I have a question for you. Are you the kind of person who wants a magic bullet to solve all of your problems in life or are you the kind of person who’s willing to do what it takes to find solutions to your pressing problems.

And there’s a reason why I’m asking this question. Because in this presentation, I’m going to be taking you through a very important step to discover your Life Purpose.

Hi, I’m Vatsala Shukla, Chief Encouragement Officer at Karmic Ally Coaching and this is the second part of my series on finding your life purpose.

Prefer to read? Here’s the transcript of discovering your Life Purpose easily with one simple step.

So just to make sure we’re all on the same page, in the first post in this series, what we did discuss were three things.

Firstly, I told you about the meaning about being self-driven and how to tell if your purpose is self-driven as well as 3 simple ways with which you could increase your self-drive.

Now, I’m going to keep my promise of helping you to discover your life purpose easily with one simple step, but before that, I want you to know that everyone feels flat and unmotivated sometimes.

And in fact, no matter how energetic and focused you are, there are going to be days when you’re just not feeling the vibe.

And, when that happens, I don’t want you to be too hard on yourself.

Now you can give your motivation a kick-start by reinvigorating your life’s purpose. And this of course doesn’t mean that you need to do a course or take on any of those online quizzes that you find through Google or Facebook or take yourself off to some motivation boot camp.

In fact, you don’t even need to do a bunch of things to get back on track. You need one simple thing. Or rather you  need to do one simple thing.

And that is you need to pick yourself up and take a big step out of your comfort zone.

The Ins and Outs of Your Comfort Zone

Now it might sound simple but actually being willing and able to step out of your comfort zone can be quite scary.

I remember in the early days when I started my coaching business and I was working towards my certification and getting hours to clock in for that certification, there was a wonderful lady who became a client of mine and she would show up for every session.

It was wonderful, we would discuss all sorts of things. I would give her all sorts of tasks but by the time we came to the next session, she hadn’t taken any action.

In fact she used to find every excuse under the sun why she hadn’t taken any action.

I ultimately realized that she actually was un-coachable or rather not coachable at that moment and I told her we would pick it up when she was ready.

But there is something else and that is you need to understand the ins and outs of your comfort zone. And you know, in my opinion, the lady was not willing to step out of her comfort zone and there is a perfectly good reason for it.

And that is because it’s comfortable! It feels good to be surrounded by like-minded people who won’t challenge your view of the world.

And you know, you can just stay exactly where you are.

In fact, your comfort zone is a cozy place. Online or in the real world, it’s full of messages that reinforce the status quo. It’s okay to miss your gym session or to be a couch potato.

You know, what amazes me is the number of emails that I receive about just doing affirmations and the Universe is going to respond. You read articles about it. Now isn’t that the message that seems to be out there?

That, you know, sit in one place. You don’t have to step out of your comfort zone and just do this, like a prescriptive medicine and you’re going to be fine.

I beg to differ because staying in your comfort zone is a one-way street to not taking on any challenges, not growing, not developing, or achieving.

In fact, comfort zone living encourages procrastination, which is what was happening with this lady client of mine.

It makes you defensive and frustrated when your instant gratification needs are not met, or when someone disagrees with you.

In fact, I have had consultations where people thought that oh, you know, in a Discovery Call, they’ll find the solution to their problems. It doesn’t work like that.

If you’re not willing to step out of your comfort zone, not much is going to happen.

But then, what are the benefits of stepping outside of your comfort zone?

The Benefits of Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

Let me be honest.

When you decide to step outside of your comfort zone, it’s going to feel scary, but the benefits soon outweigh the fears.

You can start to see that trying different things will stretch you and help you become a better person. Challenges can lead to success, which can lead to your achieving things you would never have dreamed of.

Now I’m not saying, you know, just take a big leap of faith and do things that you wouldn’t otherwise do but you know, a few baby steps wouldn’t hurt you.

And you can start to dream bigger and better dreams—your attitude toward success changes. Suddenly you know you can do it. You can see your deep desires begin to become a reality.

Start with a baby step towards your dream. You never know what you will manifest.

Your Life’s Purpose Lies Outside Your Comfort Zone

And once you have more confidence in your abilities, it means you can look around and see what your life’s purpose is which is where this session is about and I can guarantee you it’s not likely to be a marathon Netflix session style.

