Let’s be honest, we’ve all procrastinated a time or two in our lives. And, if you’re a business owner or wanting to start your own business, it might be a place you find yourself in on a regular basis, perhaps without you even realizing it. Maybe for you, it looks like perfectionism, busy-ness, or procrasti-learning, but one thing’s for sure…you’re putting off taking real, inspired action…not doing those things you know you REALLY need to do to move the needle in your business. In this episdoe, I’m sharing my tips to turn that procastination into inspired action stay tuned.
“In reality, you know enough. You already know what you need to do and you know you can take action with the knowledge that you currently have.” – Shawn Mynar
“The learning experience comes from doing…really get honest with yourself and see if you already actually know what you need to know.” – Shawn Mynar
“Perfectionism is a huge sign of procrastination. If you’re a perfectionist because you need everything to be perfect, you procrastinate.” – Shawn Mynar
“You will easily notice how much quieter the ego is when you are just focusing on the next step, it is obvious… It’s all about that organization and chunking things up and focusing on one step at a time.” – Shawn Mynar
“A lot of us have integrity with others, in our relationships and things like that. But what about with yourself? Are you staying committed to the dreams that you created?” – Shawn Mynar
Signature Program Bundle – shawnmynar.com/bundle
Instagram – @shawnmynar
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
0:00
Let’s be honest, we’ve all procrastinated a time or two in our lives. And if you’re a business owner or wanting to start your own business, it might be a place you find yourself in on a regular basis, perhaps without you even realizing it. Maybe for you, it looks like perfectionism, busyness, or that all too common procrastinate learning. One thing’s for sure, though, you’re putting off taking real inspired action, not doing those things you know, you really need to do to move the needle in your business. In this episode, I’m sharing my tips to turn that procrastination into inspired action. So stay tuned.
0:44
Hey there, I’m Sean miner, and this is unstuck entrepreneur. I’m a former nutritionist who turned a struggling stressful nutrition practice into a thriving, Freedom filled online business way work from home and my sweat pants while reaching and helping 1000s of people all at the same time. Now I’m obsessed with showing other heart centered coaches, practitioners and solopreneurs how to build a business and life they love. Consider this podcast your safe space to learn both the inner work and practical strategies required to build the impactful profitable business of your dreams, no hustle, grind, or long hours required. That’s right hustle culture. not welcome here. Let’s get into today’s session.
1:28
Hey, Hey there friends. Welcome back to the unstuck entrepreneur podcast. Happy to have you here happy to have you checking out the show. So grateful for all of your support. As always, let’s get into talking a bit about procrastination a hot topic really, for everyone, I think, but especially for us business owners. Quickly before we do that, I want to give you one quick announcement, which is that the next five episodes of unstuck entrepreneur are going to be best of episodes, I’ve done this before. I like to do this once in a while. It’s good for a lot of reasons. First of all, I am taking a break, I’m taking a little bit of a staycation. And then also just taking some time to do some different things in my business. And it’s also great because I’m picking out hand selecting past episodes from the past 160 that are the most popular, the most talked about episodes and given them some additional airtime, bringing them back for another round. And obviously, they may be episodes that you missed that you haven’t listened to. Or maybe you’ve listened to them. And now you can kind of re listen from a new place a new time in your life, a new perspective, things that maybe you didn’t even catch the first time around the first episode. Now you catch those the second time around the second time you listen. So it’s a really great opportunity to do all of that. And so that will be the next five episodes that you listen to of unstuck entrepreneur, and then I will be back after that. With a fresh perspective. I’m feeling fresh, I’m feeling good. I just had a five weeks off. And we’re ready to dive into some new topics and some new episodes. So that will be coming up. Just wanted to make sure that you were aware, procrastination. Let’s chat about it. The definition is the action of delaying or postponing something, in this case that something is your business. And even more specific than that, it is that real inspired action in your business. That action that is like partially scary. But also partially exciting, actually is probably mostly scary, but also has that excitement to it of, oh, this thing is going to move the needle, it’s going to really do something, it’s going to provide some income, it’s going to help more people, it’s going to get my work out in the world, the stuff that really makes a difference. That’s the stuff that we’re talking about. We’re talking about the stuff that gets you out of your comfort zone. We’re talking about the stuff that gets you closer to your dreams. And like I said, that kind of action that really truly moves the needle for you and your business. We’re not talking about the busy work, my friends. We can do busy work all day and feel like we’ve actually done something with our lives. But at the end of the day, that actually is a sign of procrastination because
