Practical Principles to Overcome Procrastination with Eric Twiggs

Episode 68

Helping executive leaders and entrepreneurs who have moved from feeling frustrated to finding fulfillment and overcome procrastination.

Eric M. Twiggs is a founding partner and president of The What Now Movement. His mission is to build high-performing entrepreneurs, authors, and career professionals, who prepare for life’s unexpected curveballs. 

He is the author of The Discipline of Now: 12 Practical Principles to Overcome Procrastination, a Global Top Ten Finalist for the 2020 Author Elite Awards in Best Self Help Book.  

Also, Eric is the host of a weekly inspirational podcast titled “The 30 Minute Hour.” As a Certified Life & Business Coach, Eric has conducted over 28,000 coaching sessions, helping executive leaders and entrepreneurs who have moved from feeling frustrated to finding fulfillment. In addition, he has also led 500 or more people in corporate America and shared his message with corporations, associations, and congregations across the country.

Don’t miss out on this episode as Eric walks us through his procrastination prevention pyramid, what led him to coach, and a gift he gives to The MindShift Podcast listeners. 

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full Episode:

1. Why we procrastinate.
2. What causes procrastination.
3. How to overcome procrastination. 
   
   

Episode Highlights

Eric Twiggs 

• • Procrastination prevention partner 
  • Author of The Discipline of Now
  • Host of the 30 Minute Hour Podcast 

Defining procrastination

• • Specifically delaying or putting off until later is what you should be doing now.
  • For instance, when moving forward, you hear voices trying to talk you out of it. 
  • If you look back, there is a pattern in your life with procrastination.

Peak performance as it relates to procrastination 

• • Eric says not to confuse prudence with procrastination. 
  • There is a time for recovery mode. 
  • There’s time for planning and doing research. 

Eric on writing his first book

• • Eric’s first book as an e-book, One Moment in Time. Preparing Your Life for Your Defining Moment.
  • His first paperback book was The Discipline of Now.
  • Write first and edit later. 

Coaching 28,000  

• • Coaching this many entrepreneurs has helped Eric see people have patterns. 
  • He saw people with their habits and getting great results. 
  • Difference between good and great results? Completing the tasks even when they didn’t feel like it.

Eric’s superpower 

• • Discipline 
  • For example, he can do tasks until they become a habit. 
  • He believes that anyone can develop discipline.

Why are some people willing to do the work long after the commitment?

• • Eric says that they have what they call bias for action. 
  • A high-level person will take the three tasks given at a conference on Saturday and implement them on Monday. 
  • They have a short window between intention and action. 

The things that hold people back from taking action 

• • Everyone experiences, to a degree, the resistance to go to the next level.
  • Referred to as a lizard brain because your brain is trying to protect you. 
  • The people who are trying to talk you out of doing something aspirational are usually the ones that are not doing those things. 
  • High performers work through this and often have a mentor. 

Distinguishing characteristics that can help get you unstuck today 

• • Eric says that taking ownership is critical. 
  • Work with the idea that everything that happens is your fault. 
  • Successful people know that their actions control their destiny. 

What led Eric to coach?

• • He started as a district manager of over 500 employees in the automotive service industry.
  • Co-worker suggested that this is the path Eric needed to follow because he was already doing it. 
  • Eric says that coaching is what he was called to do.

Differences between pre and post-pandemic 

• • Eric says that people got into speculation mode. 
  • His goal was to keep everyone focused on what they could do during this time. 
  • To keep taking action. Each conversation, they had to come with five things that moved their business forward. 

Framework to overcome procrastination 

• • The procrastination prevention pyramid is what Eric created to help overcome procrastination. 
  • This pyramid consists of five levels. 
  • As you move through the pyramid, you are consistently overcoming procrastination. 

Attitude 

• • The first level is on purpose. 
  • Foundation of your success. 
  • Studies show that the more pessimistic you are, the more likely you are to procrastinate. 

Awareness

• • Eric says that awareness is the overarching theme of his book. 
  • Be aware of your power times and energy cycles. 
  • Be mindful of the people you are around, and are they negative all the time? 

Animation

• • Eric says that this is about cultivating energy levels. 
  • Highly successful people have this routine of exercise where they are getting their energy. 
  • Pay attention to your sleep as well. 

Automation 

• • If something has to be complete, it doesn’t mean that you are the one that has to do it. 
  • Entrepreneurs lead people. 
  • If it’s outside your zone of genius, outsource that to someone else. 