But with one simple decision, you leave your own personal safety bubble and see the world from a different perspective.

You can see how what you do in your life can help to make the world a better place. That whatever you do has an impact on other’s lives.

And, in a way, this simple decision is also known as a Wake Up Call and your stepping out of your comfort zone to create your desired change is in fact acceptance of your Call to Adventure.

And the person that you become at the end of this journey is different from the one you were at the start of the journey. I detail that as well as a road map in my Kindle ebook Wake Up Call: What happens when you accept your Call to Adventure. A link is going to be given underneath this video.

So, you can make a difference once you step out of your comfort zone and start living with meaning.

But the question is, are you willing to do what’s required or do you still want a magic wand to do the work for you?

And once you have decided on which one it is and I’m hoping that you’re ready to do whatever it takes, then your next step is to continue reading this blog post where I’m going to give you 4 ways to identify your Purpose.

4 Ways to Identify Your Purpose

There are naturals who know their purpose quite early on in life but that’s not always the case. If it was, there wouldn’t be so many people seeking out the services and guidance of Life Coaches.

You’d make headway in discovering your life purpose by asking the 5 key questions in this blog post but it requires a little more work to actually identify your purpose.

The majority of us require careful searching to find our purpose.

Since I’ve already recommended stepping out of your comfort zone, here are four ways to finding your purpose in life.

Know that at different stages of life, some things will be more important than others but the purpose will be an underlying theme.

When you look back in time, you’ll find every choice, decision and experience has brought you to the point where you finally knew your purpose and were ready to act on it.

When that happens, know you’ve completed your Hero Journey and are now in a position to guide others.

Explore your interests

Your purpose might be very different from your chosen career or vocation and that’s alright.

Nobody said your life purpose had to bring home the bacon although it’s wonderful when both match!

Giving my own example, I love to help people out and find human behavior fascinating. It’s a good skill even when you’re working as an auditor as one can learn a lot about an audit issue if you understand people and body language.

I laugh when I remember my student days in London and spending my time observing people, especially those reading the Evening Times in the subway and others trying to peek at it.

But my Mom tells me that even as a small child, people loved to talk to me and I used to listen to them intently.

I don’t remember this but perhaps the interest in human behavior might have been part of why my second innings career revolves around people, especially professionals.

Essentially, interests would be topics that you frequently talk about. It could be in the office, at the pub, on Twitter, Facebook or even LinkedIn.

Some pictures instinctively appeal to you, and there are activities that you enjoy engaging in. It could be gardening, climate change, or history.

Consider these topics your interest lies, as Psychologists say that they might reveal where your purpose in life lies.

Seek answers from within your Soul

The decision to find your purpose is the first major hurdle in finding purpose. Once you’ve made the decision, you are ready for the challenges you’ll undoubtedly face.

The first of such challenges lies in listening to what your soul is saying. To do this, you have to ask yourself some questions.

These questions help you discover your passion, hence your purpose.

• How would I spend my time if money weren’t a concern?
• What’s my definition of a perfect day?
• What activities am I passionate about?

Ensure you carefully consider these questions and write down all your answers. Fundamental are the answers that jump to your mind as soon as you read each question.

Don’t dismiss any answer as being unreasonable or illogical. Turn off your mental filters and your self-judgment and truly listen to your mind.

Once you have the answer to these questions, you can take a look at them in a bid to discover your purpose in life.

Listen to your Inner Child

Life was so much simpler when we were children. Unless there were mitigating circumstances, it was a time when we didn’t have many responsibilities other than perhaps keeping an eye on a younger sibling or our duties of looking after a pet.

We engaged in activities because we genuinely enjoyed them. We had direct access to our purpose and passions. This is because our dreams had not been molded and shaped by the outside world.

We gave up on most of the things we loved to do as kids for the sake of practicality. To discover your purpose, you should connect with and take a clue from your childhood wisdom.

Questions to consider:

• What brought you enormous happiness as a child?
• What activity do you lose track of time when doing?
• What did you truly love before a sense of responsibility required you to get real?

As before, it is best to keep your mind open when considering the answers to these questions. Research recommends looking at a childhood picture to help jog your memory.

