The simplicity of achievement

I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I do some of the things that I do. Whether it is stay up too late, eat too much, not keep my house the way that I would like to, or why I don't do so many of those thousand things we need to do each day to be really productive. I will often make a list of things to get done, and then for no good reason abandon it in favour of wathcing TV, or something else equally useless.

The oddest part of all of this is when I do have a very productive day, the feeling of accomplishment in that can fuel me for a week!

I realized by looking around me that a big trend is not finishing projects. A closet half organized, a home improvement project done to about 99%, but with wall plates left off or tools out. Someone once told me that it was likely a fear of failure, that as long as something isn't done, I can talk about the potential (Don't forget, I am a vision caster and a big ideas person), without having to face the perhaps getting a bad response to the final product.

At work, recently we have instituted the use of an "easy" button. Just like in the Staples commercials. When pressed it says in that voice "That was Easy". We use it to mark each sale that we make. It provides recognition for each person who pushes it, but more than that, each time I hear it, I do think "that WAS easy". It is amazing when you hear "That was EASY" 60-80 times a day, it begins to resonate in your mind and it can creep into your spirit.

I recently read an article about the science of procrastination!! **
Here is part of it:

[Dr] Steel has also come up ...... with a formula he's dubbed Temporal Motivational Theory, which takes into account factors such as the expectancy a person has of succeeding with a given task (E), the value of completing the task (V), the desirability of the task (Utility), its immediacy or availability (Ã) and the person's sensitivity to delay (D).It looks like this and uses the Greek letter Ã:

Utility = E x V/ÃD
** http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/01/formula-for-procrastination.html

It is not necessary that you follow and absorb all of the above, but take away just this. As you know from math class, any number that you multiply by Zero will always be the same..... ZERO

Based on this formula E is the value representing the expectation of success. If your expectation of success is very low than you are more likely to procrastinate.

My plan is to continure to convince myself of my ability to accomplish each task as it comes up, and to keep the refrain in my head "That was Easy!"

You know what... Add that to the list.... I am going to buy an EASY button!

Later!