Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow — the motto of all procrastinators. In today’s episode, Kim and Cara talk about how to both overcome and embrace (yes, embrace) the tendency to procrastinate.

Transcript
Jaz:

Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a

Jaz:

gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how

Jaz:

to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools

Jaz:

that will take overwhelm to obedience school and have you

Jaz:

wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts Kim Beer and Cara

Jaz:

Taylor Swift

Kimberly Beer:

Hey there business animals It's Kim with

Kimberly Beer:

Be More Business

Cara Taylor Swift:

and Cara

Cara Taylor Swift:

with Fast Horse photography. I was thinking maybe we should

Cara Taylor Swift:

just postpone this episode for a little while I've got some

Cara Taylor Swift:

emails I need to get done. I was

Kimberly Beer:

thinking of an equally interesting way of

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stating that we're going to be talking about procrastination

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today. Oh my goodness. Oh, never do today what you could put off

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till tomorrow. That's the motto of all procrastinators. And I do

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believe that we did procrastinate the recording of

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this because otherwise I wouldn't have drunk all my audio

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equipment to Casper, Wyoming so I could record

Cara Taylor Swift:

it. We should have recorded this episode

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before you left before while me. So yes, we procrastinated

Cara Taylor Swift:

getting this done. And here we are talking about

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procrastination, and I personally feel attacked today.

Kimberly Beer:

But I do want to note that in the procrastination

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of putting off this episode for recording, we do have fantastic

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internet I have fantastic internet at this motel and Cara

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is you're never leaving that motel for recording again. No,

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you're

Cara Taylor Swift:

gonna have to move to Casper Wyoming and

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record from the lucky to end. So plug for La Quinta best bet for

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recording a podcast we've experienced personally.

Kimberly Beer:

So in that case, the point that I want to make is

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that procrastination paid off. Yeah, you just got lucky up

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procrastination. Yeah, procrastination paying off. I'll

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take a boat. So procrastination is something I think we all feel

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victimized by the cultural perception of, I am not going to

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tell you procrastination is a bad thing. One thing that I have

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learned in my 56 years is that procrastination is something

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that our culture and that people like to use to judge you. And

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frankly, it has been one of the best things in my life. And I

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know I'm a weirdo for saying that. And I know Cara is looking

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at me like Kim, you have lost your mind. She's giving me that

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Cara blink like, Oh, God,

Cara Taylor Swift:

I don't have a blank. That's Oh,

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you have a blank that I can't believe you're

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saying?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, the truth is, is that yes, sure, you

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can be like him and think procrastination is an art form.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And that there are some beauty to it. And I'm not going to say

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that it's 100% that you can't enjoy some procrastination every

Cara Taylor Swift:

now and then. But the truth of the matter is, is when you find

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that this is something that is stifling your forward momentum

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on a project or in your life or on your job, that you really

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have to set some boundaries around your procrastination

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actions. So there are some signs that you might be

Cara Taylor Swift:

procrastinating Are you okay? If I go down my list right now, or

Kimberly Beer:

I don't procrastinate it don't put it

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off another minute, a.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So first of all, when I was going through

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this, I was feeling personally attacked. I am a bit of a

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procrastinator, apparently, according to my list that I have

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here. So if you tend to get bogged down every day with lower

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priority tasks, this is sitting down at the computer with your

Cara Taylor Swift:

list of to do items and then realizing you have like 500

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other little things that you can just knock out real quick, I

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find myself doing that a lot, you find that you're waiting

Cara Taylor Swift:

until the last minute to do something over and over and over

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again. And then you're stressing and you're rushing to get it

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done. And maybe that makes you late for the next thing that you

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need to be at if you keep pushing items every day, to the

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next day. So you've got your to do list. You've got those big

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items that you need to get done. And then you just kind of bumped

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them to the next day. And you're doing this over and over and

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over and over again thinking that there's going to be a

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better day to get it done. People do this even with

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important things. Maybe your workspace is really messy and

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unorganized. I'm going to be honest with you this was on the

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list that I found and part of the I found several lists and I

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really kind of went through and cherry picked and I found this

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to be a little bit of an attack. I don't know what this has to do

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with anything like what Kim Why do you think having a messy desk

Cara Taylor Swift:

is a sign that you might be a procrastinator. I think

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that some people might think that I don't

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personally think it but I think that it shows that partisan

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people that you are not organized and people will dump

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organizational skills in the same line with procrastination.