Listen to Feedback

Listening to your soul and searching your childhood memories can help you discover your purpose.

However, it can sometimes be challenging to recognize what you feel passionate about. Most times, you might love to do many things, or you’ve done a particular thing so many times that it’s second nature to you.

You do not recognize when you do these things anymore or how important they are.

Fortunately, you can ask people for their insights. You probably are already displaying your purpose, and people around you have noticed it.

Like the feedback I got from my Mom about my compassion and understanding of people. Maybe you don’t want to talk to a parent.

In which case, reach out to a few trusted friends and ask some questions.

The three questions below is an excellent way to start:

• What reminds them of you?
• What comes to their mind when they think of you?
• How will they describe you to someone asking?

If you feel skeptical about asking direct questions, you can listen to their actions. It can be a particular compliment everyone pays you or a comment regarding you.

If you spot a pattern in a specific observation or compliment, the odds are that you are passionate about that.

For example, if they all say you’re “a great giver” or “you have a passion for helping the poor,” you’re passionate about those things. You can reinforce these passions and make them your purpose in life.

Finding purpose in life should never be rushed. For some, this can be a lifelong journey. However, life becomes infinitely clearer once you discover your purpose. You’ll experience a new level of possibilities and opportunities around you.

And if you still need more help, Life Focus in 7 Days is a great place to start.

What drives you?

I was asked this question back in 2007 when I was on the verge of leaving the corporate world to start my own IFRS consulting business during the adoption of those accounting standards in India.

My office had shifted to a neighboring city but with the Metro and Airport Highway construction work, I was spending 5 hours a day commuting.

Relocating residence was not an option for my family. By then I’d already had my wake up call regarding my health and the need to change my lifestyle.

The querant was a lady introduced to me by a mutual professional contact who felt we could both benefit as she was looking for a person with my specific subject matter expertise to facilitate training in New Delhi on a contract basis and who also had the contacts for business development.

She owned a publishing company with live training being a secondary revenue stream.

The project didn’t work out because when I saw the contract and ran it through my lawyer, it was an employment contract with terms and conditions that even a bonded laborer wouldn’t have signed in India, if they knew what was good for them.

Besides, she told someone else with whom I was in talks for projects to keep away as she was interested in my knowledge and skills and that person obliged but not before telling me why he was backing out.

It was flattering to know she wanted me to come onboard but I was made to feel like a commodity rather than a serious professional who had a lot to bring to the table for an all-round win-win outcome. That’s another story for another time.

But yes, I walked away from both and went on to do work on projects that made me happy and kept me self-driven towards my purpose.

What she was asking me at that point was more about how self-driven I was and my end goal.

A good question when you consider I was walking away from a 6 figure salary with one of the biggest accounting firms in the world when the next rung of the ladder was partnership or becoming a Director, to follow my own ideas and passion.

As you can see, with Karmic Ally Coaching, I’ve arrived where I wanted to go and the journey continues as I have found my calling and purpose in life.

It’s a great feeling to find one’s purpose in life because you suddenly know where you should go and what you want to do!

But just as finding your purpose is important, it’s also important to make sure your purpose is self-driven.

Because if it isn’t, it may as well never get accomplished.

You’ve seen it on LinkedIn profiles but do you know what Self-Driven means?

Let’s go back to basics for a moment. When someone is self-driven, this means they are completely self-motivated to achieve their goals.

They get up every day and do what they have to do to get where they want to go.

They don’t need any exterior form of motivation or carrots being dangled in front of them because they are their own motivation. This makes it easy for them to accomplish things, because they want to do them.

They might need a mentor or coach to help them when they hit a rough patch on the way but they know where they are going.

Additionally, self-driven people don’t waste time. They take action in the now and don’t put off doing things that they can get done today.

Frankly speaking, you’ll never find a self-driven person sitting at home on the couch doing affirmations and visualizing that they were getting things done or hoping for a new job or promotion expecting it to happen.

To make the Law of Attraction work, you still need to take Deliberate Action!

How to tell if your Purpose is Self-Driven?

Now that we understand the meaning of self-driven, the next step is to identify if our purpose qualifies.

