The ONLY Way To Stop Procrastinating | Mel Robbins — Transcript

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1. 0:00You're not a procrastinator.
2. 0:02You have a habit of procrastinating.
3. 0:06Big difference.
4. 0:07Because if it's a habit, I can teach you
5. 0:10to use science to break it.
6. 0:19So, let's talk a little bit about
7. 0:21procrastination.
8. 0:22Who in here struggles with
9. 0:23procrastination?
10. 0:25Yeah, and the rest of you that aren't
11. 0:26raising your hand are just
12. 0:27procrastinating on doing it, aren't you?
13. 0:29I know. You see, I always thought
14. 0:30procrastination had to do with the thing
15. 0:32I was procrastinating around, right?
16. 0:34Like that procrastination has something
17. 0:36to do with work. Believe it or not,
18. 0:38procrastination has nothing to do with
19. 0:40your work.
20. 0:41Procrastination
21. 0:43is a form of stress relief. Let me
22. 0:46explain this. So, let's say that you've
23. 0:48got some stuff going on in your life,
24. 0:50and heck, who doesn't have stuff going
25. 0:52on in your life? Maybe you're fighting
26. 0:54with your significant other. Maybe mom's
27. 0:56or dad's health is failing and it's
28. 0:58really, really upsetting you. Maybe
29. 1:01you've got some financial stuff. You put
30. 1:03too much of your savings into Bitcoin,
31. 1:05and now that that's crashed, you're
32. 1:06stressed out about it, right? And so,
33. 1:08you go into work, and when you get into
34. 1:10work, you got stuff to do. You kind of
35. 1:12walk in and you got this big stress ball
36. 1:14that
37. 1:15subconsciously is hanging over your
38. 1:17head. And so, you walk in and you sit
39. 1:19down, and you know you got 13 phone
40. 1:22calls you need to make. And you also
41. 1:23know that you've been chickening out.
42. 1:25You've been making easy calls, and
43. 1:26there's a bunch of CIOs or other people
44. 1:28that are higher level that you haven't
45. 1:29been calling. And so, as you sit down to
46. 1:32do it, you got the stress on your
47. 1:33shoulders, your brain
48. 1:35it starts to go, "Wait a minute. You
49. 1:36want me to make a call to somebody that
50. 1:38I'm scared to make? Absolutely not. I'm
51. 1:40so stressed out about it. Can we just
52. 1:42watch some cat videos for a minute?"
53. 1:45And next thing you know, an hour's gone
54. 1:47by. And then, of course, what do you do?
55. 1:49You beat yourself up. So, the only way
56. 1:51that you can break this habit, and
57. 1:54that's an important word for you to
58. 1:55hear. You're not a procrastinator.
59. 1:58You have a habit of procrastinating.
60. 2:02Big difference.
61. 2:04Because if it's a habit, I can teach you
62. 2:06to use science to break it.
63. 2:09You see, all habits have three parts.
64. 2:10There's a trigger, and in the case of
65. 2:12procrastination, the trigger's always
66. 2:14stress.
67. 2:16Then there's a pattern you repeat, and
68. 2:17in the case of procrastination, it is to
69. 2:20avoid doing something. And then there's
70. 2:23a reward. You get a little stress
71. 2:25relief. The only way to break a habit,
72. 2:28you guys, is not to deal with the
73. 2:30triggers.
74. 2:31You're never going to get rid of the
75. 2:32stress in your life, but you can 100%
76. 2:36change your pattern of avoiding work.
77. 2:39So next time that you're in a situation
78. 2:41where you feel yourself hesitate, you
79. 2:43spent way too much time checking out the
80. 2:45highlights from last night's scores,
81. 2:47what you're going to do is you're going
82. 2:48to go, "Oh, I must be stressed out about
83. 2:50something." Acknowledge the stress. Then
84. 2:52go 5-4-3-2-1.
85. 2:54I want you to count to yourself because
86. 2:56I want you to interrupt the habit that's
87. 2:57stored here, and I want you to awaken
88. 2:59your prefrontal cortex. Then I want you
89. 3:02to just work, just for 5 minutes. The
90. 3:04reason why I want you to only work for 5
91. 3:06minutes is because your problem isn't
92. 3:09working.
93. 3:10It's the habit of avoiding.
94. 3:12I just need you to start. And here's the
95. 3:14other cool thing.
96. 3:16We know based on research that if we can
97. 3:18get you to start, 80% of you are going
98. 3:21to keep going.