5:00
There’s really nothing to show for it. There’s nothing that has actually, like I said, move the needle, gotten you to the next step gotten you out of your comfort zone gotten you closer to your dreams, gotten your work out there. And so that’s where we kind of have to have this like criteria for our action steps that we take. And I don’t want to talk about those action steps. There are times and places to do busy work. Yes, it needs to get done. But that time and place is going to be once you already have created momentum in your business. Once you’ve already done the scary things, once you’ve already gotten some stuff out there, gotten some work going made some money, gotten some clients. And then we can take a little breather and maybe have a day or two where you do the busy work yet fumble with your website, you create some things on Canva, you do some stuff just as like a breather. And because you know that stuff’s fun, too. It’s fun to take a break and do that kind of thing. That’s not we’re talking about today, we’re talking about those big inspired action steps, not the stuff that you feel you need to take either not those things that five people told you to do. And so now you feel like you have to do it, the inspired stuff, the things that yes, are scary, but also gives you that tinge of excitement that you know will bring you closer, or get you to where you want to be the right moves for you. So just had to go on a little tangent there to really, really make sure you know what kind of action we are delaying or postponing when we’re talking about procrastination in this episode. We also know I think I think most of you listening, if you have even listened to another unstuck entrepreneur episode prior to this, most of you know about the ego. And that mental chatter voice that goes on in our head, most of the time. It’s the loud, obnoxious voice that is constantly telling you things that you cannot do, that you should not do. It’s warning you against things that are scary, it’s warning you against things that could happen and should or should not happen. It’s that like annoying chatter box in our heads that we all have. Procrastination is one of the telltale signs that your ego is in charge of the show here. And it has made itself in charge, because it wants to stall. Because there is something scary ahead. It is telling you out of fear, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of judgment, fear of being seen, all the fears, and specifically those fears that we face as business owners as people who are doing new things and putting their work out there and putting themselves out there, and being of service and making their own money making their own living creating their own lives. There’s some unknowns there. And those unknowns are scary to the ego, because your ego wants to keep you safe in your comfort zone. So anything that gets you outside of your comfort zone where there is risk of failing, succeeding judgment being seen any of the things that you have created in your mind as a story of things that could go wrong, that is going to keep you in this place of fear and stalling. And procrastination is that way of your ego stalling you.
9:06
And it looks like commonly, I’ve already mentioned one of the biggest ones busy work. And this is where like I said you’re spending hours designing things in Canva you’re spending weeks working on or tinkering with your website. You’re you’re just spending time on things that don’t directly contribute to your bottom line. And yes, those who procrastinate those who love doing busy work could say, Yeah, well I need these Canva designs to post on social media because without that, then you know that is how I get clients is by posting on social media, whether you have or have not actually done that. That’s what your ego will say your ego will say I need a website to get clients and to send people to an order
10:00
or to, for them to learn what I do. And again, that’s an ego move that’s again, keeping you in this place of busyness. And the best part about this, if you are a procrastinator is that it doesn’t feel like it, you can easily convince yourself and this is coming from your ego can convince you that you are, quote, unquote, working, you are quote, unquote, building your business, because you are working on your website, you are designing things in Canva. And so you know, we have that kind of fall back to where it seems like you are doing things for your business. But at the end of the day, what we’re talking about here is real inspired action. And I can tell you with 100% certainty, that you do not need a website to make a lot of money to get clients to fill your group program to host a paid workshop. You don’t need a website to do any of that right now, everything that I’m doing as far as having free workshops, having landing pages, having freebies, getting people on my email, list, everything that you see, when you interact with my business, unless you go directly to Sean miner.com. Anything else that I am sending to you to like Sean miner.com/bundle, Sean miner.com/day, Sean miner.com/masterclass. So anything I’m doing that has a slash is not my website, it’s a landing page. And I create, it has nothing to do with my website. It’s not even connected. I have created a redirect, yes, but they’re not connected. So I don’t need a website. And you don’t need a website. And you don’t need it to be all fancy and flashy either, to start making money to start getting clients to start putting your work out there and to create a paid offer and