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Chapter 6
Learn Latin

We have now explored four SUMO principles. But here is the harsh reality. Despite the insights and ideas you have gained so far, they may result in little or no change in your life. This fifth principle will explore why we can be full of good intentions and yet fail to make those intentions reality. You will discover the reasons why we procrastinate and how to overcome them. Or, to put it another way, how you can Shut Up the excuses and Move On to action.

Let me begin by sharing a personal experience of my struggle to take action.

THE PERSONAL STUFF

In the spring of 1991 I set up my own business, working as a freelance trainer and speaker. Times were tough. The economic boom of the 80s was over and Britain was officially in recession. My ‘office’ doubled as a bedroom, so I had a desk, a telephone and a double bed. It was a challenge (particularly for Bob and Linda in the double bed). As I sat at my desk, I faced a list of names and telephone numbers of people who I needed to contact. Deep down – actually, not even deep down – I dreaded having to make a single call. I began to fantasize (not all fantasies are positive you know) about the reactions I would receive. ‘They’re tied up at the moment’; ‘Can you call back… in four years’; or just a simple, ‘No thank you’.

I hated cold calling and quite quickly became enveloped by the ‘phantom of procrastination’. As it was 1.30 p.m., I convinced myself that most people would still be on lunch and to wait another half-hour. Two o’clock arrived and I then persuaded myself that I was overcome with an incredible urge for coffee. Making my way downstairs to the kitchen, I became distracted by plants that needed watering and plates that needed washing. Thirty minutes passed. It was 2.30 p.m. and all excuses had dried up (or so I thought). It was actually time to make those cold calls.

But then came a flash of inspiration. A conversation unfolded within my mind. How many people are still at work at 2.30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon? Even those that are, are not likely to want to discuss their training requirements. Their thoughts will already be focused on the weekend. I will leave those calls until Monday, I reasoned to myself. Phew, what a relief; the difficult and uncomfortable task of cold calling had been put off for a few days.

I had convinced myself that there was no point in taking any immediate action and in doing so, had missed out on the opportunity of winning more business. However, I had achieved my goal – to avoid rejection and not do anything uncomfortable. Sound familiar?

Procrastination came easily to me, but then I saw the film Dead Poets Society. It was to provide the perfect antidote. At one stage in the film the late Robin Williams, who plays the lead role of an English teacher at an American all boys public school, teaches his pupils a Latin phrase. In an attempt to inspire these young men not to take their lives for granted, he teaches them the phrase carpe diem. Loosely translated, this means ‘seize the day’. I was inspired by the film and made a poster with the phrase ‘Carpe Diem, Seize the Day’ written on it, which I hung on my office wall. (Bob and Linda were cool about it.)

The next day I was watching the BBC Television comedy Only Fools and Horses. Two brothers run a market stall in south-east London; however, times are tough and money is short. In an attempt to motivate his younger brother Rodney, Delboy utters a version of the SAS motto ‘Who Dares Wins’. Delboy’s exact words were ‘He who dares, wins’. I liked the phrase. It was what I needed to hear. I made my second makeshift poster for my office wall and when I heard the ‘phantom of procrastination’ whisper in my ear, I now felt I at least had two phrases to inspire me into taking action.

So why do we procrastinate?

Let’s explore six reasons why people ‘put things off’ and fail to carpe diem and take action in their lives. (These reasons have been inspired by my friends at The Mind Gym, www.themindgym.com.)

Reason 1 – Avoiding discomfort

Achieving success means that, at times, we have to leave our ‘comfort zone’. We may have to move out of our world of familiarity, safety and security and do things that we would not normally do. When we do something new or different, it can feel strange. This can result in a negative response initially because many people subconsciously live by the mantra:

‘If it feels good, do it.’

Likewise, they can also live by the reverse of this mantra:

‘If it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it.’

Although there are exceptions, our tendency as human beings is to take the path of least resistance. We look for the magic pill, the magic patch, the magic exercise machine. Products that promise ‘successful outcomes’ with little or no long-term effort on our part will always be popular.

Successful people think differently. They understand that if they are to achieve a positive result in any area of life, then they have to be prepared to face their ‘discomfort’ head on. Whether it is getting fit or going for a new job, life will present us with challenges. If we are to succeed, this will involve us taking action or thinking in a way that moves us beyond our normal zone of comfort and familiarity.

