Now that you’ve started down the path of non-procrastination, are you looking to help others begin their journey?

Maybe you used to be one of those at the gym who wore oversize clothes to hide the true shape of your body. Not able to look others in the eye. Not confident in yourself.

Now that you got off your butt, stopped with the excuses and procrastination, and reached your weight-loss goal, it’s time to help others. Take a look around you. Do you see others who are dressed in oversized clothes, don’t look you in the eye, don’t appear to have a great deal of self-confidence? Do they appear to look discouraged?

You were in their shoes at one time, don’t forget that.

Now, don’t go all gun-ho on them. Don’t start giving your advice, telling them your story. Just smile at them, strike up a conversation. In their own time, they will possibly have the courage to ask you for assistance on figuring out what is right for them.

Let’s switch to your home business.

We all started out in the same place. We didn’t know what we were doing, although some of us had an “idea”.

Now that we’re on our way to building a home business, we’re on our way to financial freedom, it’s time to help others.

If you ever wished for someone to help guide you, to be your mentor, when you were beginning your business, why don’t you be that person for someone else?

It is amazing how we grow personally, and professionally, when we reach out to others. As in the above example, you don’t want to be forcing yourself onto others. Be there for them, offer them encouragement. They will, most likely, soon begin to bounce ideas off you, ask your opinion, etc.

Be that mentor, be that support person…encourage others to reach their goals.

Along with exercise comes eating right. The best way to avoid temptation to eat fast foods, snack, etc., is to have the right foods within easy reach.

Do not procrastinate on completing a grocery list. Do not forget to take it with you to the grocery store!

As soon as you bring home all the good for you foods, place them immediately into containers that will be easy for you to grab and go.

Cut up those vegetables and bag separately. This way, when you’re hungry before dinner or late at night, all you have to do is grab a carrot stick, already sliced.

Remember that procrastination also costs you money.

If you don’t do that grocery shopping appropriately, you will be more than tempted to stop by the local fast food burger joint for dinner.

If you can possibly make yourself avoid the drive-thru, you will probably hit the snack cupboard before you even think about what you’ll make for dinner.

So now you don’t have to spend those extra hours at the YMCA because you didn’t over-do-it on the calories.

Grocery shopping is not only good for you health-wise, it also costs less than fast food.

You wanted to lose those extra pounds so you started working out at the local gym or YMCA.

Exercise is very important.

It not only boosts your metabolism, burns extra calories, and makes you feel great. It also helps you to unwind. You can release all the tension you’ve built up over the day while dealing with the kids, helping team members in your home business, or meeting deadlines for your job.

This is great. You’ve decided not to procrastinate any longer. You got off the couch and onto the treadmill.

But…now are you avoiding doing the rest of what needs to be done? You have many other areas of your life besides exercise. Are you now procrastinating on making those business calls for your network marketing business? Are you behind in meeting your deadlines for your job?

What about exercising your gray matter? Are you reading material that will expand your knowledge. That will help to grow you and your home business?

In this economy, people are being very choosy about what they are willing to part with their money for.

For this reason alone, you will want (and need) to make your home and property appealing to others.

Take a step back and look at it with fresh eyes. We often oversee things that have been there for years because we are so used to them. What do you think a potential buyer would see and think when they come for the first time?

Did you procrastinate and not get the yard in tip-top shape? Are the leaves all raked and hauled away? Did you pooper-scoop? Are the flower beds and garden weeded thoroughly? Are the bushes pruned? This would all be easier if you had assigned everyone to their tasks and they actually completed them…on time.

What about inside the house? Did you de-clutter or did you procrastinate on this? If you recall, I wrote about this in a previous posting. If you did not read “Clutter”, go back and read it now.

Did you complete all the repairs inside and out? The “Home Repairs” posting spoke about setting up a maintenance schedule for your appliances, yard equipment, etc. Did you follow this schedule? Are all your “things” in good working order?

If you do not take the time NOW, you will not be ready when a buyer is ready to buy. You never know who will and who won’t. So be ready, be prepared, present your home the best way you possibly can.

All areas of your life need a schedule. Whether it is your personal home or school life, your home based business, or your job, you need a schedule…a plan.

Since I just graduated, a few months ago, from graduate school after obtaining my Masters Degree in Nursing, I know very well how procrastinating can cause you extra stress in your life!

Do you think that your teacher/professor just shows up each day to class and decides right then and there what you will be discussing and what assignments you’ll need to complete? No, of course not!

There is a plan, a schedule, in place, before you even set foot inside your classroom for the very first time. This plan has your entire course mapped out for you. There are deadlines assigned to each requirement along with the full expectations It even includes every book or resource you will be required to have.

To avoid procrastinating, you should map out each requirement onto your calendar. On the date the assignment is due, make an entry that you can not miss. You surely don’t want to miss a deadline.