When you have found a purpose in life that is self-driven, it won’t feel like a chore to work towards it. Rather you will enjoy every minute that you spend pursuing your passion.

If you feel that someone has to drag you out of bed to complete your purpose, then there is definitely a chance that it isn’t self-driven. It’s a sign you need to reflect and introspect and figure it out.

Coming back for a minute to the bonded labour contract, I was talking to Beata, an old friend back in Warsaw, on the phone about it at the time.

She told me that while my lawyer could vet it for unfair terms and conditions, I should look at myself and how I was feeling.

She could make out the opportunity didn’t make my ‘heart sing’.

Besides having walked away from a job that others would have given their right arm for, it wasn’t my purpose because I would not have followed my dream to ‘fly solo’.

Beata was right, of course.

Why Should Your Purpose Be Self-Driven?

The simple answer is that if you don’t have the motivation to achieve your goals, then they will most likely never get done or will be a half-baked effort.

It’s the same thing about finding your purpose but lacking the drive to move towards it. It’s as good as simply daydreaming, chanting, affirming and expecting things to fall into place. It won’t happen.

If you want to accomplish your purpose, then make sure it is a self-driven one that you feel pushed to work towards successfully achieving.

But there’s more to this and it’s all about you.

You need to understand that your needs, wants and sense of purpose changes over time.

What’s important at the beginning of your career like getting a great job and the ability to get a loan to purchase your first home isn’t the same as it will be when you’re 25 years into your career.

At that point, your aspirations will change and you would be looking at avenues to fulfill your self-realization goals.

That’s what happened with me and what’s happening with a lot of people who are now part of The Great Resignation or Big Quit that got a boost from the pandemic and work from home aspect of a job.

Our focus has changed and so have our goals. If that sounds like you, then click here and download Life Focus in 7 Days.

It’s a good guide to use for a new beginning or to start in a new direction, whether in your life or career.

3 Simple Ways to increase your Self-Drive

Are you self-driven to achieve your purpose? Or feel you need to up your game? Especially when it comes to your career path?

If you’re discovering that your purpose maybe isn’t as self-driven as you thought, don’t fret, as there are some easy ways to increase your drive to help you achieve goals.

Take Responsibility

You’re the only person who is truly in charge of your life and you need to realize that. There is no one hovering your shoulder telling you what to do.

If you want to make a change, it’s time to get up and do it for yourself, because you are responsible.

Realizing this, and taking responsibility for the things that are happening in your life is the first step to increasing your self-drive.

Find a New Purpose

A key indicator that your goals might not be the right ones for you is if you’re struggling to achieve them and just soldiering on because that’s what’s expected of you.

Take a pause and a step back. Not everyone is cut out for everything.

I remember during my trainee days in London I had a great audit supervisor who suddenly handed in her papers.

Why?

She’d realized she didn’t want to become a Chartered Accountant! That too after passing the first level of exams with barely a year to complete the mandatory training required by our Institute.

Her knowledge and experience wasn’t lost but could be transferred to another career or line of work.

Don’t be afraid to start over and don’t be afraid to abandon something that just isn’t working.

If you aren’t feeling inspired by something, you will never be able to make it your self-driven purpose.

Wondering if your purpose is the real one? Ask yourself these 5 Key Questions to Discover your Life Purpose.

Or it might even be the case that you were self-driven until external forces that were beyond your control changed everything.

Maybe that’s the wakeup call you need to start your journey towards your true purpose. If that’s your case, then the roadmap provided in Wakeup Call: What happens when you accept your Call to Adventure will guide you.

Create a Plan

Sometimes, all you need to get yourself to become driven is to make an action plan for yourself. An action plan can make it easier to see where you are going in life and help inspire you to get moving.

But remember that a plan alone isn’t enough and you will definitely need to take responsibility as well!

Overall, when you think you’ve found your purpose in life, be sure to take a minute and ask yourself if it is a self-driven purpose.

This is important when it comes to knowing if you’ll be able to accomplish it. But if it is self-driven, you’re well on your way to success.

In the second part of this series, I’ll give you more guidance about finding your life purpose but for now, here’s a question to consider.

Are you self-driven when it comes to your career and life decisions?

