Turn Procrastination into Action (Part 2 of 3)

If a dream, goal, or project feels overwhelming or even impossible, remember Lao Tzu’s saying, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

As we talked about yesterday, small steps break the cycle of overwhelm and procrastination, pull you out of the downward spiral of negative self-talk, and build momentum toward your dreams. Asking yourself, “What’s an even smaller step I could take first?” helps break a goal into successively smaller steps until you reach one you’ll actually take.

But what if it’s still not working?

There’s something even more foundational than the first step. My corollary to Lao Tzu’s saying is, “The journey of a thousand miles starts with the choice to make the journey.”

If you’ve broken a goal into achievable steps but you’re still dragging your feet, there’s a “zeroth" step you might have skipped:

Choosing a goal that’s intrinsically important to YOU.

All the productivity hacks in the world won’t help if you don’t really want to achieve the goal you’re working on.

Check in with why you chose this goal in the first place. Is it motivated by fear (of not being enough, not having enough, not doing enough, etc.) or by genuine desire and enthusiasm?

Hint: It's usually easier – or at least more fulfilling – to make progress on a goal motivated by genuine desire and enthusiasm.

Every goal, every journey, and every step starts with a choice. Maybe you made the choice a long time ago when you were a different version of you. Maybe you made it recently out of habit. Maybe you made it because you thought you were supposed to. Maybe you made it because it inspired you, but you’ve forgotten your "why" in the rush of daily life.

Connecting (or reconnecting) with the "goal behind the goal" or the "why behind the what" does three important things:

✨ Illuminates the real choice you're making (between fear and desire)

✨ Invites you to choose whether to continue on this path or whether to adjust course and choose something different

✨ Opens up more avenues for achieving the deepest, most intrinsically important goal

Take something you’ve been procrastinating on and ask yourself, “What’s important to me about this? And what’s important to me about THAT?” Keep asking until you reach an underlying feeling or state of being – THAT is the real goal.

Is it enough to inspire you to continue? If so, what’s the smallest step you could take to move forward? If not, what's another way to achieve what you REALLY want that’s more engaging and motivating to you?

👣 Before you take the first step, choose the journey.