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So I think this has to do with a cultural perception of what

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procrastination is. And honestly like I said at the beginning it

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kind of flies in the face of what I believe procrastination

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really is. So I don't know as though a messy and run organized

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desk has anything to do with determining If you're a

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procrastinator or not, it just probably means that you have a

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different way of thinking than the people who make the rules.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Okay, so we're going to take the positive

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spin on that one, and we're just going to throw that one

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completely out. So to anyone out there that thinks that you're a

Cara Taylor Swift:

procrastinator because you have a messy desk like Screw you,

Cara Taylor Swift:

we're not procrastinators, because we have a messy

Cara Taylor Swift:

workspace. We like it this way. That's right. Another sign that

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you might be procrastinating, you find that you aren't

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finishing projects, you start or you're just not reaching your

Cara Taylor Swift:

goals that you set for yourself. I mean, that's a big one. And it

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also takes a big hit, sometimes emotionally, when you're not

Cara Taylor Swift:

finishing things and you're not reaching your goals. If you

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avoid making decisions about emails or text messages, direct

Cara Taylor Swift:

messages that you really need to respond to, you just kind of

Cara Taylor Swift:

keep putting those off, putting them off putting them off. Um,

Cara Taylor Swift:

another sign you might be procrastinating is if you let

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yourself get distracted easily by social media, snack breaks,

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right in the middle of a big task. I can't tell you how many

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times I'm right in the middle of a big task, and I'm like, oh,

Cara Taylor Swift:

you know what, I'm gonna go refill my drink, or I just need

Cara Taylor Swift:

to walk around, do a little inflation jogging, I need a

Cara Taylor Swift:

snack that happens all the time. You might be procrastinating if

Cara Taylor Swift:

you find yourself waiting to complete tasks until you're in a

Cara Taylor Swift:

better mood, or in the right mood for the project. Yeah, so

Cara Taylor Swift:

those are some of the things that when I was doing my

Cara Taylor Swift:

research for this that popped up, they made me feel a little

Cara Taylor Swift:

personally attacked. But I know you have some comments on them

Cara Taylor Swift:

cam. So what do you think about this, so I'm

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gonna get into most of my comments about this

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when we get into our big three. But I wanted to mention one

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other thing that is a big identifier for our expectation

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of what procrastination is. And that is something called

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structured procrastination. And there's a wonderful, very short

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book. So you don't have to put off reading it about this very

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topic. And the author's name is escaping me at the moment, but

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it is called structured procrastination. And this is

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another key that maybe you need to look at some of the things

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that are going on in your life, if you find yourself doing tasks

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that have nothing to do with what you really need to be

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doing. For example, if you're the type of person who says I

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really need to build a website for my business, and then you

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spend the next six weeks learning how to use WordPress,

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and researching all the various different hosting plans that are

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out there to build a website on. And then you find you want to do

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some better graphics. And now you have to go learn how to do

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Photoshop. And in the end, you never end up with a website, but

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you end up with a whole lot of education and on this whole

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crazy journey. That is what structure procrastination is.

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And there are some interesting concepts around structure

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procrastination, and how they work in our lives and in our

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minds. And I think this is a great time to bring into the

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play our big three for this episode, do you want to run

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those now,

Cara Taylor Swift:

the first of the Big Three is get to the real

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reason you're putting off a task, Kim's gonna talk a lot

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about this, I'm sure. The second is find a system that works for

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you. So thinking about how to deal with procrastination and

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get the stuff done that you need to get done. And then the third

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of our big three is embrace your procrastination as part of your

Cara Taylor Swift:

creative process. So we'll talk a little bit more about that. I

Cara Taylor Swift:

think Kim was kind of diving into it a little bit already. So

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let's get rolling. I'm gonna make you start by talking about

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number one. Yes. So

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this is to get to the real reason why you're

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putting off a task. Procrastination is not a

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disease, it's a symptom in so much of our culture, pinpoints

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it is that there's something wrong with you because you're

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procrastinating and that you're defective in some way that

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there's something intrinsically not correct with you. And the

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first thing I think we've got to understand is that some of these

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things that are signs that you're a procrastinator,

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according to our culture, are things that have to do with your