Now, work backwards. Break every assignment, quiz, and test into smaller pieces. Enter self-imposed due dates for each of these. This will help you to stay on track, not procrastinate, and not miss a deadline or be ill prepared for that test.

Procrastinating in school will cost you dollars later on. If you do not pass your class, you have wasted tuition dollars and will need to pay again to retake the course. If you do not obtain the highest grade you are capable of, you may not be offered that high profile, high paying, position after graduation. This is just another way that procrastination costs you money.

Remember how we discussed “Clutter”? You want to keep your life uncluttered now, right?

Begin by assigning duties to everyone involved. This includes your home, work, and home business.

If you have children, spouse, significant other, roommate, coworkers, or employees, you need to develop ground rules for everyone.

Don’t just start delegating right off the bat though. If you do, you’ll be sure to meet plenty of resistance.

Build up to the assignments. Begin by letting everyone know, without placing any blame, what the current situation is and how everyone is needed to help maintain the status quo or to make it better. Make sure they know that you are as much to blame as any of them. It is the collective procrastination of all that has created the situation you’re in.

Request suggestions from the them, they are your team. In other words, brainstorm. Write it all out, preferably on something they will all be able to visualize as you go along.

Be sure to write everything down that they bring up. You can always start crossing off suggestions as the group agrees to eliminate them.

Create another document that lists the name of everyone involved. During the brainstorming session, guide others to “volunteer” for certain duties. Be sure to equally and fairly divide up the tasks based upon their age (If they’re children) or their ability.

Be aware of duties that are very time consuming or quite labor intensive. You may want to break these duties down into smaller tasks. This will help the team member see that they are not expected to complete it all in one day or one weekend. It also can give them a sense of progress when they are able to cross off items as they move along.

The team will come out of this meeting feeling as if they have been a part of the decision, that they actually accomplished something, and with a sense of responsibility.

Post the assignments where they are seen by everyone. Empower everyone to be accountable for the success of the goal(s).

Be sure to communicate your feedback to the team in a positive way. Cheer them on in their successes. Don’t blame, yell, or scold. If someone is falling short of their agreement, ask them why. Then work with them on how to get back on track.

Do you procrastinate on fixing things up until you need to completely replace them? This surely costs more than if you’d just taken care of the situation early on.

We talked about this in the posting titled “Monetizing Our Short-Comings”.

Procrastination, in whatever area of our life, can most certainly lead to more dollars required to change the situation.

Set up a maintenance log for all your major appliances, furnace, hot water heater, sump pump, well pumps, vehicles, lawn mowers, etc. Staying on top of this will stall the need for major repairs or complete replacement of the item.

Start budgeting now for those days when things go wrong…when “Murphy” from Murphy’s Law comes to visit.

I suggest you pick up a copy of Dave Ramsey’s book “Total Money Makeover”. Right now, today, it is only $14.99 online. His website is, http://www.daveramsey.com/. There are loads of tips here. Spend as much time as you need going through everything. Be sure to bookmark this site for easy return at a later date.

Many public libraries also carry his books. Pick one up for free. Just be sure not to procrastinate and return it on time or you’ll have to pay out.

If you recall, in an earlier post, we talked about setting goals in your personal life and one of them was related to losing weight. We also discussed how procrastinating on your plan may very well cost you.

Take a close look at what it will all cost you.

Money

            Paying for all this

Health

            Risk of diabetes

            Hypertension

            High cholesterol

            Decreased energy

Self-esteem

            Do not feel good about appearance

            Decreased self-worth

            Decreased liking of self

            More negative

            Diminished self-confidence

            Decreased comfort around others

            Lack of respect from others

How do you measure your health? Is it in money, in life expectancy, in how you feel?

Whatever it is, stop procrastinating, and start doing….TODAY!

Guess what! You’ve finally cleaned out the clutter…from your personal life, your home based business, and your job.

What is the first thing we tend to do after this has been completed?

WE GO GET MORE “STUFF”!

It’s like we’re the mouse on the wheel. The poor thing runs and runs and runs, but never gets anywhere but where he started from.

That is exactly what you do when you clean out and fill up.

Admit it, you’ve done this a time or two…right?!

Like the habit of procrastination, living in clutter is a habit that needs to be changed as well. Not breaking this habit is once again procrastination. This is because we are postponing the clutter-free lifestyle we so desperately want.

If you won’t be needing a book for future reference, don’t buy it. Go to your local library. They’ll store it for you! They’ll dust those bookshelves. Using the library is also FREE! That is unless you procrastinated and didn’t return the book in time!

The same goes with CDs, DVDs, and VHS. You can try before you decided you need to buy.

How much time each day do you spend on your social networking groups? I’m talking MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, Linked-In, CafeMom, Ning networks, and the list goes on and on!

