Turning procrastination into productivity

An agreement is a structure for fulfillment. It is not unlike a blueprint for a house. An agreement defines what we want to create in the world. According to the German poet, Goethe: “The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.”  When one definitely commits we can read as “when one defines the commitment”. The clearer the agreement (the less vague), the more power it has to show up. But you have to show up first! Avoid these common agreement pitfalls:

• Clumsy or vague commitments, e.g. “I should exercise more.” With such a vague agreement as this I can feel discouraged that I am not keeping it literally every minute of the day not spent exercising. But, I have not made a clear agreement! A clearly made agreement has a time, a date, and an observable, specific action (or removal of action as in not eating the cake!). In my vague agreement there is no time or date and I don’t even know what exercise looks like. Now if I say I am going to ride my bike at least five miles starting at 9 AM tomorrow, I have made a clear agreement and it has a better chance of happening. Also, I am not going to spend the rest of today beating myself up for not exercising because I have a clear plan of when it is going to happen next.

• Saying “yes” to everything. When we over commit, we can end up feeling like a big procrastinator as we do everything frantically at the last minute in crisis mode. Also, sometimes by saying “yes” to everything, we can have two agreements push against each other and have to break or change agreements a lot. Life feels saner if we make agreements based on realistic expectations of what we can do. Making clear agreements is not about setting up unreasonable expectations for yourself. It is more about being in integrity with your reality and building/maintaining self trust and inspiring trust in others. When we feel we’ve broken an agreement, we break self trust. We can carry this bag of “failed agreements” around with us and feel like we just add to it every day. Forgive yourself! Probably most of these agreements haven’t even counted as real agreements!

 There are three things you can do with an agreement, keep it, change it (where the other person really has the option to say, “No, I want to keep with our original plan.”, or break it. If you break an agreement there is no need for upset or shame for there is a way to clean it up and call it good.

Cleaning up broken agreements. This is how you can get to a clean slate and keep it clean instead of digging an ever deeper pit of broken self-trust.

   1. Acknowledge the facts. e.g. “I said I was going to meet you for lunch and I flaked.”

   2. Sincerely apologize, e.g. “I am really sorry I spaced it.”

   3. Make amends, e.g. “Let’s reschedule and let me buy to make it up.”

   4. Recommit to the relationship, e.g. “Your friendship is important and I really do intend on respecting your time. I am committed to doing better in the future.”

Please follow the same protocol for agreements you break with your self! Including making amends. A broken agreement does not have to be an occasion for self-abuse. It can be treated as information. Why did the agreement fail? Perhaps it was too vague? Perhaps it was too much? Or perhaps we simply had a bad day? Use the information to craft better and better agreements.

 My “Momentum Masters” business coaching groups are designed to maximize self-accountability and, thereby, increase your power to manifest fabulous results with your business and life.

Momentum is an experience of life when everything flows and is aligned with our core values. Results manifest easily and rapidly. Conflict and effort no longer trouble us. Momentum occurs when you know what you want, plan out a course of action, and keep your agreements about that plan. Momentum is repeated when you let go of having to be right and in control.

What do you want? It is difficult to know what you really want when your focus is mainly on trying to prevent what you don’t want to happen while making sure you look good. Often, the sense of clarity around what we want emerges after we choose to commit to a goal. Commitment precedes clarity, not the other way around. When you really commit you’ll have an experience of freedom to move forward and a flow of inspiration and ideas will follow. Your creative mind will come alive with possibilities and potential sources of help. The best way to discover what you want is to ask yourself the question, “what is missing”. When I have a new client in front of me I always start by asking, “What are three things you want more of in your life?” and “What are three things you want less of in your life?” From this conversation, more often than not, pretty clear dreams, goals, and desires appear that may have been hiding behind fear or previous failure or simply that never make it to the front burner. (Of course, to me, failure is just proof that you have been moving forward!)

What are you going to do about it? Make up a plan to achieve your goal so that it can show up. It’s not what you plan but that you plan. You’ll have to guess at your plan, making sure to add in those tasks that you feel should be done as they occur to you. No one has ever been able to figure out what to do to produce exact results. It is good to allow for flexibility in your plan as new results provide information. The power here really is that you engage in the process of making a plan. The tasks you choose in your plan are to empower an experience of productivity, not to give you a sense of having figured it all out. Many clients that come through my door haven’t achieved what they say they want simply because they are attached to having to know exactly how their results are going to show up. I find that allowing results to show up is much more powerful than forcing results to show up. In reality, it is you who must keep showing up!

Keeping your agreements. Now that you know what you want and have made up a plan of action, making and keeping clear agreements about your plan becomes the power behind manifesting the results you want. Having results without struggle or effort requires that you keep your agreements around your plan.
Occasionally we break agreements. Tell the truth about the broken agreement and forgive yourself quickly and with acceptance that you are doing it! You are on your path, not waiting anymore. Occasionally we need to change an agreement. It’s OK to do that but take note if you change it more than twice. Keeping your agreements impeccably will create an experience of momentum where “everything is just working”.

There is a common pitfall that befalls many of us regarding agreements. We find that we can keep agreements with everyone else but ourselves. We may ask ourselves “why?” and spend many vexing hours in contemplation. I am here to tell you it is that it is. The way around the self-agreement failure pitfall is to enroll others in your plans, tell them your agreements, and share your successes, too! My “Momentum Masters” business coaching groups are designed to maximize self-accountability and, thereby, increase your power to manifest fabulous results with your business and life. I want you to feel great about taking those goals, dreams, and intentions off the back burner and turn up the heat! What do *you* want more of in your life?