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temperament or typology. So I've done a lot of education, I went

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through a certification program it Gestalt, as you guys know,

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through touched by a horse and through with mentor, Melissa

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peers. And one of the things that Melissa was very good at

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teaching us about from day one through that certification

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program was to understand yourself and to understand those

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around you. Our culture is set up to be a very responsible,

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organized world. And if you are not meeting those checkpoints,

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chances are you're not that type of a person. So your temperament

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is different. It's the temperament that says, I enjoy

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the journey, not the destination. So our culture is

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set up to enjoy the destination. There are those of us out here

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and were designated as a type p in the Keirsey Bates or Myers

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Briggs typology. were completing a poll object is not the best

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part of that project for us. And it's this thing that we have to

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fight against in our own temperament to meet those

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expectations of that completion. So I want you to understand that

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knowing yourself is the very first step to understanding why

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you procrastinate. And if you don't know your temperament, or

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you don't know your type, or you haven't taken some of these

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assessments like Keirsey, Bates, Myers Briggs, you haven't dove

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into the Enneagram, or the disc, or the strict Clifton Strengths

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finders, you always feel like you're being judged poorly. And

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the truth of the matter is, is that you just need to set up a

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different work environment, and you need to understand your own

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temperament and start flexing that part of your temperament

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that will make your business successful. At the end of the

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day, when we're on this particular podcast, we're

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talking about your business and how you show up for that. And

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procrastinating things in your business can be detrimental. I

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don't care what type you are. So I do agree with Cara on that I

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just think procrastination always has a big reason behind

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it. And I think for a lot of us understanding ourselves is the

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very first step into understanding why we are not

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fitting into what we need to be fitting into. And we feel very

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judged and attacked by being called a procrastinator. And

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honestly, I think for a lot of these things on this list that

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we talked about that are signs you may be procrastinating, that

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has to do with your temperament and take that first step. But it

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actually goes in my opinion beyond that procrastination is a

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strategy for some of us. It's a way that we have dealt with

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trauma in the past, there's maybe some type of a limiting

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belief or something that happened with us in our

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childhood, or even more recently. And it can be where it

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doesn't even feel like that should be the reason why, like

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you can look at it logically and go, I don't get it. But until

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you suss it out and take a really deep look into why you've

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built up that strategy. Why are you putting off that task? stop

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and ask yourself those questions. Why am I putting this

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off? Is there something that is scary about it? Do I have a

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limiting belief around it? Do I feel like I'm going to be

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judged? If I put it out there into the world? Is it something

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that maybe I was judged for in the past or that there was some

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type of a trauma response around it? I personally think that's

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why I don't like to clean my house.

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So I procrastinate cleaning like crazy. And honestly, I think

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it's a trauma response. Okay. And I know that sounds really

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weird. But there were some weird things around cleaning in my

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family home. And for me, it truly may be a trauma response

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for you. There may be some trauma back there. And it

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doesn't have to be some what you feel is like some monumentally

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life changing thing. It could be something really simple that

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when you delve down and take a look at it, that's what US

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Gestalt lists are very good at helping you do. When you dive

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down and take a look at it, you can figure out why is this a

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problem? I work with a lot of people who struggle with

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procrastinating their marketing. So that's always been my

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specialty in business and working with those folks. And

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when I stopped just saying you need to do this and started

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asking the questions about like, why are you struggling with

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this, it's a lot more progress when you try to find out the

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reason back behind those things. The final thing I want to

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mention here with procrastination is sometimes

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procrastination is really attached to overwhelm. In other

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words, you just simply have way too much to do. And when you

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look at it, it feels so overwhelming, that you have

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developed a strategy and maybe your strategy in overwhelm is to

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do little tiny things that make you feel good, because you're

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able to finish them and lessen the overwhelm. So overwhelm is

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another thing that you need to dive into and figure out okay,

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if I'm living in overwhelm all of the time, there's something

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here that needs to be further looked at to take that symptom

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and say we're going to suss out what is the root cause of that?

