How to Beat Procrastination by Ali Abdaal in Dailymotion

Arshian

How to Beat Procrastination by Ali Abdaal in Dailymotion   dailymotion.com/arshian   How to guarantee you regret your life:https : //dai.ly/x93180y   My honest advice to a perfectionist:https : //dai.ly/x9319i4  My honest advice to someone who’s doing too much : https://dai.ly/x9319ty  My honest advice to someone who feels behind in life : https://dai.ly/x931a78  My honest advice to someone who wants financial freedom : https://dai.ly/x931ex2  If I Wanted to Be a Millionaire Before 30, I'd Do This : https://dai.ly/x931gzm  The Best Book I've Ever Read about Making Money : https://dai.ly/x931j9y  How to Go From $0 to $10,000 a Month in 4 Steps : https://dai.ly/x931kb6  How to Make $10,000 Month Writing Online : https://dai.ly/x931l42  How to 10x Your Income The 4 Ladders of Wealth : https://dai.ly/x931ldm  Why You Feel Lost in Life by Ali Abdaal : https://dai.ly/x933252  How to Figure Out What You Really Want in Life : https://dai.ly/x933hm8  How to Change your Life in a Year - 3 Simple Ideas : https://dai.ly/x933u78

Transcript

00:00The blank screen, the empty page, the unfilmed video.

00:03Whenever we sit down to start writing or creating anything,

00:06we're often paralysed by a force stopping us from starting,

00:09stopping us from typing that first word,

00:11writing that first page or filming that first video.

00:13Now, the most common question I get asked on the internet

00:15is Ali, how are you so cool?

00:17But the second most common question is Ali,

00:19how do you beat procrastination?

00:20And the answer is in this book,

00:22''The War of Art'' by Steven Pressfield.

00:24He says that most of us have two lives,

00:26the life we live and the unlived life within us.

00:28And between the two is this thing called the resistance

00:31and that is the secret to overcoming procrastination.

00:33And this is actually a surprisingly life-changing insight.

00:36And I first read this in 2017

00:38and it actually completely changed the way

00:39that I approach life and meaningful productivity.

00:42And it kind of helped me stop

00:43being a chronic procrastinator.

00:44And so in this video, we're gonna talk about

00:45three key points from the book

00:47that have helped me personally beat procrastination

00:49and hopefully they can help do the same for you.

00:51Point number one, know thy enemy.

00:53So the first question we need to address

00:54is what is resistance?

00:56Resistance is the negative force

00:57that's actively working against us

00:59to stop us from doing the things we want to do.

01:01It doesn't stop us from watching Netflix

01:03or from playing video games.

01:04Instead, it stops us from doing anything that we know

01:07in our hearts is gonna level up our lives.

01:10Like resistance isn't really that feeling that we get

01:12when we can't be bothered to clean the desk

01:13or can't be bothered to, I don't know, wash the dishes.

01:15That is resistance with a small R.

01:16But resistance with a big R is the resistance,

01:19that force that's holding us back

01:21from doing creative or entrepreneurial things

01:24or things that require any level of risk-taking

01:26or putting ourselves out there.

01:27And whenever we try and do any of this stuff,

01:29we always have to go up against this hill of procrastination

01:32that's a constant battle.

01:33And there's a nice quote from the book where he says,

01:35"'We don't tell ourselves

01:36"'I'm never going to write my symphony.

01:38"'Instead we say, I am going to write my symphony.

01:40"'I'm just going to start tomorrow.'"

01:41I've heard this a million times with people being like,

01:43you know what?

01:44I wanna start a YouTube channel at some point.

01:45I'm gonna start a podcast,

01:46but you know, the timing's not quite right.

01:48Oh, you know, I haven't quite got the gear.

01:49I haven't quite got the kudos.

01:51Why would anyone care what I have to say?

01:52This is all resistance.

01:53It's all that procrastination that's building within us.

01:55But what really fuels resistance is fear.

01:57Resistance is activated by fear and gain strength

02:00whenever we give into that fear,

02:01creating a cycle that we fall into

02:03and which leads to resistance becoming even stronger

02:06as our fear becomes even greater.

02:07But as he says in the book,

02:08fear is actually a very good thing

02:10because when we feel scared about doing something,

02:12it usually means we should just do the thing.

02:14He writes, "'Remember one rule of thumb.

02:16"'The more scared we are of a work or calling,

02:18"'the more sure we can be that we have to do it.'"