have people sign up, or even to have people sign up for your freebie and start building your email list. You don’t need it. So that is that can be debunked, that is something that your ego is telling you. And yeah, they’re important. I’m not saying don’t ever have one. But that is definitely something I would recommend you work on once you are already making money, once you already have established a paid offer in your business, and a way to get people into that using a quick landing page. And you know, there’s all different platforms you can use for landing pages, I use Kajabi, you can use ConvertKit, too. I’ve used that before, most platforms that you use to either host your email list or host, your online programs and courses and workshops and things like that. We’ll also have landing pages for you to use and to make that experience really nice for your clients. So yes, all that to say that those are the kinds of things that can be done after you have started to generate revenue in your business. And so anything outside of that, I am going to consider busy work anything that is not time spent on revenue generating activities, like building your program, designing the slides for your paid workshop, creating your schedule to or your packages for your one on one clients. That stuff. Yes, work on that. And then put that out into the world. And once that’s been established, then you can like I said, have those days where you’re just like, I just want to do some busy work and that is what you’re doing. And that is not procrastination at that point. Procrastination can also show up like I mentioned in that intro as procrastinate learning. I first heard this term in the book chill printer by Denise Duffield Thomas and I believe the name of that book has since changed to chill and prosper. It’s a great book at least ShopRunner was I assume it’s the same book and just a different title now, really great. I really loved that. And you might too but when I heard this, I was like, Oh my gosh, yes. This is what so many people are doing. Yes, I was in this place at one point too. I get it. But it’s this thing where you know enough to take action. But you’re continuing to tell yourself that you need to learn more to take action. Like you’re stuck in this cycle where you’re like, oh, but then now there’s this course and this
15:00
person’s hosting this thing. And oh, there’s this book here that I think would really help me. And it’s like you’re just constantly in this cycle of thinking that you need to learn more, when in reality, and this is all coming from your ego. In reality, you know, enough, you already know what you need to do. And you can take action with the knowledge that you currently have. And again, this is tricky, and is really easy to convince yourself that you’re not procrastinating. Because it feels like you’re doing something, it feels like you know, you’re going through the modules of this online course, or you’re reading the book, or you’re watching the recordings of the workshop and taking notes. So it feels like you’re doing something again, just like that busy work. But it is a point where you have to get real with yourself and gauge how much you actually already know. And is it enough to take action? And if you really get honest with yourself, the answer is probably yes. It probably is a case where you already know enough. No, you don’t have to be an expert. No, you don’t have to know everything under the sun before you start taking action. There is this thing. And maybe we can try it and see how it goes. Where you learn as you go. It’s this amazing thing where the learning experience comes from doing which you all know, I’m a fan of. So you can give that a try. If you find yourself in this place of procrastinate learning, really get honest with yourself and see if you already actually know what you need to know. The next way that procrastination can show up is in this place of overthinking common common place to be in. And what is really happening is like this mechanism of again, your ego out of this place of fear and out of this place of unknown, wanting to try to know everything and wanting to try to already determine what could and could not happen and try to get you out of any risk. Try to keep you away from anything that could possibly go wrong. Anything that could possibly have happened, anything that could possibly be scary. And so as you’re trying to figure that out, you overthink, and because you’re thinking constantly and trying to plan it all out and figure out which is the best and then reconsidering it and then reconsidering it again and going back and forth. And doing all of this thinking, that also means you’re not doing. And when you’re not doing well, then that means you’re safe, because you’re not doing. So the ego is working, it’s doing its job, it’s keeping you stuck, and it’s keeping you stalled out in this place of procrastination all because that mind is going a mile a minute trying essentially to keep you safe trying to keep anything bad from happening, trying to keep you from doing anything risky. And it comes across as overthinking. And then it is a byproduct, procrastination comes into play to
18:29
perfectionism is a huge, huge sign of procrastination be in it again, it’s this cycle where if you’re a perfectionist, then because you need everything to be perfect, you procrastinate, because it’s never going to be perfect. So that is a way of stalling. And then also if you are a procrastinator, then you can use that idea that need
18:58