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And then we need to eliminate the root cause because treating

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the symptom doesn't cure the problem. It just simply band

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aids over the top of it. Does that make sense? Cara? Imagine

Cara Taylor Swift:

being overwhelmed with your day to day

Cara Taylor Swift:

and then also having the pressure of knowing you have to

Cara Taylor Swift:

grow your business. But knowing if you take the steps to grow

Cara Taylor Swift:

your business, you're going need to bring in more work, which is

Cara Taylor Swift:

going to make your overwhelm even more. So I could see people

Cara Taylor Swift:

doing a lot of procrastination around marketing around just

Cara Taylor Swift:

been working on a website overhaul. So getting the pieces

Cara Taylor Swift:

and everything done. And some of that comes down to Am I ready to

Cara Taylor Swift:

take on the work that could come from the new marketing? You

Cara Taylor Swift:

don't I mean, I could see procrastination around that

Cara Taylor Swift:

100%. But you may not necessarily associated with

Cara Taylor Swift:

that. And then on top of that it's being compounded with the

Cara Taylor Swift:

guilt, I should be doing more, I need to get my business going.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, I see other people pulling in clients, why aren't I pulling

Cara Taylor Swift:

on? Well, because I'm procrastinating and not getting

Cara Taylor Swift:

these tasks done, when really, you're just trying to get by

Cara Taylor Swift:

with your day to day. So that all completely makes sense. To

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me, one of

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the best ways for you to get out of overwhelm is

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something that you care are exceptionally good at. And that

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is our number two in this episode, which is find a system

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that works for you. Because when you create a system, you have a

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framework for which to carry yourself out of overwhelm. And

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if you create that system where it works with your temperament

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or type, and you understand your well self well enough to know

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what in that system is going to work for you and what isn't,

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then you can start to eliminate two of those big things that are

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at the root of why you are procrastinating. So I'm gonna

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let you take this part away. I'm really good at developing

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systems, I'm not always so good at following them. I'd love to

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hear your advice on this. Sure, I've

Cara Taylor Swift:

got several tips that have helped me that

Cara Taylor Swift:

I'd love to share. The first one is to make a list of the things

Cara Taylor Swift:

that you've got to get done day today. And that simple act of

Cara Taylor Swift:

starting your day. And putting your list together or ending

Cara Taylor Swift:

your day with a list for the next day just takes away some of

Cara Taylor Swift:

the stress and worry and you kind of have an idea of what

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needs to get done. What happens though, and what I have

Cara Taylor Swift:

experienced in the past is I'll make a list and it will say

Cara Taylor Swift:

something I'm going to put a monumental task on here's

Cara Taylor Swift:

something like write my book. Well, obviously putting that on

Cara Taylor Swift:

the daily to do list is something that's going to get

Cara Taylor Swift:

pushed to every single the next day, the next day the next day.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So what I have learned is that a little trick is that if I take

Cara Taylor Swift:

the big task and break it down into little bite sized chunks,

Cara Taylor Swift:

and put that on the list, instead, it really makes it more

Cara Taylor Swift:

manageable. And instead of pushing that big thing to the

Cara Taylor Swift:

next day to the next day or to that when I have time or when

Cara Taylor Swift:

I'm in the mood or when I'm in a space where I can do that I'm

Cara Taylor Swift:

moving forward with the goal by knocking off the little tiny

Cara Taylor Swift:

pieces one step at a time, it gets me closer to reaching the

Cara Taylor Swift:

goal, it helps soothe my procrastination fears. And it

Cara Taylor Swift:

helps with the guilt factor that comes into not moving forward,

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the next little thing that I would do is I like to commit to

Cara Taylor Swift:

an item on the list or commit to a series of items. So I've got

Cara Taylor Swift:

my to do list. But there are some things that absolutely have

Cara Taylor Swift:

to get done. And I will tell myself, if I don't do anything

Cara Taylor Swift:

else today, these are the things that are getting done. So I

Cara Taylor Swift:

really make myself focus on reeling myself back in not

Cara Taylor Swift:

getting distracted, not losing focus, until I at least get

Cara Taylor Swift:

these key things done that I said I was going to get done.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And that is a battle. So I will be working on something and my

Cara Taylor Swift:

cell phone will ping or I realized my drink cup is empty,

Cara Taylor Swift:

or I haven't had breakfast yet or the dog comes over and is

Cara Taylor Swift:

begging to go out for a walk. Like those are things that

Cara Taylor Swift:

happen and I have to recommit to that over and over and over and

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over again, I'm not a singular focus person, like my husband,

Cara Taylor Swift:

he's somebody that can sit down to a task, and the world falls

Cara Taylor Swift:

away. I could be calling him his secretary could stand in the

Cara Taylor Swift:

doorway and be talking to him and he will just flat out not

Cara Taylor Swift:

hear it. He's so singularly focused. It's an amazing talent.

