In This Episode…
I am on the mailing list of Sam Ovens. He is an amazing businessman who helps people develop consultancy businesses in a wide range of industries. Not only is he great at business he is also extremely productive. So when I get an e mail from him that has a productivity theme, I always watch it. Today I got an e mail about how to overcome procrastination. In this episode I share the key points from his video and add a couple of suggestions to apply what he shared.
Episode Summary
00:15 – Background to this episode – Sam Ovens runs the Consulting Accelerator and is a master of business development and productivity. Today I received an e mail from him linking to a video called “Why You Can’t Do The Work“.
01:16 – I watched the video and captured the summary in a Mind Map you can see here:
02:01 – The three main problems Sam’s customers have are:
- Procrastination
- Wanting to do the work but not being able to do it
- A lack of discipline
02:16 – Sam’s solution to procrastination is simple but totally profound: Love your work.
02:37 – This ties in with a recommendation on how to turn pro in Steven Pressfield’s excellent book “The War of Art“.
03:05 – Sam Ovens says you can’t rely on discipline, focus or motivation and that you have to do what Michael Jordan recommends which is to “Fall in love with the game“.
03:39 – Sam recommends a number of ways you can work out what it is you love. I won’t list them here and recommend you go and watch the video yourself to discover his approach.
04:35 – The limbic system is the part of your brain that processes your emotions. It is much more powerful and acts far quicker than your relatively younger and much weaker pre-frontal cortex. It is your limbic system that drives your behaviour.
06:14 – If you love your work like Sam does, then you’ll find it difficult to STOP doing it.
06:58 – The important question is this: How do we learn to love our work? Well there are three approaches:
- 07:43 – Pick something you are passionate about, immerse yourself in it, find problems to solve and then solve them.
- 08:40 – Learn to fall in love with the process of your current work.
- 09:25 – Explore ways of making the work you currently do be a source of pleasurable emotional experiences (e.g. make it FUN!)
09:54 – Know yourself even better by taking a Myers Briggs test to understand your personality type. A free Myers Briggs test is available here.
10:30 – You might be struggling to enjoy your current job because the work may not be aligned with your natural strengths.
11:21 – I highly recommend watching Sam’s Video called “Why You Can’t Do The Work” yourself.
