How To Stay Motivated & Not Procrastinate (Stop Procrastinating Today)
Gary Mottershead
Unique Ability is one of the core concepts we all know and love at Strategic Coach, but there’s a similar concept that goes right along with Unique Ability that I believe is just as important. It’s called “Who Not How.”
“Who Not How” can transform your business, allowing you to focus on utilizing your Unique Ability and staying in your zone of genius—the area where you bring the most value to the world. The idea is to stop worrying about the process (the how) and think about who can get the job done. It also happens to be one of the best ways to learn how to stop procrastinating.
There are certain things in our lives that we just don’t have the energy for—even if we’re perfectly capable of doing them. That leads us to procrastinate. “Who Not How” is all about asking yourself, “Who is the person that brings the skill, talent, and energy that I don’t have?”
If you’re interested in learning how to stay motivated and not procrastinate while working on your business, this is the solution you’ve been looking for. “Who Not How” can make every part of your business easier, more effective, and more enjoyable.
Using “Who Not How” to stay motivated as an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs think they’re smart. Sometimes, a little too smart. (I say this as someone who has come to this realization about myself!)
The result is that we think we can do everything. And for many of us, we did do everything when we first started our business, so it can be hard to let go of that mentality even when you have a team behind you.
But the problem is that we aren’t good at everything. Most people are only really good at one or two things. When we get into an area that we’re not really good at, it becomes complex and difficult. And when things get complex, we’re not doing anyone any good, including ourselves. It takes longer, it’s confusing, and we don’t do a good job. In many cases, we procrastinate. After all, it’s difficult to stay motivated when you have to work on things you’re not good at.
If you want to learn how to stay motivated and not procrastinate as an entrepreneur, I have two answers for you: Unique Ability and Who Not How. The combination of these two simple principles is the key to staying motivated as an entrepreneur because they allow you to focus only on the things you enjoy.
Why entrepreneurs procrastinate.
So, why do we procrastinate as entrepreneurs? And why is this so common?
Entrepreneurs procrastinate because they’re often forced to do things they don’t like doing, aren’t good at doing, or don’t want to do. But the reality is that no one is forcing them to do anything—they just think they should be doing these things. So the first step in learning how to stop procrastinating is to get out of this mindset and realize that you don’t need to do things you don’t like doing!
When you first start your business, it’s all on you—you’re the marketing department, the sales department, and the customer service department. It’s challenging to wear all these hats, and it can be difficult to stay motivated when you’re constantly being forced to do things outside of your Unique Ability.
When I was building my business, I realized that it was tough for me to do customer service. You see, when someone tells me something bad, I generally know what I want to say to them—and it’s not great. I would procrastinate in that role, taking a long time to respond to customers and just putting things off because I didn’t like doing them and knew I wasn’t good at it.
And I could say the same thing for many other aspects of my business. After processing one of the first orders we received as a company, which took two days, I knew I didn’t want to do it again, and I knew someone else could do it better than I could.
I quickly wrote up a process and handed it to my assistant. It became her job. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it myself; it was just that I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay motivated about the business if I were in the weeds, processing orders all the time.
The day I learned about “Who Not How” is the day that I learned how to stay motivated and not procrastinate while working in my business. “Who Not How” allows you to stop worrying about the process. You don’t have to think about how something is going to get done or how you’re going to do it—which, of course, is a primary reason why people procrastinate and therefore one of the simplest ways to learn how to stop procrastinating.
Ready to break free from procrastination? Download the WhoNotHow ebook to start finding the right “Whos” to do the “Hows” to achieve your goals. It’s 100% free (along with all of our ebooks).
Implementing “Who Not How” in your business.
I understand that this can be difficult to accomplish in your business. It won’t happen overnight, and you may need to wear multiple hats in the beginning. But here’s how I implemented this concept in my business …
Every time I got frustrated because things weren’t working, I would just ask myself, “Can I change effectively to do this?” If the answer was no, then I’d find someone else to do it. That’s it! It’s that simple.
This is the exact same method I still use today whenever I get frustrated with something in my business. I no longer procrastinate, I’ve been able to stay motivated in my business for over 30 years, and I’ve seen many of our Strategic Coach entrepreneurs use this same technique with similar results.
Everyone wants to learn how to stop procrastinating. Well, instead of thinking about “how to stop procrastinating,” why not set up your world so that you never feel the need to procrastinate? Just imagine a world where you don’t have to do things that frustrate you, bore you, or don’t utilize your unique skills. If that’s the case, there’s really no need to procrastinate!
That is what you can achieve by implementing “Who Not How” in your business. Don’t accept that you have to do everything yourself. Don’t accept that the world has to work the way you’ve been taught. It doesn’t!
“Who Not How” legitimizes this way of thinking. It makes it okay to not do things you don’t like doing. It reminds you that just because it’s your business doesn’t mean you have to do everything.
Right now, I have things going on in my business that I know nothing about. I know things are happening—our website is being redesigned, we have new salespeople coming in, there are new opportunities being looked at—but I don’t know anything about them. I don’t need to be involved in those projects.
My job is to look after the people in my company. “Who Not How” got me there, and it gave me so much more. It taught me how to stop procrastinating, it’s allowed me to stay motivated through 30 years of business, and it’s freed up my time so that I can operate in my free zone. I’m now writing another book and starting a podcast, which never could have happened without “Who Not How.”
Want to learn how to stop procrastinating? Stop doing the things you don’t like doing by implementing the “Who Not How” philosophy in your business.