Do you update your status directly from your cell phone? Do you have notices text messaged directly to your cell phone?

This is all fine and I love technology. But…are you spending way too much time doing this and not actually working? This is another form of procrastination.

We may say that we’re “working”, when in reality, it’s keeping us from our work.

How productive do you appear in your job if you’re always on the internet or checking your cell phone? Not many of us would have a job to go to if this was a common occurrence.

So now you’re saying that you’re building your warm market list for a home business? That is true, to a point. But if you never get out of building this list and get on to the actual business, how much money are you going to be earning?

What happens when the time you have allocated to your family is constantly interrupted because you’re having a “conversation” on one of your many social networks?

How much family bonding is happening? What are you really losing out in the end?

When you are to be out on a “date” with your loved one, do you think they appreciate the constant buzzing of your cell phone alerting you to a new message?

Take some time and disconnect yourself from all of this.

Remember how you need to divide your day up into your personal life, your home based business, and your job?

Allot time within each of these areas for your social networking. Set a timer if you need to. Believe me, being on the internet may seem like an hour and you find you’ve been sitting there for FOUR hours!

Turn off the phone, turn off the computer, and let’s get to work!

Now we’re going to take a bit of a turn. I’ve talked about focusing on three areas of your life.

1. Personal life
2. Home based business
3. Job

We’ll deal with some more specific aspects in each of these.

Whatever system you decide to use to organize all aspects of your life, keep it simple. If it is too complex, you won’t stick to it for long.

Are you distracted?

I know that when I’m trying to work at my computer, if the desk is littered with “things”, I am distracted. I start to move things so that I have space for whatever I’m working on. OR, sometimes, it just goes right on top of the old stuff! How productive can that be?

Are you able to find what you need right away? Or…do you need to dig through piles and piles of paper to find that one document, that one receipt? By procrastinating and not filing what was to be saved, you have wasted time and are losing money.

This goes for your home business as well as your job.

What about in your personal life? Is your house, your car, your vacation home, cluttered with stuff? Too much “stuff” in your house, etc., keeps you from completing tasks. Those with such clutter, tend to bounce from one task to another…never completing one before starting the next…that’s why it looks the way it does! This is a form of procrastination.

Are you avoiding inviting friends and family over for the Holidays or just a cook-out? Are you embarrassed about how your house looks because, once again, you procrastinated on organizing your personal life?

Are you making multiple trips each week to the grocery store, bank, or department store because you did not organize your thoughts and lists before you went? This forces you to make repeated trips. You are losing time and money. Not only are you doing this instead of what is a true priority, you are wasting gas.

Spend a day going through each room of your house, your home business office, and your job space. Anything that has not been used in the past 3 months, and does not need to be saved for tax purposes or must be archived for business purposes, you need to GET RID OF.

What about your closet? What have you not worn in the past year or longer? Get rid of it. Give it to your local Goodwill or other charity. If you want, have a rummage sale. Make money off the “things” you have at home which you truly don’t use.

Stand back from your closet. Can you actually see what is inside now? You’ll be amazed at the clothes you forgot you had or you couldn’t find!

If you even think for a second, “I just MIGHT use this one day”, it needs to be disposed of. Chances are highly likely that you will not ever need it or use it again. Even if you did want to use it, would you be able to find it again through all the clutter?

Like any habit, procrastination does take time and work to change.

If you didn’t focus on your priorities to the extent you had planned. If you didn’t cross off as many tasks on your list as you had planned. If you didn’t measure up to what you wanted for yourself…..

Don’t beat yourself up.

Have a “talk” with yourself. Be honest as to why things didn’t go as planned. NO EXCUSES. If you need to, review the posting “Self-Evaluation”.

Don’t place the blame on anyone or anything. To do this only inhibits you from growing and changing in the direction you want.

You also want to be sure to pat yourself on the back for what you have done well. Be sure to take the credit for all your accomplishments.

Too many times, we focus on negative self-talk and completely ignore all that is good!

So…look at what went wrong, determine to change it, and get on with it!

The day is ending and you’re getting ready to create your priority list for the next day. How to do this is explained in the posting “Decide What Needs to Be Done First”.

Before you get started on this list, review the list you worked on for the current day. Reflect back on what you did well, where you could have focused your time more wisely.

Now, translate your day into what it means for your personal life, home based business, and job. Review my previous posting titled “Monetizing Our Short-Comings”.

How does your success today correlate with you financially? Were you successful?

Congratulations!

Self talk is very powerful.

Each night, as you make your priority list (as written about in the post “Decide What Needs to Be Done First”), tell yourself you are going to focus on these items in the morning. Let that be your last thought as you drift off to sleep.

Then, in the morning, before you even place your feet on the ground, tell yourself…again…that you will be productive. Visualize yourself tackling the item you listed as the number 1 top priority for the day.

Start talking!