I know there are a lot of Momtrepreneurs and Work-At-Home Moms out there whom I have simply not found yet who would *love* a group like this.

These groups are really wonderful as they are like having a timeout in life where we stop racing, come together, share wins, brainstorm solutions to challenges, and commit to action steps that we are accountable to the group for (that we may otherwise blow off if left to our own devices). Every session ends with the question, “What value did you get from this group?” The members frequently answer this questions with “I feel more accountable to my to-do list.”, “I feel supported and have some things to try.”, and usually it is something that another group member has suggested that ends up being the value. It isn’t always something I have said, but more likely something that the context of the group allowed another to contribute. In this way a member gets the added benefit of creating value out of what once had challenged her. All challenges hold within them potential opportunity. That opportunity is enhanced in the sharing! (I think I am going to post this to my website, speaking of maximizing value from efforts.)

Here’s the link to the PDN front page article about the WAHM Group:

Work-At-Home Moms Group
-Feel energized and supported
-Overcome fear, guilt, and procrastination
-Turn breakdowns into breakthroughs

Childcare available $4/session.
Babes in arms welcomed
$59/month.
3:30-4:30 Tuesdays, Uptown.
A second Momtrepreneurs Group is forming that will meet at Firefly Academy Mondays from 1:30-2:30.
Group is ongoing.

Tele-group waiting list forming.

“Heather keeps me on track to brainstorm solutions with other work-at-home moms. I look forward to each weekly session!” -Shelly Randall, Story Services

To register: Contact Heather Flanagan, Professional Certified Coach, 360-379-0322 heather@heatherflanagan.com

Jeff Chew at the Peninsula Daily News wrote the following article about my Work-At-Home Moms Group:

A new WAHM! group is forming now in Port Townsend, Washington. Please contact Heather for more info.

360-379-0322

If you have a camera on your computer and Internet access, we can do video coaching over Skype! Skype is a free online service and offers great quality. Go to www.skype.com and get yourself set up. Then contact me to set up a coaching session. Whether you are in Dubai or Seattle, I am available to help you get unstuck, stop procrastinating, and move forward to do your dreams!

I am happy to announce that this February 16th I will be starting an evening Procrastinator’s Power-UP! Group. This group is in person in Port Townsend, WA.

Procrastinator’s Power-UP!

• Feel energized and supported
• Learn the 5 secrets to freedom
• Turn breakdowns into momentum

Experience the value of Professional Group Coaching!
Tuesdays 5:30-6:30 • Ongoing group, limit 8
$59.00 per month • Contact Heather for more details and to register

heather(at)heatherflanagan.com

360-379-0322

Also, see this posting at PTguide – City Guide to Port Townsend, Washington

I could devote a whole lifetime to effectively putting this into practice. It is very simple, just 3 words: —– Be Your Word! That’s it! It sounds so easy, but I see so many people who have a real challenge with it.

What does Being your Word mean? It means doing what you say you will do when you say you will do it. Does it mean doing what you say you will do with your co-workers or employees. And then breaking promises left and right with your family? NO! Does it mean keeping your agreements with your family and colleagues and then failing to do those things you secretly tell yourself you ought to do? NO! It means [Read more →]

So what is a life coach? Now, I would like to tell you what a life coach is, but it is a difficult thing to describe. It is less of a job description and more of an experience you go through. Coaching is a process by which you get to have a new, hopefully improved, experience of yourself and what you are capable of. Coaching provides accountability to yourself; it’s like outsourcing someone to hold your best interests as sacred and reflect your importance as a human being back to you. In our culture, many of us have learned to behave as though everyone else matters more than ourselves. But I would argue that this doesn’t balance out well as no one knows your needs, visions, and callings as well as you do. And a life coach can reflect you back to yourself, minus any emotional reactivity or expectations from loved ones, employees, or bosses. This detached but alert presence can really help you get more clarity on your challenges.

Unlike therapy, life coaching is not focused on reprocessing past experiences or discovering why you have the challenges you do. Life coaching looks at the present moment, as Eckhart Tolle would say, “The Now”. And where you want to go. Coaching is about achieving tangible/measurable results. We’re less likely to focus on the why but more on the what, when, and how?

Life coaching is about helping *you* to take greater responsibility for the results you get in your life. One of my mentors was fond of pointing out, “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.” It’s not so much about figuring out the right thing to do, it’s about changing habits, experimenting with your choices, and seeing what gets the best results. It is a powerful thing recognizing that you have an expanded amount of choices in your life. We do and say so many things on autopilot. But by getting a little more conscious and embracing your free will, you can make amazing positive changes.

It all starts by being open to possibilities. By being open to the possibility that  how things have been can be otherwise. Being open to the possibility that you have what it takes to change your world.

I am a procrastinator. I appear to have been born this way as, not only did I come out 3 weeks late, but I came out kicking and screaming, feet first, evidently wanting to save the hardest part, birthing of the head, for last. On grade school report cards I always got 3’s for effort on a scale of 1 to 3. In high school, the teachers would always select “Fails to work up to potential” and/or “Failed to complete some assignments”.

I have spent much time and energy trying to figure out how to work with myself instead of against myself to achieve my goals and intentions. Getting stuff done is not just about completing projects and paying your bills and making sure to take a shower before [Read more →]

As you go into this Thanksgiving holiday, be warned! That turkey you are about to eat is *full* of L-tryptophan. Sure, it makes you mellow and is an essential amino acid. But I have done extensive research in my own life and have discovered a little-known malevolent effect of this naturally occurring menace.

L-tryptophan erases your memory!

Yes, it’s true! I have anecdotal evidence in the form of my own personal experience. No, [Read more →]