goals. And so in the warmup, what we're going to do is we're going to basically just lay out what exactly we're going to be talking about in the episode and really what we're going to be focusing on for the week, the next part of The hundred meters sprint is really getting in the blocks, getting in the blocks is a very intricate process. A lot of people when they watch track and field, they might think that we just put the pedals anywhere. There is a science to actually setting up your blocks and a lot of people measure their leg lengths to make sure that the blocks are in the right position. If you're taller, you're gonna have to move the blocks back from the starting line a little bit more just to give yourself a little more space. And so really this is just the foundation of the race. If you mess up setting up the blocks where you mess up the block start. It's not going to be a really good race for you. It's going to be a lot harder to be able to compete and win a hundred meter race if you don't set up the foundation, which is the blocks correctly. So in this segment, what we're going to do is really lay the foundation. I believe that, In everything, you've got to have biblical truth. And I really love that this podcast is really going to embody discipline, but also from a biblical perspective. I'm gonna give you some scripture, really, to meditate on for the week. And that's gonna be The foundation the foundation is the word of God. The next part, really, is the drive phase. So once you come out of the blocks and track and field, you're in what's called a drive phase. This is where You are pushing as hard as you can in a horizontal motion down the track, So this part actually sets up your race and what that is going to do to look like for us in this podcast is that This is going to be our actionable strategies, this is going to be the actual practical tips or steps that I'm going to give you guys to help you immediately build on the concept that we talked about in the foundation phase. So that is really the transition phase or the drive phase in the 100 m dash. Then you're going to go on to the acceleration phase, and what that is just maintaining focus and momentum throughout the race, you've got to be able to separate from your competition and really coming out of that drive phase into that transition and then acceleration, that's when you really separate. That's when you start to run at your full speed. Our podcast in this podcast, that segment is really going to be about gaining momentum through your challenges, like whatever challenges that may come up when you're implementing the the specific part or the specific task that is required to be able to increase your discipline. There's going to be chances and times where you want to quit, but this acceleration phase is really to help you overcome the difficulties that are going to come up. So just like the dry phase of the 100, this segment really emphasizes the techniques, consistency, and staying the course despite difficulties. That initial burst of energy, you've got to be able to carry it. So that's what that acceleration phase is in the a hundred and what we're going to do here on the podcast. Now, the second to last part is really just the sprint, The focus of this actual segment is going to be real life examples of discipline in action. Whether that's a story for me, whether that's a story that I really resonated with of someone else implementing discipline in their life. That's what the sprint is really going to be about. And that's really like the second to last part of the a hundred meter race. At this point, you're probably at 60, 80 meters and you are sprinting at your full capacity. And in the sprint, you again, the more relaxed you are, weirdly, the faster you run. And so really in this segment, we're going to talk about some stories. We're going to put you guys at ease to help you understand that whatever it is that you need to implement, you can implement it and help you to stay relaxed while you're doing it, help you to stay calm while you're doing it, help you to have peace while you're doing it. And that's really what the sprint is all about. And then the last segment is going to be the finish line. crossing that finish line victorious. The, title of this podcast is defeat is optional. So whether you do that is really up to you. And so really, this is in the podcast segment, it's going to be giving you guys the key takeaways and really giving you something that you need to go implement right? away. People wait, we're in November right now, which means that the new year is coming up. So in about a month and a half, we are going to be into the new year 2025. And most people already have exactly what they need to do in order to become the better version of themselves, but they're waiting and they're putting it off until January 1st, which is one of the worst things you can do. And I think that is going to lead us right into what I'm talking about today. I'm going to actually break down three things that you potentially are doing that are prohibiting you from becoming the best version of yourself. And it's all going to be under the title of procrastination. I'm gonna break down three mistakes that you, I'm gonna break down three mistakes that are keeping you in a procrastination loop, and then we're gonna tackle each one of those, give you guys some actionable steps, steps and then hopefully you go implement them. Because at the end of the day, whether you win or lose is really on you I'm not gonna