So, another week has gone by…it’s been at least two weeks now, probably three, since I said I was going to get back to my solo episodes of my podcast. Still nothing has happened.
Oh sure…I’ve thought about doing an episode many times. I’ve even played over in my head what I’m going to say, how I’ll say it. But it hasn’t materialized yet.
You wanna know why? I’ll tell you…
I’m SCARED TO DO IT.
Crazy, right? I mean, I’ve been doing the podcast now for over a year…I’ve got 64 published episodes, and 18 more ready to go. Why the heck would I be scared to do a solo episode now?
I’ll tell you why…
Because any time you get out of the habit of doing something, it takes effort to get back to it again. And the more effort it takes, the more doubt that creeps in. It doesn’t really matter what that habit was…
It could be exercising regularly, or eating healthy meals…or doing a podcast. And the longer you put it off, the more likely you are to start having second thoughts about your ability to maintain that habit again.
Procrastination is sneaky…it slowly inches its way into your daily activities, letting you drop off one small thing, and then another…until after awhile you realize that you’re really not doing ANY of the things you used to do.
Oh, there are always excuses…”reasons“, you’ll tell yourself…for why a specific activity isn’t on your agenda anymore, or why you stopped eating a particular type of meal that you’d been eating for ages. Your route to work changed, so you don’t go by that gym anymore. The grocery store stopped carrying the type of greens that you like, so you can’t make that yummy salad now.
Or in my case…there is too much noise around the house – I can’t record a podcast episode at night when everyone is home, and in the daytime when nobody is in the house but me, I have to work – or there are neighbours outside being noisy because everyone else is home due to Covid-19…
Right…excuses galore. But the bottom line is simply that I’m scared about what I’ll talk about. How is my retirement planning going? What have I done since my last episode to move things forward? Truth be told…very little. And therein lies the problem. How do I admit I’ve basically been procrastinating…staring at my computer screen day after day, not really accomplishing anything?
I’m supposed to be giving people ideas, making plans for the great life that’s ahead of us when we get “beyond retirement”, and yet here I am wasting time. How can I create an episode when that’s what’s going on in my head?
The key is right there too…”what’s going on in my head” needs to change. And that’s what this whole story is about…mindset. We have to change the stories we tell ourselves before we can change the way our life is heading.
Your brain will listen to whatever you tell it…so starting today, tell yourself positive stories. That’s what I’m doing… my show is going so well that I’ve decided to start doing two episodes a week and now I’m ready to start my solo episodes again.
That’s right…no more procrastination here. That train has left the station.