Cara Taylor Swift:

But I can't do that I'm easily distracted, giving myself a

Cara Taylor Swift:

little reward. So I'll say okay, when I finish this task, then

Cara Taylor Swift:

I'm going to go walk the dog and walk the neighborhood. Or then

Cara Taylor Swift:

I'm going to go refill my drink. So I make sure that I set some

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boundaries around that. The other thing that's essential for

Cara Taylor Swift:

me is reducing the distractions. I have to turn my cell phone

Cara Taylor Swift:

over and put it on silent. I have found myself Wow, I really

Cara Taylor Swift:

committed and worked through a for a significant amount of time

Cara Taylor Swift:

without distractions. And a lot of times when I think about what

Cara Taylor Swift:

was different, I had realized I left my cell phone upstairs, it

Cara Taylor Swift:

was totally in another room. Because the cell phone is so

Cara Taylor Swift:

distracting to me, my family, the group texts that come in

Cara Taylor Swift:

every day. It's like a constant battle to like not pick it up

Cara Taylor Swift:

and just look at it and then your mind shifts and you're not

Cara Taylor Swift:

focused anymore. I recommend for your work from a desktop or a

Cara Taylor Swift:

laptop, close out those social media Windows on your computer

Cara Taylor Swift:

so that they're not bringing with updates and alerts

Cara Taylor Swift:

constantly and that you're not tempted to just click over

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easily. You have to actually take Take the extra steps of

Cara Taylor Swift:

going to those websites, so that they're just not alerting you

Cara Taylor Swift:

and then turn off your TV as someone who spends a lot of time

Cara Taylor Swift:

at a desk, I oftentimes will have junk TV on in the

Cara Taylor Swift:

background, or I'll have the news going. But sometimes those

Cara Taylor Swift:

are the same going in the background. And just because I

Cara Taylor Swift:

like the noise, but sometimes you really have to just kind of

Cara Taylor Swift:

shut all of those distractions off so that the colors and the

Cara Taylor Swift:

sounds aren't pulling your eye away from your desk. There are

Cara Taylor Swift:

some amazing apps out there for keeping you on task. So you can

Cara Taylor Swift:

set timers, you can set uninterrupted time, like

Cara Taylor Swift:

dedicated time to really work on your tasks and projects, just

Cara Taylor Swift:

simply go into your app store. And Google time management task

Cara Taylor Swift:

completion apps, there's so many that popped up, I was just

Cara Taylor Swift:

shocked at actually how many there are. And then the last

Cara Taylor Swift:

piece of this pulls back for me anyway pulls back to what Kim

Cara Taylor Swift:

was talking about the underlying reasons for procrastination. And

Cara Taylor Swift:

for me, sometimes that is just a sense of overwhelm. There's too

Cara Taylor Swift:

many things that have to get done. And I need help and

Cara Taylor Swift:

outsource. There's nothing wrong with outsourcing someone to help

Cara Taylor Swift:

you do some of the things so that you can work on your list,

Cara Taylor Swift:

hire a virtual assistant, have someone else design your website

Cara Taylor Swift:

for you, there are so many things that you can pay other

Cara Taylor Swift:

people to do for you that they can do it quickly. They could do

Cara Taylor Swift:

it more efficiently. You don't have to do all the research to

Cara Taylor Swift:

learn about WordPress in order to build your website, hire

Cara Taylor Swift:

someone that knows WordPress already and can build your

Cara Taylor Swift:

website so that you're not spending all that time that you

Cara Taylor Swift:

could be working on your business in other ways. So

Cara Taylor Swift:

that's my list cam, do you have anything you want to add to that

Cara Taylor Swift:

or any comments because you know, me as a taskmaster over

Cara Taylor Swift:

here,

Kimberly Beer:

I do. And I love your lists. And I love your

Kimberly Beer:

sense of organization. And I know that it works for you. And

Kimberly Beer:

