It's time to ditch DELAY!

Do you find yourself putting a long list of things that you want for your life and your dreams to the back burner?  Are excuses keeping you stuck? 

It's funny how quickly we can become experts in inventing reasons to delay things.  
Waiting for 'the right time,' is an excuse that we use to delay things ... today I'm sharing strategies to help you take decisive action and move towards what you really want. 

Join me as we explore barriers like perfectionism and information overload that anchor us in inaction.  Perfectionism is a catalyst for delay.

Putting things off or delaying things is the quickest way to stay exactly where you are.
The least happy people are the people who live in a vicious cycle of getting around to things. 

3 tips to help you move out of the propensity to delay things are coming in hot. 

The 9 minute principle eliminates delay and gets you unstuck! Listen in to get started. 

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Do you have questions you’d love to ask but don’t because you aren’t sure who to ask or you’d rather not let the world in on not having it all together? I am here for it! I can't wait to answer your questions. DM me on Instagram @jennifersise and I will answer your question on an episode soon.

Be sure to rate this podcast, leave a review, share it with your friends and hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

Here’s to more intentional connection and less grind … 9 minutes at a time!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

If you had a dollar for every time you heard yourself or someone else say I don't have time for that, you'd probably be rich. I know life can feel like a circus, especially when you're trying to juggle it all, and I know what it's like to be pulled in a million different directions and to feel like there's never enough time to do all the things for all the people. But I really believe that what you want is possible. It just requires some decision making and intentional action. You truly can't make time or find time. You have to set it apart, and I'll show you how to make big moves and take game changing action nine minutes at a time.

Speaker 1: 0:40

I'm Jennifer Seiss. I love helping impact-oriented women run their home life and business, gain traction in their day to day and have more time with the people they love the most. My heart is to share what I've learned along the way and help you get more of what you want out of your life and work. Every episode is designed to get you on your way to a quick win. So grab your favorite beverage, pull up a chair and let's start making more of your time. Hey there, and welcome to the In 9 Minutes podcast. I'm Jennifer Seiss, and I can't wait to connect with you for the next nine minutes. I want you to think for a minute about all of the things you have put off starting, and put off making a decision about, or just plain put off doing Working out, changing the way you eat, starting a business, learning something new, having a hard conversation, starting a quiet time, saving money, cleaning out a closet, writing a book, going for a walk this list could go on and on, and we all have this roll of decks of excuses in our heads for why we don't start things or why we haven't started things. And we have these excuses for why we put things off, why we delay things. It's not a good time, I'm too busy, I don't have time for that, I don't know where to start, it's too expensive. What if I fail? What if people think I'm crazy? I'll do it tomorrow, I'll get around to it, I'm just going to wait and see. And on and on and on these excuses go and we overwhelm our brain and nervous system with what ifs and I don'ts and it's not possibles and end up staying in the same place and then wonder why we haven't moved forward, why we haven't experienced growth and why we haven't gotten what we want. We can become experts in inventing reasons to delay things, to postpone things that ultimately need to happen and this happens a lot when it comes to making decisions and what we need to figure out is why we delay things and how to combat it.

Speaker 1: 2:54

The word delay means to make someone or something late or slow, and another word for delay can be procrastinate, which means delay or postpone action or put off doing something. But one site describes it as the habit of unnecessarily delaying an important task, usually by focusing on less urgent, more enjoyable and easier activities instead, and I think the key word here is the habit of unnecessarily delaying an important task. We put things off and we delay things that if we took action right there in the moment, we could move the needle in so many different areas of our lives, because immediate, decisive action can really change the game, and I want to be clear that the kind of delay we're talking about today is self-imposed. I know as well as anybody that there are delays that are out of our control, and I know how hard waiting can be. I would say waiting is one of the most refining experiences you can walk through, and that's a whole episode for another day, but for today we are talking about the kind of delay that is within your control. Putting things off or delaying things is the fastest way to be assured that you are going to stay right where you are, or even back slide, Because you never go on trips, you don't make the reservations for, or dreams don't come to be a reality If you haven't taken action towards them, and hard conversations don't just happen on their own. And we could fill in these blanks with so many things that we put off. There are two primary choices in life. This is what Dennis Waitley says. Two primary choices To accept conditions as they exist or accept the responsibility for changing them.