I was reading an article in the New York Times earlier this morning about resets which I feel is relevant to all of us as we approach the second half of 2021.

Let’s face it, the disruption caused by the pandemic can be reframed and considered an opportunity to set and achieve new goals.

It’s an interesting article and it made me pause to think of how times of disruption and transition have created new opportunities for me.

In fact, establishing Karmic Ally Coaching came out of one such disruption and set me off on a completely different track to being an Auditor or CFO.

Behavioral scientists know this already and you would have experienced it at some level when life has served you a lemon or two.

Remember that quote about making lemonade from life’s lemons?

It could have taken the form of a new job, marriage, divorce, losing a job, death of a loved one and many other forms.

This pandemic has definitely thrown everything up in the air and while the dust settles, it’s time to consider new beginnings and making meaningful changes or doing a fresh start.

The article talks about the “fresh start effect” which is about creating changes around “temporal landmarks”.

In simple English, these are points in time that we naturally associate with new beginnings – start of Summer, New Year’s Day, first day of the week or month.

The best way to capitalize on this fresh start effect is to form new habits.

3 Steps to Creating New Habits

We all have times in our lives where we intentionally want to change our behavior for the better and create new habits for ourselves.

This could be getting in the habit of eating healthier and drinking more water. Or it could be moving more and taking the dog for a daily walk or joining a gym.

Or it could be work related, or spiritual, or… There are so many areas in our lives that could be improved and made easier if we created new habits.

Yet getting into the habit of doing something is often easier said than done. It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to acquire bad habits, but getting into a “good” habit becomes challenging.

I mean, have you ever seen an article or blog post of how to get into a bad habit in x steps, y days or confidence coaching for developing bad habits?

Neither have I.

To be rid of a habit that isn’t serving a purpose, you need to ask yourself if there is a secondary gain involved – like avoiding facing the real issue.

Sometimes the underlying Payoff Factor can be a strong deterrent to positive action.

That being said, let’s looks at a three step process that makes it easy to follow until we’ve internalized the new behavior and made it a true habit – something we do automatically without having to think about, like brushing our teeth.

Decide What You Want To Do

When we do our prayers in Hinduism or even when applying the Law of Attraction to manifest our desires or even in setting a SMART goal, we have to first decide upon what we wish to achieve through our efforts.

Similarly, the first step in changing a habit or adopting a new one is to decide what you want that new habit to be.

Be as specific as possible. Don’t just tell yourself you want to cut down on social media time. Instead say something like “I will log onto Facebook (or any other platform where you lurk around too long) for only 30 minutes a day”.

Deciding what your new habit will be and committing to when and how you’re going to do it, is half the battle.

Remind Yourself To Get It Done

The next few days should be smooth sailing. You’re motivated and excited to get this done. Sticking to your new habit isn’t an issue.

But a few days in you’ll notice that it’s easy to slip back into old habits.

Maybe you’ve finished your work early and have time to spare. Or you’re bored and need some amusement. Or maybe you’ve joined one of those 5 day challenges and are keen to participate and win a prize.

This is when it’s important to have a daily reminder.

Set an alert on your phone for your designated Facebook time with an alarm when the 30 minutes are over or add the new habit to your daily to-do list at a particular time for a while.

Make It Part Of Your Routine Until It Becomes A Habit

Which brings us to the last step. It takes some time before a new behavior becomes a true habit. Until then, a routine will work to your best advantage.

Even before the new behavior becomes automatic, a routine will help you get it done without having to spend a lot of willpower or relying on daily reminders.

Make that social media time part of your downtime routine or fix a specific time after dinner when you want to relax and entertain yourself or socialize with friends, especially during lockdown when going out is not an option.

If you can master the 3 steps of deciding to create the new habit, being conscious of it and practice the routine until it’s second nature, then you’ll be well on your way to forming a new good habit.

What you do require is willingness to change and understand how you handle change. This quiz will help you in preparing your mindset for change.

Beware of the inverse relationship between Habits and Willpower

Hopefully I’ve inspired you to start taking action to imbibe the new habit but it’s only fair that I point out one area that can become a roadblock – your Willpower.

It’s hard to keep up willpower for any length of time. Yes, we can stick to a low-fat 1,000 calorie diet and go hungry for a week or two, but eventually our willpower fades. And yes, we can do exercise we hate for a while… until we run out of willpower.