I know that for a lot of you out there listening to this, you're

Kimberly Beer:

going to go oh, those things don't great, I'm going to try

Kimberly Beer:

every single one of them, then you're going to kick yourself

Kimberly Beer:

because you are going to fail at them. Because you don't live in

Kimberly Beer:

that type of a temperament where having the very structured

Kimberly Beer:

stuff, or you're you just aren't that structured, which is me,

Kimberly Beer:

I'm just not that structured. So one of the things that I've been

Kimberly Beer:

working on recently, even with some clients that have come to

Kimberly Beer:

me wanting to build out businesses and building out a

Kimberly Beer:

business does require some organizational skills, it

Kimberly Beer:

requires you to get tasks done. And it requires you to put some

Kimberly Beer:

focus into things you can't be chasing butterflies, as my

Kimberly Beer:

mother always accused me of. You chase too many butterflies, you

Kimberly Beer:

can't always be chasing butterflies, you have to be able

Kimberly Beer:

to sit down and get tasks accomplished. And one of the

Kimberly Beer:

things that I found works for me in being a person who rebels

Kimberly Beer:

against structure, so one of my top values is freedom. And if I

Kimberly Beer:

get pushed against against freedom, and am I one of my move

Kimberly Beer:

away values is restriction. If it feels restrictive, I will not

Kimberly Beer:

do it. So I've started doing what I call time blocking. So I

Kimberly Beer:

set aside a list of things I need to get done in a day. And

Kimberly Beer:

the first thing I need to accomplish on the list is to get

Kimberly Beer:

myself up and get myself mentally prepared for work. And

Kimberly Beer:

that is perfectly fine. There's no set end or beginning to that

Kimberly Beer:

except for when I have to show up for the meeting. So I have to

Kimberly Beer:

be mentally prepared, then the next block that I work in, and I

Kimberly Beer:

guess I shouldn't say time, I don't want to associate this

Kimberly Beer:

with time. But the next block I work in is production, right?

Kimberly Beer:

It's a productive period of time. And in part of my getting

Kimberly Beer:

prepared for that I come up with the three things I need to get

Kimberly Beer:

accomplished for that day. And my first focus is to get that

Kimberly Beer:

done. So I get one or more of those things checked off of that

Kimberly Beer:

list. I pick three, that if I get those three things done, by

Kimberly Beer:

the end of the day, say this was a good day, I got a lot done

Kimberly Beer:

today. And honestly, people, when you're looking at this,

Kimberly Beer:

sometimes I will tell you that one of my three things is just

Kimberly Beer:

getting up and getting dressed. And I've dealt with a lot of

Kimberly Beer:

depression in my life. And that's another thing that you

Kimberly Beer:

can find to remember I mentioned the trauma piece being as the

Kimberly Beer:

why behind why you procrastinate. Depression is

Kimberly Beer:

another thing that shows up in your life that feels like you're

Kimberly Beer:

doing something wrong, but it's not wrong. You're not defective,

Kimberly Beer:

because you are working through a depression. And in those

Kimberly Beer:

moments, some of the three things on your list might be get

Kimberly Beer:

up and get dressed and make yourself a good breakfast that

Kimberly Beer:

may be your first productive block. And then take a rest

Kimberly Beer:

block then add another productive block then add

Kimberly Beer:

another rest block or a replenishing block or

Kimberly Beer:

rejuvenating block whatever you want to call it. But work your

Kimberly Beer:

way through the things that you need to get done on your list.

Kimberly Beer:

And then I have bonus tasks by get the first the top three done

Kimberly Beer:

then I can go on to the rest of the to do's on the list. But

Kimberly Beer:

that keeps me focused on getting the really important stuff done.

Kimberly Beer:

And then going back and coming up and picking up the rest of

Kimberly Beer:

it. And I do believe I personally subscribe to the eat

Kimberly Beer:

the frog system is where you do the tasks that you least like

Kimberly Beer:

first and get it out of the way. So eating that frog, it's a book

Kimberly Beer:

that you can read. So I think it's Eat That Frog, or something

Kimberly Beer:

along those lines, Google Eat That Frog, I'm pretty sure that

Kimberly Beer:

book will come up for you. But it's another way of looking at

Kimberly Beer:

get the things that you don't want to do out of the way first,

Kimberly Beer:

and then concentrate on the things that you do love to do,

Kimberly Beer:

because those will come easier for you. So those are a couple

Kimberly Beer:

of random system hacks that I have come up with to help with

Kimberly Beer:

my personal temperament, which is an NFP, which is a I have to

Kimberly Beer:

have the big picture. I can't do things in a super structured

Kimberly Beer:

way, because I'm going to rebel against it every single time and

Kimberly Beer:

want to move away from it.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, there you have it, I think there's a