Action/Activity

• • This is the top of the pyramid because you can’t get to the top without action. 
  • It’s important to recognize that 20% of what you are doing is getting 80% of your results. 
  • The key is to be intentional with the action you are taking to ensure that these things align with your goals. 

More than 15 things on your list? 

• • If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. 
  • Advantage of having a list of 5 things to complete is because that it is a manageable list. 
  • Identify the top things that you want to accomplish. 

How to distinguish between tasks and projects?

• • The task type items are what Eric writes down as it relates to the goals he has. 
  • If it’s small and achievable steps, write it down. 
  • Projects require you to make an appointment with yourself. 

Eric’s thoughts on calendars 

• • Having a reminder go off is helpful. 
  • Put something on your calendar, it becomes more of a priority. 
  • If something is important to you and your goals, you will find the time to complete it. 

Eric’s greatest satisfaction as a coach 

• • To see people who started and they come back, and they are highly successful individuals. 
  • They are doing certain things. 
  • They are executing at the level that they never saw themselves being able to achieve. 

When the pressure mounts for Eric

• • He says that he has to focus on what he’s doing. 
  • Focus on the action that you are taking. 
  • He does a weekly SWOT analysis on himself. He’s looking at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

The one thing Eric wants to be remembered by

• • Eric wants to be remembered by others as that he was someone who did his best to pursue his potential.
     

3 Powerful Quotes from this Episode

The Shift 

21:52 – “I knew that a coach is one of the things I’ll be called to because I’d be out. And I would just strike up a conversation with somebody, and this person will start telling me all about his business. It happens regularly, where I’m in the Verizon store, getting my phone looked at, and the guy’s telling me, you know, I got this business on the side, and I got a partner, what do you think I should do and blah, blah, blah. I think that’s definitely something I feel like I’m called to do.”

What holds you back 

16:12 - “A lot of times when you’re trying to get to that next level, that’s when you start hearing those voices talk to you. I think everybody experiences that to the degree that you experienced that resistance. Sometimes resistance is in your head, a lot of times called the lizard brain, because your brain is trying to protect you. So if you say I’m going to start my own business, all of a sudden, you’re going to get these thoughts about what if this happens, or what would it get, could you handle this, but that’s natural. That’s your brain trying to protect you. Some people can’t get past that. They just listen to that, and they stop. Then sometimes you are surrounded by people that are trying to talk you out of your thing. And that’s why you really have to be careful with, and I’ve just found that it’s never, if anybody’s talking me out of doing something aspirational. Never anybody like you, right? Never that the entrepreneur has got a podcast that’s in the arena, it’s always the person is not doing those things, right.”

Procrastinating 

4:54 – “Procrastinating is when you are delaying or putting off until later, what you really should be doing now, that’s just the most fundamental definition of procrastination.” – Why do we do that? Why do we do that? – “There’s a lot of reasons. I’ll tell you this, the fundamental reason there’s some level of discomfort, that that’s like the root of all procrastination, there’s some level of discomfort you have with the pending task.” 

About Eric Twiggs

Eric M. Twiggs is a founding partner and president of The What Now Movement. His mission is to build high-performing entrepreneurs, authors, and career professionals, who are prepared for life’s unexpected curveballs. 

He is the author of The Discipline of Now: 12 Practical Principles to Overcome Procrastination. The Discipline of Now has been recognized as a Global Top Ten Finalist for the 2020 Author Elite Awards in the category of Best Self Help Book.

Also, Eric is the host of a weekly inspirational podcast titled “The 30 Minute Hour.” 

As a Certified Life & Business Coach, Eric has conducted over 28,000 coaching sessions, helping executive leaders and entrepreneurs who have moved from feeling frustrated to finding fulfillment. In addition, he has also led 500 or more people in corporate America and shared his message with corporations, associations, and congregations across the country.   

Reading The Discipline of Now, you will receive a proven blueprint to overcome procrastination, so that you make more money, get more done, and feel more confident.

Connect with Eric Twiggs

Website

Facebook 

LinkedIn

Twitter 

Podcast – The 30-Minute Hour 

The Discipline of Now 

One Moment in Time 

A gift to MindShift Podcast Listeners – Text: Twiggs Time to 474747 You will get free instant access to Eric’s audio version of his book The Discipline of Now 

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Thanks for listening,
Darrell