What about sustaining the habit of not wasting time on social media or giving up the habit of smoking?

We’ve seen it time and again even with intentions set using the temporal location.

For example, we start the year with New Year Resolutions and then after going strong our resolve weakens and we quit. Maybe that’s why there’s a Ditch New Year’s Resolution Day on January 17th (read more about it here).

But getting up to take the kids to school every morning, brushing our teeth or going to work every day don’t seem to require much willpower.

That’s because they have become habits. They are so ingrained in what we do and who we are that we do them without even considering skipping a day or a week.

We don’t have to make a conscious decision each day to shower or drive to work. It’s just what we do – a habit.

When you start to think about it, there is an inverse relationship between habits and will power. When you first want to build a new habit, it takes a lot of will power to get it done day in and day out.

As you start to establish that habit, it becomes easier and easier to do until you don’t even have to think about it anymore.

Just being aware of this process helps us stick it out. We know we don’t always have to make such a big effort to go work out or skip the donut for breakfast.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. We know eventually it will become habit to go out for a run first thing in the morning and grab some fruit or fix some eggs for breakfast.

While we’re in that transition from willpower to habit, we can use tools to make it easier.

Use a to-do list or set a reminder to help stay on track.

Find an accountability partner so the two of you can motivate each other and help bolster that willpower when it starts to fade after the first enthusiasm wears off.

Do what you can to help your willpower along until you have made the new behavior a true habit. After that it’ll be easy and automatic and you’ve created a new lifelong habit – even during an ongoing pandemic.

And in doing so, you might just find that elusive willpower to give up the bad habits or those that no longer serve you in the new world that is emerging.

What are the new habits you want to keep, and what parts of your pre-pandemic life do you want to change? Are you game to create change in your life for the better?

PS. If you’re looking to make changes to your pre-pandemic life and need a fresh pair of eyes on your situation, I invite you to book a complimentary Change Catalyst Session with me.

Please follow the instructions while booking the call so we make the most of our 30 minutes together.

Do you have a goal achievement routine to close the month and kick off a new month?

If not, I highly recommend you start one. Procrastination and going with the flow are not effective tactics.

Month-end is a time of reflection and planning for me. I wrap up the month that is ending, celebrating my wins and set clear intentions to guide my work for the new month.

This 1 ritual keeps me on track for my business and helps me to maintain my work life balance.

It also gives me a chance to reflect on what I want to achieve and how far I’ve progressed with my goals for the year following the guidance in Goal Achievement Simplified.

My theme and focus for May was goal achievement and I shared my strategies and tactics with Karmic Ally Coaching’s subscribers.

In this post, I’ll show you what I do to stay focused, especially when procrastination rears its ugly head.

It’s really quite simple, provided you have the Willpower to stick to it.

7 Step Process for getting monthly Goals and Tasks done

I love checklists and To Do Lists. There’s nothing like making big tick marks or crossing out actions and having a document that captures evidence of goals achieved and what needs to be tweaked to succeed. The image below captures the process.

It’s a simple 7 step formula which works because it brings your attention and awareness to where you are and where you want to go.

In fact, all Karmic Ally Coaching programs work on this premise – to move you from point A to B in the fastest and easiest manner possible.

I have another little practice that I use during steps 5 and 6 which works even for those of us who aren’t into metaphysical practices. It involves using the Power of Intention and Gratitude backed up by commitment to get the work done.

The details of this practice are given in my blog post Are You Intent on Intending?

This isn’t just a Law of Attraction or Creative Visualization Technique. It works well with time management strategies and I recommend you try it.

For example, 2 of my goals for May were to complete a new mini-course for you to help you decide what you want from your job, career or even business and launch a shorter coaching program for a career action plan that will incorporate my favorite metaphysical techniques.

I used the powers of intention and gratitude to raise my vibrations and completed these tasks while I also served my clients, had time for my family and hung out on LinkedIn and Facebook engaging in interesting Group discussions.

Are you game to try it too?

Fine-tuning your game plan for middle-term goals

When it comes to middle-term or quarterly goal achievement and results, I further fine-tune my ritual and practices for successful goal achievement.

