How to master procrastination and make decisions

Why making decisions is crucial to success

The procrastination I’m talking about is not about putting things off but rather about not making decisions. Until a decision is taken no action is possible and it the lack of action that causes most failures. Procrastination is a complex psychological behavior that affects everyone to some degree or another. While it can be a minor irritation for some people it a source of considerable stress and anxiety for others.

Procrastination is sometimes confused with time management but this is not really the issue.

An analysis of over 25,000 people who had experienced some kind of failure revealed that the inability to make decisions was near the top of the list of reasons. (Napoleon Hill ‘Think and Grow Rich’)

Henry Ford was renowned for attributing his success to his ability to make decisions quickly and stick to them, often despite fierce opposition from his advisors.

Are you easily swayed by others?

If you find you are easily swayed by the opinions of others and constantly change your mind because you are afraid of what others might say or think about you, procrastination will cripple you and stop you from making a decision and more importantly, from taking action. The ability to make decisions comes back to understanding exactly what it is that you want, to the burning desire and definite purpose that underpins all achievement.

Leaders in all walks of life decide quickly and firmly and the world has a habit of making room for the person who knows where they are going and why.

Have you worked out how you make decisions?

Do you work from logic, from gut instinct or do you take advice from others? Recent studies have shown that decision making can be affected by our prejudices, our past experience and even our surroundings.

However, the reason that most people put off making a decision is the fear of getting it WRONG.

Procrastination leads to inaction. Inaction leads to failure. Failure leads to loss of confidence which make it hard to make decisions. The only way out of this loop is to have courage, make a decision in the full knowledge that whatever happens you will deal with it and remember that most fears are about things that never happen.

Steps to Success

(Inspired by Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”)

1. Decide what you want. Desire is the starting point of all achievement.
2. Believe that you can get what you want. Self doubt will prevent you from taking action.
3. You don’t have to do it all yourself. Surround yourself with people who know what you don’t know and who can do what you can’t do.
4. Make practical use your imagination. Work out how to turn your dreams into reality.
5. Create a plan, organise your ideas and take continuous action.
6. Avoid procrastination and make decisions. Use information and knowledge from others but let the decisions be your own.
7. Persist. Things will go wrong, people will let you down. If your desire is strong enough you will find a way through all difficulties to achieve your desire.
8. Aquire power and learn how to use it. The ability to lead others in a spirit of harmony to achieve a definite objective is a major source of success.
9. Understand that sex is the most powerful of human desires. When this desire is harnessed into a creative process it can be the source of genius.
10. Learn to use the power of the subconscious mind which can work for or against you but which can be controlled.
11. Develop and learn to trust the ‘sixth sense’. Intuition can help us to avoid dangers and grasp opportunities.
12. Deal with fear, the major obstacle to achievement.

Join us at our next event on November 18th when keynote speakerAndy Gibney shows how mastering the art of influencing people removes fears and obstacles and makes it easier to make decisions.

http://theinspiredgroup.com/inspired-events/

Belief in yourself

I’ve been verbed! At a recent meeting, Nigel Wathen of
www.sjpp.co.uk told the assembled gathering that he’d been
“Anned” (thank goodnes my name isn’t Roger ).  Becoming
a  verb isn’t something I set out to do but I’m not
complaining!

If the first action in achieving success is deciding what you want (your  major definite purpose and all consuming goal) and creating a plan to get it, this also involves ‘starting with the end in mind’.

Victoria Beckham famously said that she wanted to be “more famous than Persil” and she got her desire. Lots of people have become more famous than Persil but that was a side product of what they really wanted.

If you can’t decide on your major definite purpose or all consuming goal then starting with the end in mind may help.

I recently spoke to Richard McCormack of www.rjmltd.com who told me that when he started his business it was with the idea of selling it. He has a definite end in mind and is working towards it. Do you?

What comes after that is your belief that you can get it. The old saying “whether you think you can or you think you can’t – you’ll prove yourself right” is absolutely true. Our thoughts are so powerful that they influence everything we do.

You can read below (March 17th) about the number of people who achieved success against all the odds, just because they believed they could do it.

Do you believe you can get what you want? If not, what are the thoughts that are holding you back? The first step to working on a lack of self belief or self confidence is to acknowledge that you have them. The good news is that self-confidence really can be learned and built on. All other things being equal, self-confidence is often the single ingredient that distinguishes a successful person from someone less successful.

Action Plans:
1. Decide on your definite major purpose or all consuming goal. What is the end result going to be?

2. Write down your goal and read it aloud twice a day. Imagine that you have already achieved it. (See post below from March 16th)

3. Do you believe you can get what you want? If not, find out what is stopping you and work on it.

Come to our event on 22nd April to do some practical work towards achieving success.

Six definite, practical steps to aquire riches

Writing at the end of The Great Depression in 1937,  
Napoleon Hill stated (my paraphrasing) “Never has there
been so great an opportunity for practical dreamers as
now exists. The economic collapse has reduced all men,
substantially, to the same level. A new race is about to be
run. The real leaders of the world have always been men
who harnessed and put into practical use the intangible, unseen forces of unborn opportunity.. Every great leader, from the dawn of civilization was a dreamer – a practical dreamer with a definite purpose and a burning desire to turn dreams into reality. Tolerance and an open mind are practical necessities of the dreamer of today, there is a vast business, financial and industrial world to be remoulded and redirected along new and better lines.

Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the PURPOSE OF MONEY, (i.e. as a means of exchange) wishes for it. The method by which this DESIRE is translated into its financial equivalent consists of six definite, practical steps:

1. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient to say ‘plenty’ – you must be definite.
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such thing as something for nothing)
3. Establish a definite idea of when you intend to posses the money you desire.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and, whether you are ready or not, begin at once to put this plan into action.
5. Write a clear, concise statement which says: The amount of money you intend to aquire, the time limit for its acquisition, what you intend to give in return and the plan by which you will aquire it.
6. Read this statement out ALOUD twice daily, just before going to bed and on getting up. As you read, see and feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.