By
Cookie Tuminello

“The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.”  -  Nolan Bushnell

Most people love to procrastinate on completing things that they just don’t ‘want’ to do or plain old dislike doing.
Another form of procrastination is that we often set goals a year in advance on January 1^st and then miraculously expect to have them all accomplished by December 31^st of the same year.  Or we’ll make a list of these lofty intentions of what we’d like to accomplish for the year and then before we know it, December 31^st of the next year has rolled around again and upon reflection, we find we haven’t finished 50% of them! What a vicious circle! The way I see it, we have two choices: we can mentally press the pause button and wake up on New Years Day when the parades, football games, and shopping blow outs start or we can start NOW to work on our personal ‘wish list’ and not waste months of time doing absolutely nothing. Let’s see, finish the year with a sense of accomplishment or beat myself up because I wasted my time. Well, I don’t know about you, but it sounds like a no brainer to me.

With all that being said, I started taking a look at my goals for this year. Although I was quite pleased with my accomplishments made so far, there was one goal that I kept pushing aside. I had been saying it was time for me to write an article for publication. This was like the “What’s next?” for me. Even though I knew that, I still procrastinated. Procrastination is a pesky little devil that hangs on tenaciously. However, being a coach, I do know the importance of support and minimizing suffering. So, I enlisted my coach and friend, Kate Steinbacher , knowing full well that she would challenge me. And challenge me she did with the ultimate – the deadline, November 20^th. As if the coaching challenge was not enough, I received more inspiration that day while coaching a client through the same dilemma of overwhelm and end of the year deadlines at work. Talk about a wake up call. Don’t you just hate it when that happens? Needless to say, after coaching her through a step by step action plan, I thanked her for the opportunity to learn and grow.

Whether you have end of the year deadlines at work or just want to calm some of the chaos of your everyday world, I think these action steps will support you.

1. Make a list of what you want to do before the end of the year. You have got to know where you are going before you can go there.
2. Check off what is an absolute priority. When I say priority, I mean an absolute “must do”.
3. Check off what can be realistically delegated. Contrary to popular belief, there are things on your list that can be handled by others. For example, gathering data for end of year reports, copying, phone calls, etc. Asking for support will allow you to get farther, faster and with less stress.
4. Take a look at what is left on your list. Ask yourself if this is a “must do” or a “should do”. If you have some “shoulds” on your list - dump them! Oh, I can hear the “buts” coming up now. No Buts! If you have items on your list like that, you are probably not committed to doing them. So why put yourself through the agony of defeat and invalidation? Let them go!
5. Make a plan of action. Determine what you will do daily to achieve your goal and what support you will need. The intention is to design a plan that will work for you, not stress you out more.
6. Focus on the present and what you have to do today. This step will keep you from going into overwhelm.
7. Allow for breakdowns. This is a critical point. This is where you could sabotage yourself and give up. There will be breakdowns. You can’t foresee everything. So just ask yourself, “If this won’t work, what will work?” then continue moving forward.
8. Celebrate your sense of accomplishment and success. Reward yourself! You did it! You can now ring in the New Year with a smile of contentment on your face because you took action.

©Copyright 2007. Cookie Tuminello . All Rights Reserved. Must have permission to reproduce, copy or distribute this article direct from the author