I like to plan my main work for the middle month in any quarter and then use the 3rd month for the big push and get results.

Our business or career isn’t the only thing that is important in our life. Our life consists of various other aspects and it’s important to make sure our Wheel of Work doesn’t go wonky. (There’s an entire lesson dedicated to this in my Career or Job Change mini-course).

Considering the demands on our time whether it is work, business, health, family, community or time for spiritual practices, it’s important to run a tight ship or at least be in control of our time.

The cost of procrastination is too high!

Cost-benefit analysis approach to combating procrastination

Quite possibly it’s my finance background and love of numbers but many of my decisions are finalized after doing a cost-benefit analysis or CBA.

CBA doesn’t necessarily have to be a monetary one although money can be a cost or benefit. It’s also useful as a time management tool when we look at it from a task payoff perspective.

One thing that I do know from experience is that procrastination is a luxury that costs us more than it benefits us.

Delaying a task or action will definitely have some consequence on either our time or money.

1. Time – you’ll recognize this one from standing in long queues to pay your bills because you delayed it or thought you would do it online. But you didn’t factor the minimum banking clearance time provisions in the service providers rules
2. Money – ever missed the deadline for your credit card payment and got whopped with penalties and interest? Need I say more?

Not all our procrastination will cost us both at the same time but what if it did?

If you are prone to procrastinating, then the next time an urge arises to delay a task, ask yourself the simple question

Which of these 2 things will my inclination to procrastinate cost me? Time or Money or both?

Then work out the benefit that you will receive from procrastinating.

The only benefit I can think of is worry and that is not a benefit by any stretch of imagination!

Simply asking this question will raise your awareness of the issue and hopefully, you’ll take some action.

Procrastination is a habit and it can be replaced with a better habit – the habit of considered action.

There are many studies that look into the psychology of procrastination. It isn’t just a time management issue although procrastination gets bunched into it.

If you need some quick help, then my mini course How to Stop Procrastinating Right Now is a good starting point. If you need more help, then check out the additional resource at the bottom of this page.

Have you ever compromised the potential of achieving your goals by sacrificing them at the altar of Procrastination?

Or do you have a method to get back on track? Do share with me in the comments box below!

Additional Resource for Serious Procrastinators

If the habit of procrastination is deeply embedded and you need more support, then consider my How to Stop Procrastinating right now mini course. You get immediate access to this habit changing self-development course. Use it whenever the urge to procrastinate raises its ugly head.  Click here or on the image below to learn more.

It’s my firm belief that each one of us is put on this planet with a Life Purpose and has a Destiny. It isn’t simply the domain of the famous people who make it into the pages of History.

Believe it or not but each and every one of us has a Life Purpose. Some of us know it from the very beginning of our lives. Others have it imposed upon them by family and elders or even circumstances.

There are also some of us who find it along the way, often noticing that our life purpose changes as we go along.

This isn’t due to any whimsical reason. As we grow and develop, new facets of our personalities and new avenues for contentment arise.

Sometimes the discovery can be attributed to a wakeup call

This starts us off in a direction that leads to new experiences and transformation. The old way of life doesn’t suit us.

We start afresh, with purpose on a new road where we are of service to others while finding fulfilment in a new avatar and fulfilling, what I would describe, our true Destiny.

I’ve been told by my circle of successful career professionals who started a completely different vocation in later life (no it wasn’t mid-life crisis) that their decision to change tracks wasn’t an idea they had over a morning cup of tea. It was a nagging feeling that something was ‘missing’.

The feeling kept building up but they ignored it because they were in good careers and not ready to change the status quo.

They didn’t want to step outside their comfort zone– until they had no option but to follow their call to adventure.

Guess what? Each one of them has told me that they wish they had started earlier!

Autobiographies of famous people are full of wakeup call and crisis moments and overcoming them.

The message at the end is that of triumph over adversity and a transformation that brings with it a gift to help others or make a difference.

If you read the Meet Your Coach page at my website, you would see one of my wakeup calls, my response to the Call to Adventure and the successful completion of that Hero’s Journey.

My coaching and consulting business has strong links to the transformation that took place in that journey.

