A 3-Step Mental Reset to Stop Procrastinating: what I teach to every one of my clients to stop stealing your own progress and growth

Procrastination can feel like a character flaw, but I see it as a predictable brain pattern, a bad mental habit and that means we can train our way out of it. If you’ve ever stared at a workout plan, a report, a nutrition goal, or a hard conversation and thought, “I’ll do it later,” this one is built for you. I’m Angela Shurina, and I’m sharing the 3-step mental strategy I use with my coaching clients and in my own life to take action when the “I don’t want to” or "I'll do it later" mood hits...

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  Hey guys and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Shurina. I'm your host. I'm your partner in change, personal and collective transformation, your master health, sleep, stress management, recovery, nutrition, fitness, body transformation and self-actualization coach, and just someone with a lot of passion and obsession for unlocking more of your potential, of our potential, of growing 1% or a little bit better every single day to live more and

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  more extraordinary lives and to create more positive impact in the world. And today, guys, we're talking about quite an important subject. Today is Monday. I think it's like the perfect post for Monday morning. If you're listening to this on Monday, it's going to fire up the whole week if you decide to practice this three-step mental strategy that I teach to my clients, that I use myself, that helps you to get to take action every time you feel like procrastinating.

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  And this is what I learned in 18 years of my coaching practice and in my personal life and also while reading books and listening to researchers of motivation on people, researchers and experts with some global names on productivity. I've kind of accumulated all of these different bits and pieces and put it together into this three-step recipe that I now use with myself already automatically because it became this mental habit of mine and I also teach it to every client. And when they practice it, they also learn how to not procrastinate on the important

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  things that you want to get moving. There is a side of procrastination that helps you, that is useful, that helps you to reconsider, should you do the thing in the first place? But I also found that more often than not, it's just a undesirable brain or mental habit that stops you very often from taking actions that help you to grow your best, to help you to grow the next level of you. Because resistance, guys, it's just like in the gym. If you want your next level physique, you've got to lift heavier.

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  You can't be doing the same thing and expect to get different results, right? It's a law of insanity, as Einstein, Einstein posted it at some point. Maybe it wasn't Einstein, but it's very true that you can't be doing the same thing expecting different results. And it is the truth, fundamental truth of life, that if you want to grow to the next level, whether that's physically or in your relationships or in your business, you've got to do hard stuff. And your brain is designed that way, that it wants to save energy, to keep you in a safe space more often than not, because safe, the same level is familiar. And that's where you get to survive.

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  But is survival what you're after? Or do you want to thrive and grow and create the version of you that you haven't lived yet, the version of your life that you haven't lived yet? And there's going to be a lot, a lot of procrastination or that feeling that maybe I'll do it tomorrow or maybe later or some other time. And so today's podcast is all about that, how to get through that and get the ball rolling, the challenging ball rolling to unlock the next version of you, of your business, of your life. And it all started in sauna. So I usually go to the gym every morning before my day starts, because usually that's

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  the beginning of my best days. And these days I do a short cold plunge, two, three minutes, and then a short sauna session, 10, 15 minutes. And I usually have quite profound conversations before 6:00 AM or 7:00 AM in that sauna. It just opens people up, you know, that warmth, that heat and sweat. So the conversation went something like this. A friend asked me a question. He's like, how do you get yourself to do things when you don't want to do anything? Like, I know that once I, when I start doing something small, like washing the dishes, I just keep going. But what do you do? What do you do as a coach?

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  How do you stop yourself from procrastinating on the things you know you've got to do? Another gift, I thought to myself after the question, another gift of material from my sauna session, perfect for a Monday blog. And most of the answers my friend needed were already inside his own question. So three-step recipe, three-step recipe. Number one, reflect. So you already know this, once you start, you keep going. So remind yourself of it. You know that this works, that when you start the ball rolling, the ball tends to keep on rolling.

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  Remind yourself of that, that this is how things work. The battle is only ever with the first step. Everything after that almost moves on its own. There is a law of physics even for this. A body in motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest. Once the ball starts rolling, it tends to keep rolling. So reflect on that fact. And when you want to procrastinate, think about that. Huh, I know that if I just start doing anything, something, then I'm going to continue. So let me start something. And what is it it's best to start? The next one.

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  But before we jump into the next one, I'm trying to get better at it. I want to remind you that in the show notes, you can find a link to your own one-on-one coaching session with me, where I can walk you through the exact protocol that you need to dial in your nutrition, your fat loss, your recovery, your sleep, your digestion, your energy levels, your productivity and creative output. I'll tell you exactly, like step by step, what's going to work for you, because I've worked for 18 years with a lot of people, reading researchers and listening to you and very often talking to thought leaders all over the globe, right?