Cara Taylor Swift:

little something out there for everyone. And I just feel like

Cara Taylor Swift:

this is something that probably most people to some extent deal

Cara Taylor Swift:

with, I can probably count maybe two people that I personally

Cara Taylor Swift:

know that I wouldn't consider procrastinators of any kinds,

Cara Taylor Swift:

like they really knock things out. They're super organized,

Cara Taylor Swift:

they can focus one is my husband. The other is a

Cara Taylor Swift:

photographer friend of mine, but that's probably it. I mean, most

Cara Taylor Swift:

of us, I think struggle with this in some regard. And

Cara Taylor Swift:

sometimes it's just because the daily tasks at hand are boring.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And we'd rather do exciting stuff on our to do list. I mean,

Cara Taylor Swift:

that's what it comes down to sometimes. So whatever the

Cara Taylor Swift:

reasoning is for you, we hope that some of these tips that

Cara Taylor Swift:

we've given you will help

Kimberly Beer:

Yeah, and life happens which is down to our

Kimberly Beer:

number three, or which is embrace your procrastination as

Kimberly Beer:

part of the creative process and or divine timing. This, I think

Kimberly Beer:

was the biggest freedom for me as a life long labeled

Kimberly Beer:

procrastinator is that I finally embraced the procrastination as

Kimberly Beer:

part of my creative process. And also divine timing. I found when

Kimberly Beer:

the times when I was accused of being the worst procrastinator,

Kimberly Beer:

and especially those times when I went against what my intuition

Kimberly Beer:

was the moment said, put this off, don't do this right now.

Kimberly Beer:

And I was like, No, I have to do it right now society says this

Kimberly Beer:

must be done at this minute, and I need to do it. And I did it, I

Kimberly Beer:

got the task done, I completed it. But it wasn't to the level

Kimberly Beer:

that it needed to be, or that it could have been if I would have

Kimberly Beer:

just allowed the procrastination a little bit. Now, I cannot tell

Kimberly Beer:

you that there's a free check out there for you to just create

Kimberly Beer:

your own divine timing and live by it. That's not what I'm

Kimberly Beer:

saying here. But what I am saying is that there are times

Kimberly Beer:

that procrastination is not a bad thing. There are times that

Kimberly Beer:

that procrastination is necessary for you to get to all

Kimberly Beer:

of the places that you need to be in a project to get the best

Kimberly Beer:

result out of that project. And or if you believe in divine

Kimberly Beer:

timing, sometimes procrastination is your

Kimberly Beer:

intuition telling you to just wait a minute, to stop, to

Kimberly Beer:

breathe, to look around you to allow those distractions in

Kimberly Beer:

because maybe one of those distractions is very important.

Kimberly Beer:

Or maybe just the process of waiting a couple of minutes

Kimberly Beer:

opens up a better opportunity for you. Procrastination is a

Kimberly Beer:

process. And I think when you stop and go back to that very

Kimberly Beer:

first thing I said and ask yourself why and dig down into

Kimberly Beer:

it. And if you can't find a really solid reason why you're

Kimberly Beer:

procrastinating something, then come to this one and say divine

Kimberly Beer:

timing or creative process may really be at play here. And that

Kimberly Beer:

may be the why as to why you're not getting things done quite on

Kimberly Beer:

the level that you want to get them done out or on the

Kimberly Beer:

timescale that other people are expecting. And as a creative as

Kimberly Beer:

somebody who has to use my creativity on a daily basis for

Kimberly Beer:

other people. There are times now when I am super honest, I

Kimberly Beer:

used to make horrible excuses about not getting things done.

Kimberly Beer:

But now sometimes I have to just say, You know what, my muse is

Kimberly Beer:

being a bee right now. And I just can't get in touch with

Kimberly Beer:

this at this moment. And I need to just allow that time for me

Kimberly Beer:

to process it. If you could be patient for another day or two.