Visit any well-known coach or consultant’s website. The wakeup call with Hero’s Journey will be there in their About Me Page. Maybe even in their content because they want others to benefit from the lessons they have learned.

The phrase Hero’s Journey was coined by an American professor Joseph Campbell who studied the myths across different world cultures. He found common patterns of story woven through them in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: departure -initiation—return.

For some reason, these patterns of story are so prevalent in our human psyche that even today, movies and novels of our time still follow it.

The hero or heroine is an ordinary person who wouldn’t have thought their destiny was so extraordinary. Think Harry Potter, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

Or the 4 students in the movie Rang de Basanti who die trying to clear the name and reputation of a dead friend who has taken the fall for a crashed air force plane.

It’s almost as if this story pattern reflects our everyday lives and journeys so much that we build it back into the stories we tell.

I go into details about the Campbell’s monomyth and guidance to help if you believe you are in the process of your own journey to self-discovery, including one of my own experiences, in my Kindle book Wakeup Call: What Happens When You Accept Your Call to Adventure.

Contrary to any popular belief, there is nothing esoteric about one’s life purpose although popular schools of thought do exist to consider life purpose to be based on fate and destiny on the one hand and free will on the other.

Either way, I believe that our life purpose is within us – we just need to look inside, and we will discover it. If you know your life purpose, then you instantly know what your highest goal is.

We all know that if we know what our goal is, it is easier to strategize and make our game plan to achieve it.

Knowing your life purpose also helps you to live a meaningful life, adding joy to all around you rather than living and dying in your private silo.

How do you go about finding your life purpose, if you haven’t already?

This is similar to what a life coach would ask you to do though it may not be at such a macro level but limited to one goal at a time. For starters, look at yourself with honest and clear eyes. Do a brainstorming session on the following areas of your life with these 5 key questions.

What am I passionate about?

Passion for something and what you do for a living are not necessarily the same thing. Although your vocational skills can be used to further an area that you are passionate about.

For example, I have been passionate about education from a very young age. Back in school, I used to teach less privileged children English as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.

In later life, during my corporate career while targeting jobs, I would check their Corporate Social Responsibility Statement asking about it in interviews.

Looking back, there was always an element of education and learning involved in my job as an extra activity and using my finance skills to create business plans for charities that further my passion. Even if it was on the periphery of my passion.

What about you? What’s your passion? Is it technology, animals, fashion, Formula 1, cooking?

It can be anything!

What motivates me?

What are my trigger factors for action and inaction?

If something speaks to your heart and inspires you to take action at a grass root level, that is a strong motivator. It’s an indicator that you are meant to pursue a path that enables self-expression and ultimately self-realization.

What am I really good at that I enjoy doing?

What are my inherent and acquired talents? Is it singing, writing, stock market, cooking, Sunday morning time spent looking under the bonnet of the car? The choices are many.

Think of your natural abilities, maybe you are great with people, even babies or senior citizens. What about your talents? Maybe you are creative, analytical or logical.

Consider your life experience to date and the skills you have acquired along the way. Maybe you are good at problem solving or mentoring. You may be a great networker or communicator. You can be good at so many things without having ever acknowledged your strengths!

What makes me happy and complete?

These are tangible activities that give you a buzz of satisfaction either when you are doing them or after completing them. Have you noticed how many Master Chef Contestants are from different walks of life with complete careers who love to cook and are competing?

So many of them get eliminated but continue their dream. They dared to step out of their comfort zone and conditioning that they can only be good at one thing.

They look content and happy cooking even when they are competing and under pressure tests where elimination is around the corner. They are hearing the sound of their own distant drummer.

In the priority area, what ranking do I give it?

Here, focus on the big picture, the world around you and not yourself. Would a change of path make a difference that is bigger than the change it would bring to your life? (This resource provides a starting point. Click here or on the below image to learn more)

Once you have a clearer understanding of these elements, it will be easy to put the puzzle of a purposeful life for you together.

The things that are important to you are your end GOAL. Things you love to do will be your vehicle to reach your end goal.

Your talents and abilities will help you to get there. Your passion will motivate you through your journey, especially when the road gets bumpy!

And before you know it you will be living your purpose and creating your own Destiny.

Are you living your life purpose?

Written by: Vatsala Shukla