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  I know how to stack the thing up so you get to win. So feel free to book that session in the show notes. And now back to the episode. So first, reflect. Second, once you reflect on the fact that once you start going, you keep going, where do you start? That is the step number two in a three-step anti-procrastination recipe that I teach to every one of my client and apply to myself when I'm going through funk. So number two, lower the bar of entry. It is far easier to start the ball rolling downhill than uphill.

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  So stop making the beginning harder than it needs to be. That's why the smartest way into having a workout is a slow warm-up. Once you start, the hardest part gets easier to walk into. Dopamine starts flowing, energy shows up. That motivated feeling you're waiting for, it comes after you start, not before. My best workouts always begin with the slowest warm-up. So instead of picturing the whole mountain, the entire house to clean, the 10-page report to write, what most people do and they never get to start it on the title slide, picture

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  the smallest piece instead to start with. Two glasses in the sink to wash, one line on the title page, or the part you're actually really excited about to start with, really clear about. Let that small role carry you into the bigger climb. Imagine like you roll the ball downhill and then after it gains momentum, it can roll up all the way that big climb ahead, right? Imagine that again, ball down the hill and then uphill. That's what you're doing with your own motivation. Get the ball rolling and it will keep on rolling even uphill.

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  So what's the simplest, easiest, most exciting way in? Start there. And on Monday, they say eat frog on Monday or every morning. But you know, sometimes you're in such a funk, you don't want to eat the freaking frog. It will stop you from doing anything. So don't always eat the frog. Start with a piece of chicken is injured. So this is step number two, after you reflect, lower the bar. And then, and then what? And then what? And that is the part number three of three-step anti-procrastination recipe. This is the tool I reached for when the first two didn't work, when I'm still stuck in

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  the toughest kind of funk. I imagine two futures. One, where I keep giving up on the things that would move my life and myself forward. And one, where I work through them, I lean into them, I embrace the suck, as Navy SEALs would say. Which one do you want, right? It always reminds me this, there is this moment in Matrix One where Trinity opens the car door for Neo, or actually Neo opens the door, and Trinity grabs his shoulder and tells him, Neo, look at this road. You know where it leads. You've been there.

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  Is this where you wanna go? Not exact quote, but you understand. There are two futures unfolding every time when you think about procrastinating. One is the future where you push through hard stuff and one where you don't. Which one do you want? Because tomorrow won't be any different. Nothing happens between now and then later than between now and later that makes the hard thing easier. No injection of courage or creative genius, no free pass to mastery. You still have to become someone you've never been to get somewhere you've never gone. The world decides who you become or you do. Pick one.

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  The same rule holds outside the gym as in the gym. Resistance is where the strength gets built. It's where the next version of you gets built. The heavier the weight, the stronger you get. But you gotta lift that weight. So you might as well start now or give up and then what? Then what? Embrace the suck. Obstacle is the way to your next level. Just like heavier weight in the gym is the door to your next level physique. So three steps. And before we jump into the recap, don't forget to share this episode with at least one other person. Review, rate on your platform. It really makes a difference, guys.

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  It makes this content move into the world, into other people's ears. So together we can help each other to get better, to in into the procrastination, into the struggle and choose to get better. Right? So please do share this podcast episode, rate, review. And then the recap. So three step anti procrastination, a recipe that works every freaking time when you decide to use it. The next time the funk shows up, once that becomes your habit, you'll just shrug and say, without even noticing you said it, "Huck, what else in you? Might as well get started." This is, use this three step recipe.

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  Number one, reflect on the fact that when you get going, you keep on going. The second thing, lower the bar. It's much easier to start rolling downhill towards that one glass. Write that title. Start easy is into that. And then you keep on rolling. That's how biology works, that's how the world works. That's why they have the law of physics, the body in motion stays in motion. Right? And once you do the reps, you repeat it many, many times, it becomes a mental habit, not a mood, a mindset muscle you condition. The same thing, like people ask me, "How do you get so disciplined with eating healthy foods, even when you get hungry, tired, etc.?"

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  I'm like, "It's not discipline, it's a habit. Plus, I didn't have anything in my fridge but healthy food. So when I get hungry, that's the only thing I can eat." It becomes a mental habit and you stop thinking about it. And the next time resistance or procrastination shows up, you're like, "Huck, what else is new? Might as well get going now." Not willpower, just a better habit, repeat it until it's automatic. Nail the process, three step process, then put in the reps and then you got it. Your new habit that works for the best of you, the next version of you.

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  So the question of the day, what's one thing you keep putting off even though you know it's gonna move you to the next level? What's that one thing? And then apply this three step process to it, maybe even right now. Thank you, guys, for listening. Thank you for tuning in. It was, well, I had a blast talking to you over the microphone and distance reaching as my podcast starts, say, 11,000 plus cities around the world. Thank you, guys, for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Thank you for doing your best to unlock more of your potential.

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  And till next time, keep growing, keep showing up for struggle and you'll get to live a big life. Talk to you soon. Till next time.