Kimberly Beer:

I'd really appreciate that because I need that time in

Kimberly Beer:

order to give you the best result I can give you so if you

Kimberly Beer:

are working in a serve disoriented businesses like I

Kimberly Beer:

do, then you can say that to people, you can let them know

Kimberly Beer:

and be upfront and honest. And yes, there are some people that

Kimberly Beer:

are gonna go, Well, that just doesn't work for me. And I found

Kimberly Beer:

those people in my business, they're not a good fit for me.

Kimberly Beer:

And so it's best that they go find another designer. And this

Kimberly Beer:

is mostly in my design career consulting is a little

Kimberly Beer:

different. But the design part I always felt better if they moved

Kimberly Beer:

on to another designer that fit them. In the beginning of my

Kimberly Beer:

career, I felt all kinds of guilt because I let a customer

Kimberly Beer:

go as I've gotten older, I'm thinking bless and release. You

Kimberly Beer:

belong with someone else. And that opens the door for me to

Kimberly Beer:

have a better customer fit for me that's embracing it and Kara

Kimberly Beer:

you know what, this is so important to me. I wrote a poem.

Kimberly Beer:

Oh, gosh,

Cara Taylor Swift:

that's right. I forgot you had the poem. I

Cara Taylor Swift:

totally forgot about the poem. Okay, here you guys go. This is

Cara Taylor Swift:

your this is your daily moment of sin to end this episode.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Enjoy.

Kimberly Beer:

Okay, so the poem is called be a better

Kimberly Beer:

procrastinator. Make it a practice to wander, amble,

Kimberly Beer:

saunter, doddle, meander, roam and drift at every opportunity

Kimberly Beer:

take time to digress revel in getting sidetracked, stray from

Kimberly Beer:

the appointed, deviate from the common mosey away from

Kimberly Beer:

structure. Allow yourself to veer into passion road towards

Kimberly Beer:

jubilation prowl after pleasure swerve around happiness and

Kimberly Beer:

straw with delight. And don't you ever feel guilty in your

Kimberly Beer:

bliss Glee, euphoria, Felicity elation, rapture, or joy of

Kimberly Beer:

procrastinating?

Cara Taylor Swift:

Well, that's awesome. I hope people got

Cara Taylor Swift:

whatever they needed from this episode. Whether it was tips to

Cara Taylor Swift:

help them with their procrastination, or if it was a

Cara Taylor Swift:

feel good moment to feel better about their procrastination,

Cara Taylor Swift:

whatever that is, we hope that you got what you need out of it.

Cara Taylor Swift:

And at a minimum, you had your moment of Zen with Kim's poem.

Cara Taylor Swift:

So Kim, I forget Do you have your poetry online? Because I

Cara Taylor Swift:

always love your posts to tell people where they can find your

Cara Taylor Swift:

poetry online. As a side, let

Kimberly Beer:

me make sure the websites still up. It was at

Kimberly Beer:

Kimberlybeer.com. I had all my creative stuff there at one

Kimberly Beer:

point. Yep, it's still there. You can go read I haven't posted

Kimberly Beer:

there for a while but my poetry some of my short stories, some

Kimberly Beer:

of my non horse and horse photography. Are there be warned

Kimberly Beer:

there skulls with flowers? I get a little weird if you're easily

Kimberly Beer:

offended, you know, may want to stay away.

Cara Taylor Swift:

Yes. One of the things I love about

Cara Taylor Swift:

chemistry how creative she is. And so yeah, this poll was

Cara Taylor Swift:

pretty perfect for us today's episode. So we hope you guys

Cara Taylor Swift:

have enjoyed that you've left with us that you've gotten some

Cara Taylor Swift:

a little piece tidbit out of this episode. And at a minimum,

Cara Taylor Swift:

maybe you procrastinated a task and listened to us instead. So

Cara Taylor Swift:

we love you guys. Thank you for hanging with us. We're 80 Plus

Cara Taylor Swift:

episodes in and if this is your first time joining us, thank

Cara Taylor Swift:

you, we appreciate it. If this is your 80th time joining us it

Cara Taylor Swift:

means the world to us. So thank you guys so much. And just like

Cara Taylor Swift:

always, we'll be back next Tuesday.

Jaz:

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business

Jaz:

Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And

Jaz:

if you learned something today, leave us a review. To learn

Jaz:

more. Find us at thebusinessanimal.com We'd love

Jaz:

to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well