Reason 2 – Emotional barriers

Whether we decide to take action or not can be dependent on how we feel. For example, I am going to write that report, tidy the garage or go on that diet when I feel motivated. Or I am waiting to feel creative before I tackle that problem. Put simply, emotions can take our actions hostage.

Reason 3 – Fear of failure

It is easy to develop the following mindset: ‘if I don’t attempt something, then I can never be accused of failing’. That is true. Equally, however, if I never attempt anything, I will never experience the feelings of achievement and success. Some people are quite happy to stand on the sidelines and point out where others go wrong, yet they themselves lack the courage to dare to fail.

From our childhood, we can become conditioned (there’s that word again – remember Pavlov’s dog?) to believe that if we attempt something and fail, that this is in some way wrong. Education has, in some cases, encouraged us to find ‘the right answer’ rather than to experiment and discover many right answers. (We explored some of this in Chapter 5.)

Behind some people’s behaviour is the underlying belief that ‘I must be right, I must be perfect’. Attempting something that may expose weaknesses or lack of knowledge will be avoided by some people. Fear of failure, or perhaps more importantly, the fear of being seen by others to have failed, will trap some people into never taking action.

Reason 4 – Complacency

‘There’s no rush’, ‘I’ll wait till the kids have left home’, ‘I’ll quit smoking in the New Year’. There always seems to be some reason why we can put off taking action today. What can drive this attitude is a false belief that there is plenty of time to accomplish all we want to achieve. But when tomorrow does come, we find another excuse to avoid taking action.

Complacency can also occur due to the mistaken belief that life is something that happens to you as opposed to something you can influence. (We will look at this in more detail in our final SUMO principle.)

A lack of goals and sense of purpose in our lives results in people drifting along in a haze of complacency. Returning to our foundation formula, to the SUMO principles E + R = O, well if life is the Event and complacency is your Response, how satisfied are you likely to be with the Outcome?

Reason 5 – Action illusion

Some people can always appear busy. The question is, busy doing what? Rather than admit that they don’t want to do a task, they use a lack of time as their excuse. People can talk about what they are going to do, hold meetings to discuss how they are going to do it and even draw up plans outlining what they will do. This may all be very useful initially, but there comes a time when we need to start taking action.

We saw from our first SUMO principle that, on a day-to-day basis, we do so much on auto-pilot, i.e. without thinking. Maybe we need to ask ourselves, ‘Am I confusing activity with effectiveness?’

Reason 6 – Fuzzy focus

This occurs when we’ve got so many things competing for our attention that we’re not sure what to focus on. There’s so much you could do but without prioritizing your goals you become unfocused and this lack of clarity can cause indecision and inactivity.

So we have explored why people procrastinate; now we need to examine how to overcome it.

Where do we go from here?

Some people may be tempted to say the following: ‘Okay, big deal. I procrastinate. Doesn’t everyone?’ Well, actually – no! Some people have decided to take responsibility and to take action. Now, there is no ‘Procrastinators Anonymous’ support group (although there have been a number of people who have thought about setting one up, but never got round to it). So how are we going to tackle this unhelpful, debilitating habit that can rob us of achieving success and happiness in life? Here are some strategies that people use to defeat procrastination.

How to conquer the procrastination habit

Just start it

That’s right, just do something. Do not worry about completing the task or how much time it will take to finish – just start it. Yes, I know you are not in the mood and you are not feeling motivated. Tough. SUMO! Momentum can bring motivation, and the sense of achievement from actually starting the activity can lead to you feeling better about yourself. This, in turn, can give you the drive and desire to finish what you’ve started.

Picture what success looks like and how it feels

Think about the task you know you need to tackle. Perhaps it is quitting smoking, losing weight, speaking in public or flying for the first time. Now I want you to close your eyes and imagine what success will look and feel like. What do you see? What are you able to do now that you were unable to do before? How does it feel to have conquered that fear of flying or speaking? When you’ve quit smoking, how will you feel about yourself? Whatever your challenge, imagine the outcome you want rather than the activities required to get you there. Focusing on your destination rather than the journey can inspire you to take action.

Now imagine your life in five years’ time if you decide to do nothing. What does your world look like now? What are the consequences of you not taking action? Visualize it. How does that make you feel? Is that what you want for your future?

