The Insidious Assassin of Ambition

If you wish to stop procrastinating forever, pay attention

Because if you overlook gratitude, your dreams will be forever out of reach

I share a simple 3 step gratitude practice to annihilate this insidious assassin of ambition.

And by the end, you'll have a cheat code I use everyday to get my brain to focus exclusively on my goals and purpose.

Procrastination is the killer of dreams

The Thief of Time

The Insidious Assassin of Ambition

Procrastination comes in many forms...

For example:

Looking back, I would overthink every decision.

At least that's what it felt like...

"Paralysis by Analysis"

"Perfectionism"

If you know, you know

I wrestled with this for years.

It was... well... paralysing.

Ultimately, I broke this feeling down into 2 different types of fear.

My lesson is: 'doing nothing' is the same as failure AND missing the whole opportunity.

So why did I do this to myself?

I'm sure the scientific literature is lengthy, but I'm trying to get away from overthinking...

Instead of trying to work out why I do this to myself, I begin by breaking the cycle.

How can I stop doing this to myself?

In 2019 I came across a Youtube video made by a guy named Dan Lok offering sales psychology tips.

Bit of background: Dan Lok is a copywriter turned salesperson and entrepreneur.

Intent on expanding my sales skills at the time, I bought his course.

I learned more in that 8 week program that I’d learned in 3 years of corporate sales.

(This is not a sponsored post)

If you know anything about sales, you'll know that the biggest barrier to success is mindset.

Dan shared 2 mindset hacks that to this day, I always come back to:

For me, these 2 ideas led to some massive breakthroughs

Fear and anger ruled my life until I became aware of the impact of gratitude.

That feeling of expecting my day to go a certain way only for an unfortunate event to blindside me.

Even something so tiny and insignificant could bring my emotions to boiling point

It can be infuriating to feel so powerless.

Sometimes it can feel like someone else must be to blame:

Sometimes there is no one else to blame but ourselves:

And out of nowhere this newfound, self-induced wrath and fury begins to shape every interaction we have for the rest of our day...

...And it stays with us, until we diffuse it, or until it potentially passes after a good nights sleep.

And like anger, fear would also change my view of the world

It closed me off to new opportunities

Guided me back to false comfort and safety

Even though I knew I wanted more out of life...

...It distracted me from my goals

...Affected my focus

...Altered my decision making

It "Held me back"

What does that even mean?

"Fear held me back"?

Let’s break it down.

Fear is an emotion

More specifically: Fear is our emotion. It cannot exist without us.

"Holds us back" - has a grip - becomes an obstacle - gets in our way

But...

Ultimately, it's "Our" emotion...

So we're in charge of it... right?

Fear and anger only existed in my mind because I allowed them to

Same with all negative emotions

With this I found bad news and good news.

Bad news first:

The more I gave power to negative emotion, the stronger it became.

It's like any habit, muscle, or skill.

The more I let fear in, the easier it became for me to be afraid

The more I let anger thrive within, the easier it became for me to react in anger

As you can imagine, this leads to a very dangerous and slippery slope.

So back to the question at hand

How can I stop doing this to myself?

Harness Gratitude. Subdue Negative Emotions

Whenever I'm in an emotional situation, I use this technique and my mood stabilises in seconds

It’s 100% natural with no long term downsides

More effective than any pill or psychiatrist

Accessible any time, any place.

As soon as my mood has stabilised, my brain goes into “goal-oriented problem solver” mode

It fills my mind with every beneficial solution I can think of

…Many paths to resolution come into view…

It lets me use the latent energy or even excess adrenaline from particularly strong emotions…

In most cases I'm in a better mood compared to anything earlier that day…

Most importantly, it results in minimal emotional over-reaction…

…Minimised damages - if any damages at all

And every time I practice, it get easier and easier

It blows my mind that more people don't know about this technique

It's so simple, but so effective

So, Let me tell you what works for me.

For starters, it needs some self awareness

I need to be observing my thoughts in some capacity for it to work

Enough to notice a change in my mood...

And as soon as I notice an emotional trigger...

For example:

Anything that indicates my mood is about to - or has already - destabilise(d)

As soon as this happens, I ask myself the question:

"How can I be grateful for this moment?"

There it is

That’s it

Sounds cheesy right? Like its some kind of gimmick or something?

Some wishy washy, hoodoo voodoo, spiritual mumbo jumbo

You're probably thinking "What is this guy smoking?"

"There's no way it's always been that simple"

Don't take my word for it

Try it for yourself

What's there to lose?

I can practice anytime, even if my mood is fine.

I just ask myself the question

"How can I be grateful for this moment"?

Then, when an answer comes to mind

I go another level deeper

I ask myself the question again, and repeat the process.

Eventually, I find myself in 1 of 2 places:

In both cases I find I'm more effective across the board when it comes to:

It feels like some sort of cheat code

Looking back, it’s obvious how much I let my emotions take charge

I am grateful because life threw a load of lessons at me

There are many great people out there sharing ideas that can change lives

Exploring gratitude and its uses is a game changer for me

When done right, it feels like the perfect blend of humility and confidence

There's a stoicism that comes from practicing gratitude

It alleviates pain, enables clear thinking,

Strategically, It puts me in a better position

So to recap:

And the best part is, there is so much to learn from gratitude.

This is just the tip of the iceberg...