Stop the Snooze Cycle

Waking up can be a battle, especially when the dream life is sweet and the reality of daily life feels like a grind. I know tapping that snooze button is such a temptation, the idea of "just five more minutes, then I'll get up" can turn into ten, twenty, even sixty minutes of delay. While once in a while there's little harm in this, the habit of avoiding and delaying can be dangerous. Justifying the behavior once makes it more likely that "just this once" will turn into the norm. Can you even count all the minutes, opportunities and potential wins you've let slip by with those moments of avoidance, delay and procrastination?

The message sent every time the snooze button is pressed, literally or metaphorically, is that the intentions and goals of your life are not worth overcoming resistance for.

Snooze = I value short term comfort over long term outcome. 

When I started seeing the long term effects of procrastination, avoidance, giving in to instant gratification and comfort over follow through and long term outcome, that snooze button became less appealing. This isn't to say I have broken the habit, by any means. Hey, behavior can take time to change! What I will say is that the potential pain of continuing to avoid and delay was an impetus to make a shift. By seeing how my self esteem would plummet if I continued to delay my waking dreams for what I fantasized about while sleeping and getting a few extra minutes under the covers, the temptation to tap that snooze button shrunk exponentially. Did I really want to sleep my life away and chase the feeling of fulfillment and follow through all day, simply for those zzz's? Absolutely not. My self esteem, maturity, pride and commitment to follow through cannot be bought by some extra sleep. It is through overcoming resistance that passion, purpose and pride are built. From these, greatness is made and significance can be solidified. 

Are you pressing the snooze button somewhere in your life? Where are you putting off taking that leap and going for what you desire? The law of delay says the longer we wait to do something we would benefit from doing now, the harder it is to do and the more likely that it won't be done. What are you procrastinating on? If this dream, desire or calling never comes to fruition, will the regret of "what if..." haunt you? 

You might be asking, how do I start changing my snoozing ways, where do I begin?

Step one: Find those big, important, great dreams that will grab you out of bed in the morning. Dream building is key. The more specific the better
Step two: Identify your core values, What is most important to you? Once you know these life themes, the daily choices will become much simpler to make.
Step three: Consider what continued avoidance will do to you as well as what it will to for you. Is the benefit outweighed by the drawback? Until the drawback is greater than the payoff, lasting change is unlikely.
Step four: Face the fear. What's the belief behind the avoidance? Name the thought fueling the fear and procrastination. Challenge it. Question it. Ask "what else is true?"
Step five: Create a rewards system for changing your ways. For every time you get up instead of delaying, whether first thing in the morning with the alarm clock or another area of your life, have a treat for stepping in and taking courageous steps forward. Freshly brewed coffee and an uncrushed morning routine, anyone? Podcast break on your lunch hour? Date night at a favorite local spot? Making the change appealing is key.

Wake up. Your life is waiting. 
I'm stoked to see the domino effect you create by stepping in, stepping up and living all in.

You've got this (& I believe in you every step of the way),
Darcy

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