to be perfect to continue on your stream of procrastination. So they work together very much go hand in hand. And it very much is one of those kind of quote unquote excuses that we can use to stay stalled out is because it’s not perfect, when you know, it will never be perfect. And so you can continue staying in that place. And then there’s also you know, I don’t love using the word excuses and I use air quotes when I say that, but you I’m talking about the things like using these stories of you don’t have the money you don’t have the time you don’t have the experience to actually take this real inspired, true honest. move the needle action in your business. And then but like think about it this way, why do you want or have a business? Isn’t it to get you more of all of those things for you to make more money?
20:00
For you to have more time for you to get more experience. And so the only reason why you have those barriers is because you’re procrastinating. So it’s again, this cycle of, I don’t have the money, I don’t have the experience, I don’t have the time to make this all work. So I will use that to feed my procrastination. But then that procrastination will already always keep you from the things that you want. And it is even like, if this is gonna get kind of a little nutty, but stick with me here. You use those excuses, to not build your business, so that you can continue having those excuses.
20:46
Think about it. It’s weird. Our ego does some crazy things. This is not you choosing to do any of this, it is your ego, based on your limiting beliefs based on your stories based on things that have happened in into your past, based on things you want to stay clear of and fears that you have. But you use the excuses of not having money, time, resources, experience, etc. To continue to not have money, time, experience, resources, etc. Mind blowing, just think about it. Okay, let’s move on to talking about more deeply why this happens. So yes, I’ve already brought up the ego that’s really 100% at play when you are in this place of procrastination. And why that is happening. More specifically, is because you’re looking too far ahead. This is like the plain and simple, how basic can we get this to really get to a point where we can get ourselves out of it. And it is because you’re looking too far ahead that this is why you are now here, you’re focused on steps two through 100. Versus just focusing on step one. Because if you focus on that step right ahead of you,
22:09
you’ll first of all, get to step 10 2100. So much faster and without the ego really ever getting involved. And more importantly, you’ll actually do that first step. Because the first step isn’t scary. That first step is doable.
22:30
It’s when the ego gets involved because of all the steps in front of you. It’s like there’s that much more material to feed off of. The more steps, the scarier it all gets. Step one, not so bad step 20. Super scary step 100. Impossible not going to happen. And when you’re looking at it from this big picture as a whole. And you’re really going down the line of all the things you have to do to actually make this thing happen to actually put your work out there to actually create a new paid offer to create a program to start a podcast to put up a YouTube channel when you’re thinking about all of the steps. Scary, impossible, so many things can go wrong, don’t want to go their ego gets involved makes it even scarier. And then you find yourself procrastinating. So if you actually want to turn that procrastination into inspired action, you’ve got to always stay focused on just the next step. So now in order to do that, and to do it in a way where you actually will turn those steps into the the outcome that you want, you do have to know all the steps. And I think this is another reason why we can turn to procrastination too, is because you haven’t really created an organized plan or an organized set of action steps that need to be taken to get where you want to go. So instead, it feels disorganized. It feels like a lot it feels bigger than it actually is. And it just feels like you’re biting off more than you can chew and right there is a reason to stay stalled out. But if we can actually sit down first, know your goal, like that inspired goal, that thing that you really want to do in your business that will directly move the needle for you. Pick one of those things. Create that goal and then sit down and break it up into actionable doable steps. That is your step one that should not hopefully be scary and that
25:00
should not hopefully lead to you procrastinating. Because this is actually giving you more clarity around what you need to do. So sit down and write out all the steps, they don’t have to be an order yet, they don’t have to be, like perfectly figured out, you don’t have to know every single thing. But do some research, maybe ask some people as some friends or your coach, or you can DM me and ask me, ask some people and make sure that you’ve really figured out the entire flow of what you need to do to get to that end goal. Then look at that list, once you have it all figured out. And I want you to take out all of the things that aren’t essential, like, Did you accidentally put in some busy work type things that aren’t directly focused on getting that goal achieved, like some stuff that could be done afterwards, that isn’t of the highest priority that can kind of take a backseat, until you know, goal is already achieved. And you’re going back and refining or adding to or having a busy work session, then make sure that you have taken those tasks out and put them on a separate list, put them somewhere else. So we really want to make sure that this list of steps that you have is essential, inspired real action. Also, it should be doable. So if you have, you know this one step that’s like, create 20 videos for my YouTube channel, that might be overwhelming. Like, let’s chunk that down more. So instead of creating 20, create my first YouTube video, create my second YouTube video, create my third YouTube video, edit my first YouTube video, you know, like really chunk it down and make it doable, actionable reasonable, and directly related to getting that work out there to getting that goal complete.