02:20And in a way, resistance is that compass

02:22that points towards the thing in our life

02:24that's actually most important for us to do.

02:26Like I never feel any resistance

02:27towards sitting down and playing World of Warcraft,

02:29but I do feel resistance

02:31towards sitting down and writing my book.

02:32And that tells me that sitting down to write my book

02:34is currently the most important thing

02:35I need to be working on.

02:36And the key rule of thumb here,

02:37as Steven Pressfield writes,

02:38is the more resistance you experience,

02:40the more important your unmanifested art

02:42or project or enterprise is to you.

02:44And since I first read this in 2017,

02:46I've actually started using this as a model for,

02:49in a way, a model for decision-making.

02:51Like if I feel scared about doing something,

02:53then more often than not,

02:54I will try my very best to actually do the thing.

02:57And so far in my life,

02:58I have never regretted doing something that I'm scared of,

03:01but I've always regretted not doing something

03:03that I was scared of.

03:04So now that we've done step one, which is know our enemy,

03:06and we've defined resistance

03:07and figured out what it actually is,

03:08it's that source that makes us procrastinate,

03:11we need to figure out some ways of dealing with it.

03:13And the first one is key point number two in this video,

03:15which is become a professional.

03:16In the book, Pressfield introduces the idea

03:18of the professional versus the amateur.

03:20An amateur takes action whenever inspiration strikes,

03:24or when they're in the right mood.

03:25They're not committed,

03:26and the goals are focused on fun, money, and status.

03:29A professional shapes their life

03:30so that the work is a priority.

03:32They're determined and committed to succeed

03:34by following their inner drive and creative spirit.

03:37Now, our boy Steve says

03:38that the only way we can deal with resistance

03:40is if we become a professional with our work

03:42rather than an amateur.

03:43And I think it's interesting

03:44how he doesn't define professional

03:46as being someone who makes money from the thing,

03:47because you can wanna make money from a thing,

03:49but still treat it like a complete amateur.

03:51But instead, a professional is someone

03:52who does it for the sake of doing the work

03:54and takes pride in the work itself.

03:56And there's a few other traits that professionals have

03:58when it comes to doing their job.

03:59Like if you're a professional,

04:01then you will show up every day to your job no matter what.

04:03You wouldn't just not go to work

04:04because you don't feel like it.

04:05If you're a professional, you work through adversity

04:07and you're open to criticism

04:09because you always wanna improve.

04:10Whereas if you're an amateur,

04:11then you feel like, you know,

04:12if you draw something or make a video

04:14and someone gives you bad feedback

04:15or you get a bad comment,

04:16you get like really kind of woe is me

04:18and like it hurts your feelings

04:19and it like ruins your life

04:20because you're treating it like an amateur.

04:22Whereas if you treat it as a professional,

04:24you would be more inclined

04:25to actually grow from the feedback.

04:27A professional as well will understand

04:28that fear is just part of the work.

04:30Like if you're a doctor and that's your profession,

04:32you know that you're gonna be stepping

04:33outside your comfort zone.

04:34Whereas if you approach things with an amateur perspective,

04:37like starting a YouTube channel or whatever,

04:39as soon as the going gets tough,

04:41then you're gonna fold like a cheap suit as they say.

04:43And finally, if you're a professional with your work,

04:45you recognise that facing the resistance

04:47is the daily battle.

04:48When I'm working as a doctor,

04:49when I wake up in the mornings and I think,

04:50oh, I don't really feel like going to work,

04:51I do it anyway.

04:52It's part of the daily battle.

04:53It's just what you have to do.

04:54When you're a doctor and you, you know,

04:55someone asks you to put an IV or a cannula

04:58into a patient who you know has difficult veins,

05:00that's resistance.

05:00You're like, oh, I don't wanna do this,

05:01but it's part of the work.

05:03It's part of the job.

05:03This is what I have to do.

05:04And we wanna be kind of taking that sort of attitude

05:07towards our other like creative and entrepreneurial stuff.

05:10And obviously there is some level

05:12in which you can take this too far.

05:13Like being so focused on like treating your hobbies

05:16as a professional to the point

05:17where you're doing it for eight hours a day,

05:19is probably a little bit excessive.

05:20And there is certainly something to be said

05:22for not monetizing all of your hobbies,

05:24or at least not trying to make a living from your hobbies.

05:26Because like for me, a hobby is fun

05:28when it makes a bit of money, like playing the guitar.

05:30If I could get paid a bit of money to play the guitar,

05:32that would make it really, really fun.