be, the soft guy that's really gonna coddle you, I'm going to tell you exactly what you need to do, And hopefully help you to be more disciplined because when you are more disciplined, you become the best version of yourself. And when you become the best version of yourself, that's the version of yourself that everyone in this world needs to see, there's probably people waiting for you to be the best version of themselves so that they can hear your story so that they can take the first step. Maybe they're scared and maybe they're afraid to take the first step, but your story is going to motivate them. Let's get into the warm up, We talked about our focus, We're gonna be preparing physically, mentally, and emotionally for your workout, for your practice, and your practice this week is gonna be on procrastination? What is the actual definition of procrastination? Let me give that to you guys. It's the act of putting off or delaying something requiring immediate attention. So to get ourselves in the right frame of mind, what we need to do is we need to incorporate scripture into this. So Proverbs 21:25, and this is what it says, the desire of a sluggard kills him for his hands refuse to labor." And really the premise behind this is that a lazy man has desire. Whether you've been lazy in your life, we all have been lazy in our lives. And even when I was lazy, I had a desire to be the best. I had a desire to win, championships, be an Olympic medalist, all those things, especially in sports. Whatever that is, you've always had a desire, even if you've been putting things off, even if you have been lazy, you have a desire. So whenever we actually get into a slump or we become too relaxed in our life. Our lives then become this perpetuating cycle of unfulfilled desire. And what it does is it actually makes us feel super unsatisfied. And it's almost as if the desire that we it, it's almost like it's killing us. It feels like it's killing us because we know who we should become and we know who we can become, but we're not moving. We're not moving towards that. So the quickest way to get into a frustration state in your life is to have a desire for prosperity, but ultimately have no work ethic to get it done, right? Have no energy to actually execute on that desire. The world is full of people that have dreams and big goals. And the reality is that the world needs more doers than they need dreamers. What this verse teaches, is that doing, rather than desiring, brings success. So until you actually do something, nothing's gonna happen. We're gonna eliminate procrastination today. We're gonna give you some things to do to be able to overcome that specific roadblock of discipline. This is one of the biggest ones as far as discipline is concerned, is really getting over the roadblock of procrastination. Because if you really don't get over this speed bump. You'll never actually start the race, you'll never actually get into the warmup to get into the blocks to have the foundation to execute the drive phase, the acceleration, the sprint, the finish, you never get there because you never start. Discipline is all about being consistent and taking steps towards a goal. Even if the steps are super small, it's about doing something each and every day to make sure that you're putting yourself in the best position to win. And so sometimes we even take a step forward, but honestly, because we don't continue to do the steps, we have to stop And what happens is that procrastination and actually continuing to do what you're supposed to do leads you to lose momentum and then you have to start over again. And it's harder to start over after you've started and failed. What you're doing is you're literally putting yourself in a perpetual fail cycle because you start something, you don't finish it, you feel bad because you didn't finish it, and then you take a break, you sulk in it, you do whatever you do to basically cover it up, sweep it under the rug, you start again, and you're in the same cycle because you're not making the right decisions. And Whenever you procrastinate, you're not only pushing your timeline further down the road, but you're postponing your own growth. The one thing that discipline thrives on is forward motion. Even if the steps are small, discipline thrives on forward motion, always moving forward, always moving towards your goal, always doing something. That is moving you forward. So why is eliminating procrastination also so important? Because if you don't, it weakens your mental toughness. If you start something and you don't finish it, it's going to hurt your self esteem. And so this is why procrastination is one of those things where it's so important to get over. But I think one of the biggest things also, that it's so important from a faith perspective. If you're trying to implement faith into your life, if you're trying to live a life that is pleasing to Christ, procrastination is one of those things that can prohibit you from walking through the doors that God's got open for you. And it really hinders your ability to steward God's gifts that he's given you properly and really the opportunities. You know a lot of us Honestly, we complain about not having a lot of opportunities, but the reality. is that there's been plenty of opportunities We're just too lazy and procrastinating to actually walk through the door so if you're trying to incorporate this concept of faith into your life and really being a Christ follower, procrastination has got to, it's got to take a back