27:15
Now, you’re going to go back through that list of all of the essential things and figure out the order that you want to take, there will be some things that need to be done first, like you can’t start recording your podcast episodes before you have a mic. You can’t edit episodes before you record them. Okay, so now you have this list of action items that directly correlate and correspond with your one big inspired action goal. And there in order, there’s no fluff, it’s exactly what you need to do. And now you just focus on the one step that you are at, you do step one, cross it off the list, then you focus on step two, cross it off the list. Step three, step four, step five, until it’s done, just focus on that very next step, it can be a big step, it can be a small step, that doesn’t matter. Keeping it actionable, and doable is what really matters. And making sure you don’t start looking at number 10 and number 20 Number 30 down the list. And getting back into that place and getting the ego involved even more, you will notice, you will really easily notice how much quieter the ego is when you’re just focusing on that next step. It is obvious, like how much less chatter you have how much easier it is to get that step done to get the work done, and how much more focused you are and how much more excitement or flow you’re in when you are doing that work. It really does make a difference. It’s all about that organization, and chunking things up and focusing on one step at a time. It is amazing what this as a practical tool will do to help with your procrastination.
29:28
But now, we can’t end this conversation here. Because there’s something really big we still have to talk about. And that is the idea of commitment and integrity. Integrity, I think a lot of you actually would say that integrity is a big value of yours. integrity in your relationships in your friendships. You
30:00
You know, for those that aren’t familiar, what I think of when I think of integrity is doing what you say you’ll do. That is important, right? That’s important in all of your relationships, and it’s important in careers.
30:15
With your family, like that is a big deal. But what about doing what you say you’ll do to yourself, staying in integrity with yourself? A lot of us have integrity with others in our relationships and things like that. But what about with yourself? Are you staying in integrity? Are you doing what you say you’ll do? Are you staying committed to that list? Are you staying committed to the dreams that you created to that business that you really want to the people that you really want to help? If you’ve been here for a while, and if you’ve been in any of my programs, then you created a vision, for your business, for your life, for the life of your family, because of this business that you created, there is a path that you are going down. And as soon as you created that vision, it became a probability for you. And so when we have this procrastination, and the ego starts getting involved, that becomes kind of on the backburner. It’s a little fuzzier, I guess that vision becomes fuzzier, because our ego has gotten involved. But well, what will always bring it back is staying in integrity. And making self integrity, as important as integrity in your relationships, integrity in your family, Integrity with your partner, doing what you say, you’ll do. That’s important friends. And that is when this I like your commitment to what you want to create becomes so strong, that it will happen, that there’s nothing that could keep that from happening. So that’s one thing that yes, you know, started with the practical stuff of things you can do to help with your procrastination, but on another level, working on your integrity, and coming back to that, and making that a focal point in your life for yourself,
32:35
as it is for others in your life. And then the next thing is just remembering to always be building and working on your awareness. Because, as I’ve mentioned, 100 times now, in this episode, the ego is responsible for your procrastination, and we have complete control over that ego, you, your inner you, your inner knowing your inner voice has more power has complete power over that inner chatter, that mental chatter in that ego voice. And so once you have built your awareness around that, then you can be fully aware of that voice that is luring you to that side of procrastination, wanting to hold you back. And you can choose whether you listen or not, you can choose in an instant, whether that is something that you do or don’t do, whether that is something you believe or don’t believe. And you can move from that place. And we’ve talked about this so much about inspired action comes from that inner knowing that inner voice, your intuition, and it’s being cut off by your ego, but it can just as easily be reversed. Like I said, in a flash in one instant. And it just comes from being aware and not just letting your mental chatter run the show without questioning it. You should always be questioning that voice. Because there’s another answer. There’s another way.