Do the nasties first

Each day people are faced with tasks they would prefer not to do. It could be a telephone call to make or a person to meet. All of us can be tempted to tackle the more pleasurable tasks first and then leave the nasties until later. Guess what? Sometimes we find that we’ve not had enough time to tackle our nasties. What a pity. Never mind, you’ll get round to it tomorrow. Then when you wake up the next day, what have you got to look forward to? Tackling the ‘nasties’. So, what does that do to your levels of motivation?

Not all ‘nasties’ are as bad as we would expect. But some are – that’s why they are called ‘nasties’. I am not asking you to convince yourself that ‘nasties’ are really nice. I am saying tackle them first – unless you can prove in a court of law that the more pleasurable task you embarked upon is, in fact, more important.

Reward your progress

Once you decide to take action, reward your progress. Just finished a nasty? Good, so what is your mini reward? (I suggest a mini reward or else this conquering procrastination routine could get rather expensive.)

It might be to go and see a film, have a coffee break or you might simply decide to ring that friend you wanted a chat with. I am going to reward myself with a teacake after I have finished writing this chapter. (Oh, the life of an international speaker and author.)

Remember, if it’s a task that will take a long time to complete, then we need to set ourselves some milestones and reward our progress. Rewarding yourself only after you have finished the task may not be motivating enough. A friend of mine who wanted to lose weight bought herself a new music album for every 7lb shed. Another friend filled a jar with all the money saved from quitting smoking and spent it on a family holiday.

Make a date with a mate

The sad fact of life is that only a small percentage of people reading this book will take any action as a result. But what if you knew that you were attending a workshop in four weeks’ time and had to report to the group on what actions you had taken as a result of reading this book? The chances are, the percentage of people who would take action would increase significantly. (Hence, I often run follow-up sessions to my workshops.)

A ‘mate’ does not need to be a friend, but someone who you are happy to share your issue with and who is committed to following up on your progress. They must also have your permission to challenge you if you’re not taking the action you said you would.

Challenge your complacency

Perhaps the most powerful way I can challenge your complacency is to ask you to consider the following.

Imagine seven people lined up in a row:

Now imagine each person represents a day of the week.

Now imagine each day of the week represents a decade of your life.

So which day of the week are you on? I am on very late Friday night. Within a matter of months I’ll be on the Saturday of my life. For some of you it has already arrived. Cheery thought, eh?

Now, before all those who are reading this get too depressed because you are already at the weekend, consider this. If you are living a healthy lifestyle, you can add another two people to your line-up (making a total of nine people), as there is a good chance you will get a Bank Holiday Monday and Tuesday as well.

Remember, it’s never too late to take action. I am inspired by people such as Winston Churchill. He became Prime Minister for a second time on the Bank Holiday Monday of his life.

So whatever day of the week you are on, perhaps it is time to take the necessary action to make sure the journey is not just a good one, but a great one.

You owe it to yourself and those around you to challenge your complacency. (Our next SUMO principle will help you to make the rest of your ‘week’ a significant and successful one.)

Those are some ideas on how to conquer our procrastination habit. Now it’s time to use them. Work through the following questions, preferably with a ‘mate’. Only when you have finished the exercise can you have a mini reward.

SUMO exercise

Choose a task or issue that you need to take action on.
Why is this important to you?
What are the consequences if you take no action?
Picture and feel what success will look like when you’ve achieved your objective.
Which ‘procrastinators’ hinder your progress? (i.e. avoiding discomfort, emotional barriers, fear of failure, action illusion and complacency.)
What actions will you take to tackle this issue? (What are your top three priorities?)
When will you start?
How will you reward your progress?
Who will be your ‘mate’?

You can e-mail me with your progress and successes at: [email protected].

THE PERSONAL STUFF

So how has learning and living by the Latin phrase carpe diem helped me? The turning point in my business came in 1994. I had just received an information pack from an organization that ran business seminars in America, Europe and Asia. They were now looking for British-based speakers to develop their work further in the UK. They particularly wanted to hear from trainers or speakers who were comfortable addressing large audiences (I mean in terms of numbers, not weight) and who enjoyed ‘performing’ and delivering their material in an entertaining way. With all due modesty, I have to admit I thought the job specification had been written specifically with me in mind. (My next book will be on the subject of developing personal humility.)