seat. It's got to be something that you eliminate from your life and really overcoming procrastination is an ultimate form of obedience. It's actually a commitment to exercising your gift. And in exercising your gift, you're actually giving worship to God. That is the warm up. If you guys aren't warmed up and ready for the next part of this segment, I don't know what else to tell you. But we're gonna start by getting into the foundation, which is the starting blocks. What are we gonna actually put down as the foundation? What are these mistakes? That you guys are making. So I think the first thing in anything with discipline, especially if you're struggling is to understand where you're struggling at. I'm going to highlight three key mistakes that could be potentially keeping you in the procrastination loop, keeping you from developing into the best person, your best version of yourself, and really prohibiting you from being obedient to what God's called you to do. So mistake number one is starting too big in your goals. And what that means is basically whenever you set out to, to have a goal, sometimes we do set a big goal, but the problem is that we don't break it into smaller segments., I don't want to discourage you from creating big goals. I want you to have big dreams. I want you to have big goals because. Honestly, I want you to dream so big that you don't even think it's possible to be able to, for it to come true. Because in that, that's where you have to increase your faith to trust in God that whatever you're setting out to do is only possible when you're collaborating with Him. The verse says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So I want you to have those big goals. I want them to scare you, ultimately, because it's going to allow you to be pushed back in the right direction of having faith. That God's going to be with you on that journey. Whether you accomplish them or not, God's going to be with you on that journey. He's going to guide you, He's going to direct you, He's going to grow you. So I want you to have big goals. What I'm saying is that you might be making them and it's leading you down a path of procrastination and trying to tackle an entire project at once rather than breaking it up into smaller steps. And I talked about this in actually my first podcast episode. We talked about process goals and we talked about outcome goals. And so I want you to be able to break them down into manageable tasks. So when you start too big, you give yourself too much to do up front. And I want to give you guys an example. So an example would be like, basically almost having 20 tabs on your browser open, it's hard to focus on one thing at a time if you have 20 different things open and you're trying to do multiple different tasks. And what happens is, And I've done this before. It's like I write down what I need to get done. I start on that task, but because I'm on my computer and I have another tab open, I click on that tab and I start doing something there and click on another one and I start doing something in there and I click on another one and I start doing something there. So now you're doing six different things. Here's the thing, you're not accomplishing or completing any of them. So now you've got your hand in about six different buckets. You've done a little bit in all of them, but you've had no completion. And so it actually leads to overwhelm. Because now you, feel like you have 10 things to do instead of one. It's going to make you feel overwhelmed. It's going to make you feel drained. You're feel like you're doing a lot of work, but you're not getting anything done. So that's a mistake. Number one is starting too big, trying to tackle too many things at once. Mistake number two. Waiting for motivation. The greatest of all time, they motivate themselves. They don't wait for external motivation. So this one's pretty self explanatory. You're not going to be able to wait for motivation because at the end of the day, motivation is going to come and it's going to go. And here's what I know from just years of experience of competing at the highest level is if you have motivation, it's not going to last forever. You might watch this video and be super motivated and pumped to tackle procrastination, but it's not going to last forever. You've got to make a decision to act. On the information that you're getting the best type of motivation is the motivation from inside. Internal motivation is the best motivation ever. External motivation comes and goes. External motivation is fleeting. Anything really external. When you change again, who you are on the inside, I've talked about this on my other shows and other podcasts. When you change about who you are on the inside, that's when things in your life really start to change. You automatically will start to do things externally because you've changed who you are on the inside. And that's what this podcast is all about. It's about changing who you are on the inside so that you can become the best version of yourself. So when the motivation comes, and it's great to watch videos. It's great to get motivated. It's great to get pumped. The best thing you can do is to take action right after you get that, that feeling of motivation, right after you get that feeling of motivation, go take some action instead of waiting, because that's the whole thing with procrastination is that you wait, you get this motivation and you say, Oh, tomorrow I'm going to do it tomorrow. I'm going to do that thing that I said I was