05:34But if I was reliant on playing the guitar

05:36for earning a living, I'd be starving on the street

05:38and it would also make playing the guitar a lot less fun.

05:40So treating our creative and entrepreneurial stuff

05:42as a professional doesn't mean it takes over our life.

05:45It just means that we're approaching it

05:47with a bit more of a professional mindset

05:49rather than the mindset of,

05:50oh, I'll do my thing whenever I feel like it.

05:53Because that doesn't really work

05:54if you're treating something like a pro.

05:55Key point number three is we need to banish the ego.

05:57Now he said that once we've become a professional,

05:59the next thing we need to do is recognise

06:01the ongoing battle between the self and the ego.

06:03And the way I see this is that our ego

06:05is more focused on external events

06:07and how other people see us.

06:08Whereas the self is this inner calm that we have,

06:11which is about the way that we see ourselves.

06:13When we're led by our ego,

06:14our main priority is to maintain the status

06:16of the I in the world.

06:18And we're just focused on how external events affect us.

06:21And everything is very superficial and surface level.

06:23Then we've got the self,

06:24which is made up of the individual

06:25and collective unconscious areas of our minds,

06:28which includes our dreams, intuition,

06:29visions, and aspirations.

06:31It encompasses the deepest form of who we are.

06:33And when we sit down to create,

06:34we're attempting to channel the self

06:36because it's through the self that we can beat resistance.

06:38Now, some of this stuff is a little bit woo-woo

06:40for my liking, like Pressfield goes on about,

06:42like how creative endeavours

06:44are like a new plane of existence.

06:46We're all striving for that, you know,

06:47plane of existence and resistance

06:49is like the devil that gets in the way.

06:50It can go a bit woo-woo at times.

06:52It's kind of similar to like the growth mindset

06:53and fixed mindset stuff in a way.

06:55When we have a fixed mindset

06:57and we get like negative feedback or something,

06:59or we do something that we know is not very good,

07:01it really shakes us to the core

07:03because it like damages our ego.

07:04Whereas when we have a growth mindset to something,

07:07we recognise that if we fail at something,

07:08it's just part of the process of improving over time.

07:11And another way that I think of this

07:12is when it comes to goal setting.

07:14So I found that for me, I get a lot more resistance,

07:17i.e procrastination, when I've got goals

07:20that are based on outcomes that are outside of my control.

07:23So for example, if I'm making YouTube videos,

07:26which is an easy example,

07:27one way of thinking about my goals for YouTube

07:29is to think about, okay,

07:29I want this video to get this many views,

07:31or I wanna hit this many subscribers

07:33by the end of the year.

07:34That's a very outcome goal

07:36and it's very outside of my control.

07:37The only thing in my control is making the videos,

07:39but if I have a goal

07:40that I want this video to be really good,

07:42then that's when the perfectionism takes hold,

07:44that's when I feel the resistance,

07:45that's when I procrastinate so much

07:46to the point that I don't even make the video.

07:48And I've seen this basically with every student

07:50who's been through my part-time YouTuber Academy.

07:52Anyone who's doing YouTube or starting YouTube

07:54or getting better at YouTube or taking it seriously,

07:56if you start thinking that this video needs to be good

07:58as defined by what other people think of it,

08:01it makes it really hard to actually make the video.

08:03Whereas what I prefer

08:04is to have most of my goals being input goals,

08:06i.e they are entirely within my control,

08:08they're entirely based on inputs that I control.

08:10So I'm gonna make two videos a week

08:12for the rest of my life is an input goal,

08:14it's something that's broadly within my control.

08:16I'm gonna write the best book that I can

08:18or a book that I'm happy with is an input goal,

08:21it's a goal within my control.

08:22Whereas I'm gonna write a book

08:23and I want it to hit the New York Times bestseller list,

08:25which is what I've been thinking about recently,

08:27that's very much an output goal

08:28and it's broadly outside of my control.

08:30And I find that when it comes again to writing my book,

08:32anytime I even think of that outcome goal,

08:35I feel the procrastination, I feel the resistance,

08:37I feel the pain.

08:38Whereas when I think, you know what,

08:39my job is to just write the best book that I can,

08:42it becomes a lot easier to do.

08:43And now I've realised that for basically whatever I do,

08:45if I'm struggling with procrastination,

08:47usually it's the resistance getting in the way

08:49and usually it's because I have some kind of outcome goal

08:53associated with the thing, which for me personally is bad.

08:56It works for some people, but I don't personally like them.

