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How often do you procrastinate doing things?

Sometimes even the things we want to do, we can’t find the energy to actually do them.

I’d say this is a normal human behaviour. We are not programmed to do things out of our comfort zone.

Our inaction towards our goals is a major factor in us not attaining “success”, however you define the word.

But why do we not execute on the things we want to do?

After all, most of the time, we have a “clear” path to “success”. We know that to reach goal ‘x’, we must do action ‘y’. Yet we don’t do action ‘y’.

The problem is we don’t really know goal ‘x’ and action ‘y’. I mean, we don’t know their details. We don’t go deep enough.

To become a bodybuilder, we must workout at the gym.

Everyone knows that.

I would procrastinate like hell if that was my plan to become a bodybuilder!

The Six-Word Formula For Success

“Think things through, then follow through.” — Eddie Rickenbacker

Think things through, then follow through. Eddie Rickenbacker said it right.

When I first read that, I didn’t immediately get it. I mean, it’s obvious isn’t it?

But here’s the key in my opinion, and experience:

“Think things through”

Go freaking deep in your thinking.

Research every detail on how to reach your goal. Break everything down to the fundamentals.
Craft a solid plan of actionable items to reach your goal. Be precise with quantities and quality. Set a timeline. Make the deadlines hard, but achievable.
Execute consistently. Don’t skip a day. Measure your increments towards your goal. Every actionable item you tick is success towards your goal.
Adjust your plan as you go. It won’t be perfect on first try. Keep researching as you go.
Rinse and repeat.

By having a solid plan of action, you can’t help but follow through. I write a lot about gaining momentum. I’ll link to some stories at the bottom here.

We procrastinate because a task seems too hard to achieve. It requires too much energy. With carefully planned bite-sized actionable items, you are constantly winning.

Each task is so small and achievable that thinking-of-not-doing-it is almost harder than actually doing it.

And by having a timeline, you never want to push anything further. It’s a dreadful domino effect.

I set monthly goals personally. I never want to carry a goal over to the next month, because that means next month I’ll either have way too much on my plate, or I’ll have to drop other goals I may have.

Conclusion

It bears repeating:

“There’s a six-word formula for success: Think things through, then follow through.” — Eddie Rickenbacker

Craft a solid plan, and following through will instantly become easier. The doing is often times the easy part once you have a clear direction of where you’re going.

The more you follow through, the easier it gets. You build momentum and become unstoppable.

Think. Research. Break every down. Plan. Execute, execute, execute. Rinse and Repeat.

You can do this!

Thanks for reading! :)