going to do. And there you go. You're putting hours in between your motivation that you got externally and the action. And again, I'm not saying the external motivation can't work. I'm just saying it's not going to last forever. So don't be motivated from external. Don't wait for it. And also the biggest thing is developing internal motivation because when you develop internal motivation, you don't have to wait for someone else to give you the permission to be motivated, to give you the permission, to take on the next task to give you permission to move forward. You're gonna be relying on yourself. You're gonna be looking at yourself in the mirror and saying, this is what I've decided to do, this is what I'm gonna do, this is how I'm gonna make it happen. You really can't become more disciplined waiting for external motivation. You've gotta be able to develop that inside of yourself. Because honestly, discipline is not external. Nothing about discipline is external. That's mistake. Number two is waiting and mistake. Number three. And this is one that I fall victim to all the time. And I believe most people in today's age fall victim to is. Getting into this phase of doing research. In the day and age of computers and Google and basically having the internet at your fingertips, what we tend to do is. Whenever we want to start something new or whenever we're on a new journey, or maybe even not something new, maybe we want to just look up something that we want to implement into what we're already doing. For instance, I wanted to do video on this podcast. And so I started to look up and research. What are the best cameras? What are the best lighting? What's this? What? What do I do to make this the best experience possible for you guys? The people viewing and I got into this loop of doing so much research that I wasn't taking any action. And I know. That people out there do the same thing, you want to get in shape, so what do you do? You look up the best workouts. And so then you're on five different websites, trying to find the best workouts. The problem is that you're going to get so much different information that it's going to confuse you. This is typically what happens. The mistake is that we do too much research, we don't take enough action, so we get confused. One person tells you to work out in the morning, one person tells you to work out in the afternoon. One person tells you to do squats, one person says that squats are bad for your back. You never know and the worst part about it is that you're wasting time and in your head It's killing you because you know that you need to work out and now the research has Become your main thing So now you're procrastinating in doing the action because you're more concerned with the research you do so much research and you get confused. And the problem is that, You never figure out what works for you. Just because someone else does squats doesn't mean it's going to be the best for you. Just because someone says don't do squats doesn't mean that you shouldn't do them, but when you take the action, with all of these come back to taking action, when you take the action, what it's going to do. it's going to allow you to figure out what exactly is the best for you that's the best thing. you can do. Instead of doing a bunch of research on what's best for everyone else, find out what's best for you by actually doing the thing. Because you're gonna get so many different perspectives, you're gonna get confused, and God's not a, God's not a God of confusion, don't confuse yourself, just take the action and find out and tweak what's best for you as you go along and do it. Boom. Those are the three mistakes. And if you've identified yourself in any of those mistakes, you can correct them. That's the beautiful thing. Now that you're aware of it, you can now correct those things. So now, let's get into the transition phase. We're going to talk about the actionable steps for you to actually transition into what you should be doing. The first actionable step in order to combat procrastination, really, is to take the action immediately. Right after you've watched that motivating video. And you have that feeling on the inside. that tingling on the inside. That's when you take the action, whenever you have that positive thought, when you're just sitting there, you have that positive thought that you should be doing something to go take the action immediately. Do not wait. I talked about this the beginning of this episode. A lot of you guys already know what you need to be doing into the new year, but you're waiting until January to do it. It's November. Start now. Here's the thing is. There's a scripture and the scripture says that tomorrow is not promised. Proverbs 27:1 says do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring. So while you're sitting on the couch waiting to take action, guess what? Tomorrow's not promised. You might not wake up tomorrow. So why not start now? That's actionable step number one. It's not hard. It's take the action and you're always like Contemplating on whether to do it or not. You just got to go do it right. How do I do it? You just do it. But for those of you out there who were saying. I just can't do it. I can't do it. I'm going to give you an actionable step because I felt like this is the thing that people struggle with the most is they know what they need to do, but they just don't do it. They can't do it. And so let me help you. This is what I like to do. What I do is whatever task I have. What I do