08:58Now we've talked about three ways

08:59of beating procrastination.

09:00Number one, name the enemy, i.e the resistance.

09:02Number two, become a professional

09:03and number three, banish the ego.

09:04There's a lot more really good stuff about this

09:06in the book, The War of Art,

09:07which as you can see is quite small.

09:09It doesn't take very long to read.

09:10And in fact, it only takes two hours to listen to

09:12or one hour if you're going at double speed like I do.

09:14And you can do that on Audible

09:15who are very kindly sponsoring this video.

09:16Now, whenever Audible sponsor my videos,

09:18I always need to pinch myself

09:19because basically beyond any other brand I work with,

09:21it is the dream one because I've been evangelising Audible

09:24to all of my friends and anyone who listened to me

09:26for the last, I don't know, God knows how long,

09:28even when I didn't have this YouTube channel

09:29and when they weren't sponsoring my videos.

09:31And in fact, it's one of the nicest feelings in the world

09:32when one of my friends signs up for Audible

09:34and starts getting into audiobooks and tells me,

09:36oh my God, I signed up to Audible

09:37because of your recommendation

09:39and now I'm reading the Mistborn series

09:40and my mind is blown because it's just so good.

09:41So if you wanna learn more about beating procrastination,

09:43then definitely check out the War of Art audiobook.

09:45But if you're looking for fiction recommendations,

09:47which is what I personally prefer to listen to

09:49most of the time on Audible,

09:50I would 1000% recommend the Mistborn series

09:53by Brandon Sanderson.

09:54This series is narrated by a guy called Michael Kramer,

09:56who is like the best narrator in the world, in my opinion.

09:59And he's narrated the Mistborn series

10:00and the Stormlight Archive and the Wheel of Time.

10:02And these are like amazing fantasy books

10:04that I've been listening to on Audible since like 2017.

10:06And I basically had Michael Kramer's voice

10:08in my head at all times.

10:09So if you're new to the world of audiobooks,

10:11100% I'd recommend the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.

10:14The first book of that is The Final Empire.

10:15And I started listening to that in like, yeah, 2017.

10:18It's completely changed my life

10:19because now Brandon Sanderson is my favourite author

10:21and I fricking love listening to fantasy books on Audible.

10:24Another really good one to try is Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

10:26You might've seen the film, it's a pretty good film,

10:28but the book is even better

10:29and it's a really nice love story

10:30and it's just like narrated very well

10:32by Neil Gaiman himself.

10:33To get started with a totally free 30-day trial

10:36in which you can get one free audiobook to listen to,

10:38please head over to audible.com forward slash Ali Abdaal

10:40and then you can sign up for your 30-day trial,

10:42get your free audiobook.

10:43I'd recommend The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

10:45or Stardust by Neil Gaiman if you wanna go fiction

10:47or The War of Art if you like the topic in this video

10:49and you wanna learn more about how to beat the resistance.

10:52Honestly, of the 100 plus apps that I subscribe to,

10:54I always say, even when they're not sponsoring my videos,

10:57I always say that Audible is the single subscription

10:59that I would hold onto above all else.

11:01I would even cancel my Netflix subscription

11:03and my World of Warcraft subscription

11:05if I had to in order to just subscribe to Audible

11:07as the only thing,

11:08because the amount of value it's added to my life

11:10in terms of how little I pay for it each month

11:12is just absolutely astronomical

11:13and probably the most cost-effective thing

11:17that I own in my life.

11:18So if that sounds up your street

11:19and you wanna get into the world of audiobooks

11:21and join me on this journey

11:22of listening to audiobooks forever,

11:23then head over to audible.com forward slash Ali Abdaal

11:25to get your 30-day free trial and a free audiobook.

11:27Anyway, I wanna end with a quote from the book

11:29where he says,

11:30never forget, this very moment, we can change our lives.

11:33There never was a moment and never will be

11:35when we are without the power to alter our destiny.

11:38This second, we can turn the tables on resistance.

11:41Now, this book had a pretty profound effect on my life

11:44and my creative and entrepreneurial journey.

11:45And if you like this video

11:46and you wanna check out my thoughts on more books

11:48that have really impacted my life,

11:49then check out this short playlist over here.

11:50The first video in it is about three books

11:52that changed my life.

11:53And then we've got a few other very short videos

11:54summarizing some of the other books that I loved

11:56and have really helped me in life.

11:58So thank you so much for watching.

11:59Do hit that subscribe button if you aren't already

12:00and I will see you next time.

12:02Good night.

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