Then I came to the section marked ‘method of application’. It said the following: ‘Please apply by sending in a one-hour video of yourself, speaking ideally in front of 50 to 100 people.’ It then added, ‘If you do not possess such a video, you are probably not ready to join us yet.’ The excitement that had been welling up inside of me immediately drained away. At that point in my career, I spoke mainly to groups of around a dozen people, and I quickly realized that my two main clients were unlikely to allow their training sessions to be filmed. My hopes of international travel and speaking in front of large audiences had been crushed with the reading of one sentence.

Realizing there was no possible way I could meet their application criteria, I reluctantly placed the information pack in the bin. Then I looked up. On the wall in front of me, were two makeshift posters with the phrases ‘Carpe Diem, Seize the Day’ and ‘Who Dares Wins’. I couldn’t ignore them. They seemed to compel me to reach back into the bin and pull out the discarded information pack. The wording under the ‘method of application’ section had not changed – but the mindset of the person reading it had.

As I read the form now, I was determined that I would apply for the position. Rather than accept the reality of the situation, I was now beginning to think of possible solutions around it. The form still stated, ‘please apply by sending a one-hour video of yourself, speaking ideally in front of 50 to 100 people’. However, my eyes immediately focused on the word, ‘ideally’. ‘Paul, we don’t live in an ideal world,’ I thought to myself, and a plan began to unfold in my mind. Hire a room, invite a few friends and get my wife, Helen, to film a one-hour session of me delivering my best material.

Yet almost immediately a barrage of ‘what ifs’ flooded into my mind. What if you cannot find a room to hire? What if your friends cannot make it? What if you fail? Reasons to procrastinate began to line up in my head. I realized that taking action would require me to move out of my comfort zone. There was also the possibility that I might have to explain my failure to a number of people if the organization rejected my application. But how would I feel if I did not apply? Would such an opportunity come along again, and if so, when? I then allowed myself to dwell on another ‘what if’ question. ‘What if I succeed?’

My carpe diem mindset was now very much in charge and I began to put my plan into action. Hiring a room was straightforward, but what about renting a crowd? I rang all my friends and put forward my proposition. ‘There will be free food, free drink, just laugh in the right places.’ Having rung all my friends and convinced both to attend (you remember Bob and Linda, don’t you?), I then realized that although 50 people was unrealistic, an audience of two was perhaps a little on the low side.

Eventually, with the support of some family and a few people who would subject themselves to anything at the thought of free food (I knew a couple of students), my audience swelled to a grand total of eight. After filming, I submitted my video (some, but not all, of my audience laughed in the right places), making it clear to the organization that what they were watching was a contrived scenario.

But what did I have to lose? Well, my Inner Critic kept reminding me that actually, I could ‘look really stupid’, but I chose to recall the phrase ‘Who Dares Wins’. Several weeks later I finally received a telephone call. The organization had watched my video and wanted to meet me. Eventually they hired me. They became my largest client and working for them was a turning point, not just in my business, but in my life also. Within three years of sending the video filmed in front of eight people in Warrington, I was presenting seminars to hundreds of people in places like Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. On this occasion I had conquered my procrastination habit and was now reaping the rewards. But I still look back on my life before this time and wish I had learnt the lesson sooner. How much longer will you wait?

In a nutshell

Great ideas, great goals and great intentions are meaningless without great actions. People achieve success in life not just because they take charge of their thinking, but because their thinking propels them into taking action.

SUMO SUMMARY

Life rewards intelligent action, not intention.
People fail to take action for a variety of reasons: avoiding discomfort, emotional barriers, fear of failure, complacency, action illusion and fuzzy focus.
Procrastination is a debilitating habit that can rob you of success and happiness.
Tactics to conquer the procrastination habit include;
- – Just start it. Shut Up the dithering, Move On to the acting.
- – What does success look and feel like?
- – Do the nasties first. Shut Up on the niceties, Move On to the nasties.
- – Reward your progress.
- – Make a date with a mate. Shut Up trying to do it on your own, Move On to finding a mate to support you.
- – Challenge your complacency. Shut Up the voice of complacency, Move On to what is important.
Shut Up believing reading this book is enough; Move On to doing something.

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