What is the Price you Pay?
Yesterday I was complaining to Pam Austin, my fabulous coach, that when it comes to working on written projects (blogs, newsletters, web pages, you name it!) I want to run the other way. Even though I am a skilled writer and know I have lots of value to offer, I feel overwhelmed when my to-do list includes the above mentioned writing projects. When I feel overwhelmed, my default behavior is to get everything done but the things I resist. This becomes “effective procrastination”. I call this “effective procrastination” because I do get a whole lot done, BUT that getting lots of stuff done doesn’t include the writing projects. I have identified my process (overwhelm leading to procrastination) and am very aware that doing something different is required of me if I am looking for a different result. Now I get to make the choice-do nothing different and continue to struggle with my behavior which causes me discomfort and is clearly not serving me, or, make a change, hopefully one with long lasting results.
Pam asked me to think about the price I am paying by continuing with a behavior pattern that does not serve me. This was a simple yet riving question! I thought about our conversation all night, it led to my writing on this topic and I decided to make the commitment to change my behavior and develop a writing project practice that will enable me to move forward with less of the overwhelm-procrastination scenario! This is something worth celebrating!
When I teach planning, marketing, and financial fitness, I talk a lot about developing practices. We are often committed to practices in our day to day life (meditation, diet and exercise for example) and can easily identify the benefits we gain. When it comes to our business we don’t think about building practices in the same way, but there isn’t a lot of difference.
The first step to building a practice is awareness. You need to know what it is you want to change before you can start the work effort. Defining the work to be done and planning how you are going to get it done are the next important steps in building a practice. Consistency, clear deliverables, and commitment form a great structure for developing a business practice. I support you to think about what practice you need in your business that will allow you greater accomplishment with more ease.