Lose the Snooze

Throughout the week I have heard many great tales of victories early in the year.  There are a few heeding the call to be disciplined; getting out the door, doing what they should, whether they feel like it or not.

 

Ah... the very essence of leading a disciplined life, both personal and professional, is to do what you should when you should whether you feel like it or not.  However, all too common an issue that continues to raise its ugly head, is the ubiquitous face of procrastination.

 

How do we beat procrastination?

 

To solve that would be to take a gigantic leap in the human race.  I honestly doubt that a simple blog post could cure anyone of repeated procrastination, but I would like to propose that if you are one who procrastinates (don’t we all suffer at some level) then perhaps you would consider a new course of action.

 

We must have the courage to do something new.  If not, then we are relegated to the ranks of people who give up and accept mediocre outcomes.

 

Here's my proposal: if you are one who wakes up in the morning to an alarm clock, but you have a habit of snoozing the clock until it insists you get up, then starting tomorrow I would ask you to stop snoozing.  Simply set your alarm for the time you want and put your feet on the ground when your clock goes off.

 

This seems like such inane and possibly irrelevant coaching, but consider this: the snooze button on your alarm clock is much like the snooze button in your business and in your life.  We often go to great lengths to create systems and structures to help us with the activities that we know we should do.

 

I have coached people who have created very elaborate systems all designed to help them "just do it."  Then, when the alarm goes off – we snooze it.  Our freedom to choose to snooze our activities is very powerful and very destructive.

 

If you are caught in a pattern of habitually snoozing your stated disciplines, I call you to lose the snooze.  Start in the morning.  Let the first thing you do in your day be indicative of how you will conduct yourself throughout the day.  You will be stunned at just what you can do if you simply stop snoozing.

Comments

[John Gallagher]

I accept your challenge. I am good for at least 3 'snoozes' in the morning!!

[steve]

How you doin with the snoozin, John?

[John Gallagher]

Pretty good, Steve, although I did pick up a chest cold or allergy this week that is wreaking havoc on the exercise time block. Snoozing is good, though, and I put the alarm for when I need to get up.