is I tell myself that I'm going to start that and I'm set a timer for five minutes to say, I'm going to do five minutes of this. So for instance, if I'm struggling to come up with the ideas for a podcast, I say, I'm going to turn on the camera and I'm going to record for five minutes. And I set a timer. If you have a goal to read more books this year. And you need to read 10 pages a day or 20 pages a day, and you get into that funk or you're tired. And, you need to pick up the book. What you need to tell yourself is I'm going to set a timer for five minutes. I'm going to read for five minutes. And typically after five minutes, once you get the momentum of what you're doing, you start in the task. Typically you're going to keep going because you're going to be in a groove already. Whether it's doing rehab, you tell yourself, Hey, I am going to do the first two exercises of my rehab program. Or I'm going to go to the gym. And I'm going to just do my warmup. Once you're there. Once you start you're in the groove, you're going to have momentum. You're not going to want to stop most times. So that's my actionable tip for you. My actionable step is set a timer for five minutes. Do that task for five minutes, and then tell me after five minutes, if you want to stop, you'll probably keep going. Set some small, actionable things that you can go do right away. Maybe it's just turning on a YouTube video that has a workout on it and doing the workout in your bedroom. Maybe it's getting those abs done that you said you were gonna do. Maybe it's stretching, right? Doing a stretching routine and tell yourself, I'm gonna stretch right now, right? Just get on the ground and start doing it. You're gonna feel better about yourself whenever you actually go and act on the positive thought in the positive emotion right away, remember our scripture the desire of a sluggard kills him for his hands refuse to labor So quit being lazy and do the thing and do it now, Strategy number two is breaking your big goals into process goals. And I've talked about this a lot. I've mentioned it many times. This is one of the the key things I do in order to achieve at the level that I've achieved at. And that is breaking your goals down into actionable process goals. Here's my example. I am an Olympic athlete. My dream is always to win Olympic gold medals, be a medalist, be at the top of the podium, now, if I think about being at the top of the podium, it can seem like a very daunting task. I can think about all the workouts I have to do, all the hours of training I have to do, all of the sacrifices I have to make with not eating crappy food every single day for. A year's time and it can be daunting. It can put so much weight on your shoulders that you don't even want to do it. You don't even want to take the first step because you're afraid of what you're going to have to do, where you're going to have to sacrifice the pain that you're gonna have to put your body through. So that's your outcome goal. And that's fine to have the process goal is more important. And this is why, because now, whenever I take the big overarching goal of being an Olympic medalist, I break it down into what I need to do on a daily basis. And that could look like. Doing a 20 minutes of stretching every day that could look like doing five minutes of core every day because five minutes of core Exercises adds up over the course of 365 days. You don't have to do an hour every single day You just need to do five minutes because five minutes times 365 is a lot of minutes, so it's doing the process goals, it's making something actionable That's going to actually get you to the outcome that you desire another example of this is when I have really challenging and hard workouts where I know my body's going to be put through literal turmoil, and I'm going to hate it. And I'm not going to like it. I don't have to push myself through it anyway. Instead of telling myself, okay, you have five reps. I break it down every single time I do a rep. I say, I got one, I have one rep left. I have one rep left. What it does is it actually tricks my brain into thinking that I only have one rep left and actually makes me feel lighter, helps me perform better by breaking that up into segments instead of telling myself I've got this big task and I have all this stuff I have to do and how, and I, when I do that, I start to think about how I'm going to feel. And when you think about how you're going to feel, typically you procrastinate. Typically you don't take the action because you're afraid of how you're going to feel. So what I do is I try to tell my brain that I've only got One rep instead of five. And in that allows me to continue to put maximum effort into each and every rep so that I can get better. So that is breaking. Your outcome goals, your big goals and to process goals. It's going to help you on a daily basis. That's actionable. Step number two, actionable step number three, that defeats procrastination, is visualize the success and tie it to faith, visualize your success and tie it to faith. If you guys haven't subscribed to my newsletter, I would encourage you guys to do that. One of the key things with this actionable step is that when you subscribe to the newsletter, you actually get a free guided meditation from me that is going to help you actually do this last step, Which is visualization. Whatever goal that you have, you want to visualize yourself doing it, accomplishing it, and completing it. And in that meditation, it basically guides you