- [Instructor] Welcome to the
meditation on procrastination
and somewhat ironically,
I've been procrastinating
making this meditation,
so we're all in the same boat together.
So, as with all meditations,
posture and breathing
makes a big difference.
So, I really encourage you find
a nice firm seat to sit on.
If your legs don't fall asleep,
you could sit on the ground as well.
But try to sit with your back
upright, really good posture.
Breathe in, breathe out,
a little bit slower a little
bit deeper every time,
you could lay your hands on your lap,
I like to leave them face up,
and when you're ready,
you can soften your gaze
and slowly close your eyes.
Breathing in, breathing out.
Now, procrastination is
an interesting thing.
I'm not sure whether we human
beings are the only animals
we know of that procrastinate,
it's may be worth some
research for somebody
to figure that out, but we clearly do it.
And a lot of meditation is about
becoming aware of our thoughts
and observing our thoughts
and realizing that we
are not our thoughts,
even though many times our
thoughts seem to control us
or even overwhelm us.
And so let's do that, let's
try to observe those thoughts
that are making us put off something,
that we know we need to do.
Why do you think you are
putting that thing off?
I'll tell you what happens to be usually
from my experience, it usually is
I'm afraid to start
because I might realize
it's harder than I expected
or I might not do as well as I expected
or I might make a mistake,
maybe I don't think I'm
prepared enough to start.
Another way to think about it
is we're getting too caught up
in the outcome versus enjoying the journey
or enjoying whatever the thing
is that you're putting off,
'cause that's just a part
of this fun experience.
And so I find that when I tell myself,
define yourself by the
action not the outcome,
don't define yourself by
whether you succeed or fail,
define yourself as making the effort,
showing up and enjoying
it, laughing at yourself,
laughing at this mystery that we call life
and just putting one foot
in front of the other
and realizing it's not so bad,
and then you can put the other
foot in front of that one
and keep going.
And slowly but surely you realize
that you're making a lot of progress.
And the more you make that progress,
the more that you actually enjoy it,
especially if you're not
going it the last minute.
And I will give you about a minute
for you to repeat something in your mind
that can hopefully short-circuit
any of those thoughts
that have been keeping
you from taking action.
For the next minute or
so repeat to yourself
that you really enjoy taking action,
you're lucky that you're in a position
to be able to take action.
The outcome, it is what it is.
You enjoy action, you are lucky
to be able to take action,
the outcome is what it is.
Keep thinking that for
the next minute or so
and I'll be back, don't worry.
All right, so when you're
ready, really at your own time,
just become a little bit more
aware of your surroundings,
a little bit more aware of your body,
a little bit more aware
of your every breath,
and slowly open your eyes.
And so, I'll finished with one last tip:
sometimes we put something off
because it just feels big or overwhelming.
What I like to do is say,
Hey, let me just put 20 minutes towards it
and see where I am at
the end of 20 minutes.
If I didn't make any
progress, no big deal,
it was just 20 minutes,
but if I did make some progress, great!
I did the 20 minutes, I deserve a break.
If after a five or 10 minute break
I'm ready to put another
20 minutes, awesome.
If at the end of the 20
minutes I wanna keep going,
I shouldn't stop myself,
I should keep going.
For when you view things as, hey,
I'm just committing 20
minutes to something,
it doesn't feel as intimidating.
You just own it, you say,
Hey, I can do anything for 20 minutes,
and I can enjoy anything for 20 minutes
and then you'll wanna do
it, put a smile on your face
and own that action.
And not only will you make progress,
but you're gonna have a good time.
And so take it with that
playful mindset, enjoy it, smile
and just get started.
And I think you'll find
you'll be procrastinating a lot less.
