The Simple Formula to End Procrastination

The internal narrative goes a little something like this…

‘I really need to get on top of that (issue), but there’s a bit much going on right now, I’ll do it next week’. Monday arrives, and something comes up, you’ll do it on Tuesday. Tuesday rolls around and you’ve got fires to fight. Before you know it, a whole week has passed and there still hasn’t been any change. And on and on the cycle goes.

Sound familiar?

What you need, is a method of increasing level of motivation to the point that you’re so compelled by a desire for change, that it becomes harder to stay where you are, than it does to move forward. As a result, you’ll spend less time making excuses for yourself, and more time making progress toward your goals.

One tool I use to help my clients to do exactly this, is called the “Formula for Change”.

The basic idea of the formula is that for you to make change, your combined levels of clarity concerning your dissatisfaction, vision and first steps need to be higher than the resistance you are facing.

The formula is: (Dissatisfaction x Vision) + First Steps > Resistance, or, (D x V) + F > R.

Let’s break it down…

• Dissatisfaction – How uncomfortable are you with your current situation vs. taking an action?

• Vision – How clearly can you see an alternative reality? Do you believe this reality is achievable?

• First steps – What are the actions you need to take, and in what order do you need to take them?

• Resistance – What could get in the way of change e.g. fear, comfort etc.?

Why don’t you try applying the formula to an area of your life you’re looking to change? Ask yourself the above questions and give yourself a score for each of the three areas.

From there, my advice is to focus on increasing your ‘D’ and ‘V’. You might have noticed that they are multipliers, so higher scores there will have a much bigger effect on the result than ‘F’. Conversely, if one of these factors is low, then the multiplication effect also is low. Typically, my clients are pretty clear on the steps they need to take, but knowing ‘what’ to do is nowhere near as important as ‘why’ you’re doing it.

So, now you’ve got the tools to make change a reality, don’t waste another second, get going!

I’d love to hear more about what areas you need to work on increasing? And, if you found this article helpful, do me a favour and leave a comment below, send me a DM or share it with your followers!

Marcus