through a visualization process of you accomplishing whatever tasks that may be, Winning the race or winning the competition or crushing your business goals, whatever that is, it's going to give you a complete guide on how to meditate, how to visualize, how to see yourself winning, because defeat is really up to You So visualize success and tie it to faith, right? You want to spend a couple minutes each day visualizing you completing the task, whether that's completing a process task or completing the big task. Either one works and you want to visualize yourself doing it, but you also want to visualize yourself. Ask yourself how are you going to feel when you accomplish it? How much better are you going to feel when you actually do that thing after you visualize, you want to tie that to faith. This is one of the cool things that I do because it, I think that whenever you tie something to scripture, it really makes it real. It really solidifies it. It puts it, it puts whatever you're doing on a solid foundation, one that can't crumble. The scripture that I like to use, especially in the visualization process, is Colossians 3:23-24, and it says, Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. So whatever you're doing, whenever you're visualizing it, imagine that you're doing it for the Lord. Imagine that Christ has actually asked you to do a favor. And that favor is doing what He's called you to do, doing the simple task that He's called you to do to be able to get closer to being the best version of yourself. Imagine that He's asked you to do it. Imagine how much more willing you would be to do it if you imagine that Christ was asking you to do a favor for him. That's how I visualize it. I see what I need to do, and I imagine that, I'm working for Christ. I'm presenting my body as a living sacrifice. That's how I visualize. That's how I incorporate this last actionable step. Incorporating it into my faith and my walk with Christ. those are our three actionable steps. Now. We're going to go on to the acceleration phase, And this is maintaining your focus through these challenges. Think one of the key things to keep you on the path and keep you from going back into your ways of procrastination is really to revisit your why. How are you going to keep the momentum so that you can keep accelerating through this race of life in your discipline journey? You want to revisit why you're actually doing it. You want to have a really strong why. Galatians 6, 9 says, And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. And in that scripture, if you truly believe that the scriptures are real, then you understand that. If you continue to stay consistent on the path and you don't drop back into procrastination, you don't drop back into putting things off. You actually do them. You take the action right away and you continue to do it that you're going to reap a harvest. If you don't give up, it's literally what the scripture says. So for me, that looked like continuing to stay disciplined over eight years in track and field, continuing to make the sacrifices of getting up early and working out and really honestly pushing my body to the point where I wanted to give up. multiple times. The only way to get better in anything in life is to put yourself to the edge of the comfort zone and then go a little further, it's to get to the wall is to get to your threshold. It's to get to the point where you want to stop. It's to get to the point where you don't want to make the action. You don't want to move forward. And you do it anyway. That's how you get better each and every day. That's what I've done for the last 12 to 15 years of my life to get me to be a professional athlete, running for Adidas, running on the biggest stages and accomplishing some of the greatest, times in track and field history. It's really the way that I've done it. And it really, I've just revisited my why. And my why is really working and presenting my body as a living sacrifice to Christ. Really, every single day knowing that whenever I'm perfecting my gift, I'm actually giving worship and praise to my God because I'm stewarding well the gift that He's given me. And you have to understand that if you're not taking the action, you're not stewarding the gift well, you're not being obedient. And that gift might not be athletics, it might be in computer engineering, whatever it is. You know the specific things that you're good at, you know what God's blessed you with, and it's now time for you to actually get off your butt, stop procrastinating, and do them. That's really what I've done is I've just revisited my why and that why is deep for me and it could be different for you whatever that why is when I first started out my why was to get out of the messy neighborhood that I lived in and Live somewhere where it was nice and quiet and there was no violence and all kinds of like things going on around me that was my main goal and I did that. Now my goals have changed. They shifted. And over the course of my journey and my walk with Christ, it's been to really please my God and give Him glory. And I think that if that's your foundation, then there's nothing that can stop you. If you really understand that you're working for the Lord and there's nothing that can stop you and you realize what he's given you, he's the gift, he's given you the gift of salvation. And also the gift that you have that is supposed to be helping others in this world, You're never going to be able to accomplish that or get to that if you're not