In this episode, we discuss how procrastination is actually preventing you from being who you want to be in life.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about a lesson that I got from Steven Pressfield in his book, The Art of War and that is resistance by definition is self-sabotage. I read this book a couple of years ago and it didn’t really apply to me. Then I decided to read it again because I was hearing on some podcasts that it was an amazing book.
I decided to read the book again and I was amazed by it. If you’re a business owner or if you do something creative, a big majority of your day is overcoming the voice in your head that says you shouldn’t work on your craft. Pressfield calls this the resistance. It’s your ego telling you not to put yourself out there because the failure will be too great to handle.
And in the grand scheme of things in today’s media landscape, people don’t really remember something for too long. Plus there are so many things to focus on that you won’t be the talk of the town especially if you live in a big city. One thing I need to get back into is doing live videos. I told myself that I was going to wait until I moved to Mexico and that’s when I plan to relaunch everything.
Plus I’m in school right now and that is cutting into my business hours but it’s okay. I’m learning some interesting things in my accounting and microeconomics class. But when I re-read this book earlier in 2019, it just gave me the kick in the butt to get over my feelings of embarrassment to do some videos. I did about 20 videos and then I got sick and then I just stopped for three months. I’ve been keeping up the podcast so that’s been good but a lot of people are consuming videos more than reading so I know that’s an area I need to get back into.
But there is a resistance that goes inside my head that says that I should do other things and when I listen to that voice, I’m just self-sabotaging myself and that is the worst thing I can do to myself. It’s no one else’s fault but mine when I don’t do the things I am supposed to do. But re-reading that book, makes it so much easier to stop listening to that voice that is inside my head.
To get over that resistance, you just have to start taking action. To help me take action, I usually give myself little pep talks and I tell myself things like “You got this Joe” “Hard Choices, Easy Life; Easy Choices, Hard Life.” and by saying these things it helps me do the things I need to do.
I was in a good flow for a while with the videos but then I got sick and then I traveled to Chicago to visit family and that just got me distracted. Now in October, I started school and bought my plane ticket to Mexico to start my two-year sabbatical. So I’ve been busy with seeing family and making sure I’m closing tasks that I need to do before I head out. These are excuses overall though because there have been times where I could work on stuff and I didn’t. I just told myself that I’ll wait until Mexico. Maybe it is for the best that I wait so that I don’t overextend myself. But the idea is that every day that passes by, it’s going to be easier and easier not to do my uncomfortable work. I have also been slacking on my social media posting. So I’m just going to wait until I get to Mexico where I’ll be more secluded and kind of force myself to produce content.
The sooner we can get over the resistance, the closer we can get to the person that we want to be in life. I’m blessed that I have the self-awareness to know where I am falling behind and I contribute a lot of that self-awareness to reading a lot of books, listening to a lot podcasts, and going for 30-minute walks where I just think. Just figure out where you are having feelings of resistance and just start taking action. I feel that imposter syndrome is something that keeps coming up for why people don’t do anything and from my experience in life so far, no one really knows what is going on. They are just taking things one day at a time and trying to figure what works. If you’re trying something new and it doesn’t work out, at least you know that it doesn’t work and there are things you can do to fix any discrepancies in your work.
If other people don’t know what they are doing, then I’m fine with whatever I’m doing. I’m just being me. Plus when you listen to stories of other people’s failures, you realize that people are not perfect and make mistakes. It can be a lot of work to fix those mistakes but then you will have valuable experience to help you in future situations. In Japan, there is form of art called Kintsugi, which is pottery that has been broken and fused back together with gold. You’re not supposed to hide your flaws, you’re supposed to expose them. Plus I like to think that your flaws are what make you as a person. They give you meaning and purpose in life.
If you fall into the resistance, then you will never have cracks or dents in your persona but it’s a sign that you have never been used. And why keep something around if you’re never going to use it. The Japanese with Kintsugi believe that wear and tear is a sign that you need that item in your life because you get so much purpose out of it. We should be functional and not just take up space. I have a lot of dents and cracks in my persona and I believe they made me into a better person, but I also had to do some very uncomfortable things in life. I can say, for the most part, I didn’t self-sabotage myself. I might take a break here or there, but I eventually do what I say I’m going to do. And when I’m going through that process of taking action on my goals, I’m going to have some wear and tear on my body and on my soul. But then with enough time, gold is filled in or covers up the dents, and I’m just going to shine more as a person and be who I want to be in life.
Life is short and if you don’t get over your resistance, it’s just going to cause you to collect dust while you sit on the shelve not being used.
That’s it for today’s episode, and to summarize it, resistance by definition is self-sabotage. I would highly recommend that you read the book The War of Art By Steven Pressfield. It’s a short book and you get through it in a weekend. This book helped me and it can help you too. But to get over your imposter syndrome, start reading stories of other people’s failures and just start taking action. And while you fumble through your goals, be proud of your dents and cracks because it shows the world that you’re useful.
Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