34:20
And, you know, lastly, similar to the integrity thing, but also just always be reminding yourself of those goals that you have of those dreams that you want to create of that vision and that plan that you have for what could be what you want to happen, how you want your life to look how you are choosing to spend your time. Again, it’s that awareness thing we get so lost in the day to day that we lose sight of what we’re really trying to do and then that gives the ego that much more space to just take over. But if you stay in touch with
35:00
If what you’re really doing here with those plans that you have for your life, well, it becomes a lot harder to for that voice to come through. Because you’re committed. And when you’re committed, and you’re in touch, and you know what you want, and you’re living in integrity with yourself. And you’re focusing on the awareness of, and just the ability to choose your thoughts and choose what you act on. Procrastination doesn’t stand a chance, does it? Right. So that is what I really wanted to end this conversation with. Guys, I procrastinate. We all do. It’s part of being human, it is okay, it’s going to happen. I’m not saying that you’re never allowed to procrastinate and talk yourself out of doing things. I do it for sure. But this is your reminder, this is your invitation to just continue taking action to stop doubting yourself to stop talking yourself out of what you really want to focus on what feels good and inspiring. And just makes you want to keep moving forward. All right, my friends, that will wrap it up for this episode. And like I mentioned, the next five will be past episodes you may or may not have already heard, but are back by popular demand. So definitely recommend re listening if you have already heard them. And just like I said, you will always pick up something new because you’re at a different moment in your life. And if you are interested in if part of this whole non procrastination that you are getting yourself into means that you are now ready to build your signature program and get your work out into the world and create a new revenue stream for your business. Then the signature program bundle is open right now, we have some extra special bonuses going on now and extra special pricing this week only. So if you want to do and you want the to do list the action steps already laid out for you. And basically everything I just told you to do in terms of like organizing, and focusing on the next step of your business. I do that all for you around your signature program in the bundle and take all the guesswork and really just give you a step by step do exactly this. And you will have a signature program out into the world that is creating income for you and your business. So if that is something you’re interested in, Shawnmynar.com/bundle That is your link to get the special pricing going on this week and the extra special bonuses. And that will be ending soon. So Shawnmynar.com/bundle, and until next time, take care. Hey friend, real quick before you go, don’t forget to head over to my website and take the quiz to find out your solopreneur personality type. I’ve created a super fun super informative two minute quiz that will show you which one of the four solopreneur personality types you fall into. Could it be the boss, the socialite, the visionary or the supporter? Which one are you? Not only is it just fun to know more about yourself, especially as it relates to your business, but it’s also really important information so you can be sure that you’re building a business that works for you, based on your energy, your personality, and your desires. Did you ever take those quizzes from the Cosmopolitan magazine back in the day? It’s kinda like that, but with actual solid questions and real helpful tips and advice at the end, you can find the What’s your solopreneur personality type quiz right on the homepage of my website at Sean miner.com head there now to take the quiz then let me know over on Instagram at unstuck entrepreneur, what your type is I’ll see you over there
0 Comments