implementing discipline and you're not taking the action and he's got to stop procrastinating. So don't let that procrastination creep in. Back in, as you get down the road, as you take the action, make sure you revisit your why and you keep that at the forefront of your mind. Remember that discipline gets stronger just like any muscle discipline is a muscle. The more you work it, the better you get. Discipline is not something that people are just born with. Everyone has the ability to develop discipline and the tools that you need, specifically in this case, to stop procrastinating and all you have to do is work the muscle each and every day. Work the muscle each and every day. Discipline is not something that is going to be You know, overnight. And that's why, if you're on this journey with me, it's going to be a long journey, I've been competing in track and field for nine years. Professionally. I do not have any outdoor major championship medals. I've tried out for almost six teams. Now it's six USA teams. I've only made one. And in that I've never won an an Olympic or world championship outdoor medal. If I were to procrastinate on the things that I was supposed to do, I would never get it. I know I would never get it, but because I don't, I know that I have hope. Remember Galatians 6, 9, due season. So that discipline muscle, the more you exercise it, it's going to swell. And guess what? when you start to get that pump, when you start to get that, those gains, you feel more accomplished. And you have to remember that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. So the more tests you have, the better you're going to become. The harder tests you have. The stronger you're going to become, the stronger you can flex that, that discipline muscle. people like big muscles. I like big muscles. Now you're going full speed, you've recognized your mistakes. You've implemented some of these actionable steps. You've remembered your why. And you understand that obstacles are going to come. So now we're into the real life examples. And what I want to do in this segment is I want to read you guys a story, and in this story, he basically talks about his weight loss journey, and I thought it was really compelling. And so I'm going to read that for you. And this is going to be basically our real life example of someone getting it together, and really taking their life to the next level. So here's an article that says what a Navy SEAL can teach you about procrastination. And here's a quote from Dan Kennedy. It says the failure to act is much more often the product of inner emotional resistance than external resistance. What did I talk about earlier? Motivation is always internal to move forward. You must give up. Your story, whether it is excuses about your childhood, lack of education, your bad luck, your unsupportive family, your low metabolism, et cetera. You got to give those excuses up. So here it goes. So when I meet people at a party and they find out that I coach weight loss and fitness for a living, they're always curious as to who I work with. And I tell them, I work with procrastinators. I work with people who chronically put things off until the problem is so big, they need help fixing them. And we're all guilty of it, so I spent an entire year just focusing on beating procrastination, and it was my only goal, and I still struggle with it. You see something on your schedule, go to the gym tonight, and you procrastinate, and you keep putting it off, secretly hoping it will go away. Like magical thinking. If I ignore this extra 20 to 30 pounds, I have long enough. Maybe it will just go away, but it doesn't. That extra 10 becomes 20. then An extra 30 and soon you're in trouble because now it's dragging you down. Think this is the biggest controversy. And this is the one thing that stirs my soul the most is that when you look in the mirror, And you see yourself, and you're not seeing the person that you know you should be. That kills me. And I know it kills people out there, because you know how great you can be. There's something burning on the inside of you that tells you that you can do better. But somehow you just can't figure out how to make the next step. And so now you have a real problem, is what this article says. Here's a way to beat your internal resistance and procrastination from a Navy SEAL. He said, I read about a guy named Bobby Gassoff. Bobby grew up the son of an NHL defenseman and went on to captain the University of Michigan's hockey team. After college, Bobby was playing some minor league hockey. When he felt the calling to serve his country, he quit hockey and joined the Navy SEALs. Bobby and everyone else in buds training wasn't Was an athletic freak when they got there. Run the equivalent of three full marathons while carrying hundreds of pounds of gear on less than 30 minutes of sleep a night for a full week. One of his teammates, the winner of the Navy pentathlon and the best runner and swimmer in the group had just rung the bell and quit. Bobby decided he would just focus on the next single step he had to take. Bobby decided he would just focus on the next single step he had to take, right? Going back to those process goals. What's the step that you need to take? What's the positive action that you need to take right now? The thought of what he was going to have to go through for the rest of the training was just so overwhelming. He put it out of his head and this relates exactly to what I was talking about with the workouts for me, the workouts