Speaker 1: 5:06

I'm going to shoot you straight here, because the enemy wants to delay and slow down your progress in every area of your life, and Edmai Lett says that delay is the weapon the enemy uses to keep you from reaching your dreams and, I would say, to keep you from living your full purpose. Think about the thoughts or phrases or lies that you repeat to yourself that keep you delayed. I need to know more, I need more experience I'm not sure if I can do it, I don't really have time and on and on, and on and on they go, and one of the thoughts that also keeps people stuck is the notion of needing to know more, needing to know more, like you need more and more information to move ahead. But the people who are the most successful and potentially the happiest Don't wait to know everything before they take action. The least happy people are the people who spend time In this cycle of getting around to it. Getting around to it, getting around to it, getting around to being ready, delaying all the things.

Speaker 1: 6:16

And if there's something you've been wanting to do or know that the world needs you to do, make a decision and take action. Just try it. And if you're thinking to yourself, well, it might not be perfect and I need things to be perfect and I need things to be a certain kind of way, perfectionism will impact every area of your life not for the better. Okay, it's lumped right in there with fear and abstract goals, and your mindset and your thoughts will impact delay. Perfectionism Is one of the catalysts, for delay Is really important to kind of work through, and taking mech, messy action can be just the game changer that you need to consider. So I want to offer you a new thought, or a new thought or two. It's better to take action and fail than to never have taken action at all.

Speaker 1: 7:14

And consider asking yourself these questions instead of the questions I listed earlier. So what if you succeed? What if you help more people? What if you experience massive growth? What if people don't think you're crazy and say things to yourself and repeat these thoughts to yourself, that I have the time I need. I just have to set it apart. Doing something is better than doing nothing. Short focus, burst of work and change the game. Remember you move in the direction of your most dominant thoughts. So if you repeatedly tell yourself that you are someone who takes action and go, prove yourself right, then you are winning, because when you tell yourself that you are a person that takes action, you are more likely to take action than when you tell yourself I don't have time, it's not perfect, I need to know more.

Speaker 1: 8:12

So here are the three things that can help you sort of move past the propensity to delay. Invite someone into your life who will help hold you accountable. Tell them what you are aiming to accomplish and allow them to help you move forward. When you seek accountability, you are 92% more likely to do the thing and look for a different view or change of scenery. If you find yourself consistently putting things off, then change your environment and maybe even change some of the people you are hanging around. You need to be around people who are taking action, who are moving forward, who are pursuing growth, because you are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Another thing that can help you combat this sort of propensity to delay things is to get really clear about what you want and how you are going to get there. If you want to write a book, it won't happen until you set apart the time to do it, and the good news is it doesn't all have to happen at once. Like I said before, these small, short, focused bursts of work will help you get it done, and short, focused bursts of work are so much better than delaying it. So here's some practical action you can take. One of the reasons the 9 minute principle is so effective in game changing is that it eliminates delay. It gets you unstuck, it gets you started in short bursts of work. So take 9 minutes today and make a list of things that you are delaying and make a plan to take action on them. All you need is one action to get started and the dominoes will fall. Every minute you delay is a minute longer without what you want. So take 9 minutes and do something you've been delaying today and, even better yet, take 9 minutes to consider why delay might be your default. Why is it that you delay things and put them off and put them off? I want to leave you with this thought you can only grow as fast as your slowest decisions. I'll be digging into decision making on another episode and, in the meantime, here's to delaying less and taking action 9 minutes at a time. Thanks so much for listening today.

Speaker 1: 10:39

Do you have questions you'd love to ask, but don't because you aren't sure who to ask? Or you'd rather not let the world in on not having it all together? I get it. I get lots of questions all the time, from parenting to business development, to Bible study, recommendations to the best meal to serve a crowd and even how to navigate hard conversations. My husband and kids call me Google and since I'm a problem solver by nature and love research, it sort of fits. So I am so excited to answer your questions. You can share your questions with me by DMing me on Instagram at Jennifer Seiss and I'll answer your questions on an upcoming episode. So here's to more intentional connection and less grind. 9 minutes at a time.