that I know are going to be grueling and hard. I just think about the next rep. I only have one more rep left. So I put one foot in front of the other, then thought about the next step after that now is losing 10, 20, even 50 pounds, the equivalent of Navy SEAL training. No, not really, but. When you lose focus and start to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the work ahead of you, you're increasing the chances. You're going to quit or even worse, never get started in the first place. Instead of thinking too broad with your focus, like we talked about earlier, instead, think about this a first step, get that done and go through the process again. What's your next step? Next I'll eat a sensible lunch. When that's done, I'll have a protein drink at 2pm. When that's done, I'll leave work and drive straight to the gym at 6pm. If I go home, I'll never leave. Just focus on getting in the car and pointing it in the direction of the gym and get there and walk in. That's it. What's your first step? What do you need to do this day this minute to overcome your own? Internal resistance and make this day your best. I know you can do it. Take that first step today I believe in you and that's my call to action to you guys, whatever that first step is You've just got to go take it. The big takeaway is go take the first step. Don't wait another hour. Don't wait another minute. Go take the first step. That's the first thing you've got to do in order to defeat procrastination. Whether you take a loss today and your journey to become the best version of yourself is on you. Because now you have the tools. Now you have the tools to overcome procrastination. now we're at the finish line. And we're going to go over just the takeaways from this episode. One quote that I really want to just hit on again, man, the world has so many dreamers and not enough doers. If you're sitting in a place where you don't like the person that you're looking at in the mirror, it's because you know that there's a better version of yourself. And that, that version of yourself it's going to not only help you, it's going to help so many people. And if you don't take action to become that best version of yourself, you're going to feel like you're dying inside because you're going to have a desire and you're not going to have initiative to do it. So one of the big things I want to recap is that the verse Proverbs 21 25, It says the desire of a slugger kills him for his hands refused to labor. And remember that verse teaches us that doing rather than desiring bring success, the next thing that I want to cover go over really is those three mistakes, The first one is starting too big. The second one is waiting for motivation. You've gotta be motivated internally because discipline is an internal switch. It's an internal thing that must be changed from the insides. So you can develop the tactics, the strategies, the actions on the outside. And then mistake number three is falling victim to too much research. Just go do it. And then what are those three things that you can do? You can take the action right away. That's strategy number one. Number two is having those process goals, what's the first step? Then what's the next step? What are those things actionable that you can focus on each and every day? And the last one is visualization. With Christ in mind, Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Remember that you're serving Christ with your gift. You're serving Christ with your time. You're serving Christ by not procrastinating and being obedient and doing exactly what he's called you to do. In that, make sure you revisit your why, anticipate the obstacles that are gonna come up, and then just go find some motivation from someone else, right? Have some accountability. Maybe you have someone that's gonna keep you on track, that's gonna push you in the right direction, so that you can overcome procrastination and start living the best life that you know you need to live, my challenge to you guys is implement these strategies, go take some action, do that. And I know that it's going to help you with the procrastination. There's obviously so many things that I could cover here, but these are the things that I feel like are going to help you combat procrastination and really put the phrase defeat is optional as A mantra for your life. I hope that this podcast help you guys. And honestly, it's given you some actionable steps for limiting procrastination, overcoming procrastination, defeating those challenges that come up in your life when it comes to getting started and actually continuing to do the tasks that you know you need to do and also just winning the race of life. I love you guys. Thanks for hanging out with me. If you can like this video, we're trying to get this video to 25 likes. If you're watching on YouTube, if you're listening on podcasts, just share it with a friend, if it actually helped you, that's all I can ask. If you're not subscribed to the newsletter and you want actionable tips and strategies and Bible verses to help you in your discipline journey, make sure you subscribe to the newsletter. I'll be sending out an email on tips and strategies that have helped me become a world class athlete and can help you accomplish any task and anything in your life that you want to be successful in. So make sure you subscribe that newsletter so you can stay updated and you're also going to get updates on when this podcast is going to come out. I'll catch you guys in the next episode. Peace.