Getting a round “tuit”

A client once asked, “What is the most frustrating thing you have to deal with when you work with business owners?”

The answer was simple: After developing a powerful strategy that our clients know will improve their business, and breaking it down into specific activities and tasks that need to be accomplished, the clients needs to actually do something to make it happen. Getting the clients to accomplish the steps that they know will improve their business is the most frustrating thing we have to deal with.

Even though the minimum improvement our clients experience is a 40-percent increase in sales or profits after they implement the strategy and even though they know it could even double their business, it still does not motivate people to make it happen.

This may seem odd, until you think about a lot of other things that people have an intellectual understanding about, yet refuse to make needed changes that will improve their life. For instance, most people would like to have better health and lose some weight. Almost everyone knows that cigarettes can cause cancer, and if they eat less and exercise more they will lose weight. However, this does not stop people from smoking, or cause them to eat healthy foods and begin an exercise program. They often start and then stop, like a person driving with one foot on the accelerator and the other foot on the brake, but no real progress is achieved.

Unfortunately, the solution to get someone to take a moment from their routine business demands and focus on more productive activities is not that simple. Advice such as “try harder,” or “just do it” sounds good, but after the initial nudge, a person tends to procrastinate and get caught up in monotonous details. The procrastinator lives by the concept: Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow.

Neil Fiore, in his book The Now Habit, states: “Procrastination is a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision.” In his work with thousands of procrastinators, he has discovered that “there is one main reason why we procrastinate: it gets rewards.”

Procrastination allows one to reduce tension by taking away from something one views as painful or threatening. So, even though people mentally believe that certain activities will grow their business, they may experience emotional anxiety thinking about performing the tasks. According to Fiore, some people even procrastinate because they have a fear of success. To these people, success can create new challenges, increase demands, and lead to failure in the future. You may want to change things to improve your status quo, but it’s a lot easier to think the way you have been thinking. Here are some tricks to get you started:

The first one is based on the gimmick of putting things you need to take to work the next morning in front of the door. We use this when we absolutely do not want to forget something, and even though it’s simple, it works because we would have to physically step over it to overlook it. Now instead of literally putting a tangible object in front of your door, you can put a thought in front of the door of your mind. That thought could be the next action step you need to take to move you closer to the accomplishment of an important activity.

Your next action step should be in writing and placed where you will mentally have to step over it to avoid doing it. If you look at a calendar or appointment book every day to check your schedule, you should write the item on the appropriate day. You could even write it on a post-it note and place it on your mirror or put it on the inside of your car windshield so it is staring you in the face.

Another trick is to carry a smooth rock or other object in your right pocket. The rock represents what you need to do today, and every time you reach for your keys or some change, you will feel the rock and remember what you need to do. Your goal is to accomplish the task so you can move the rock over to your left pocket. If you do not have pockets, you can place the rock on your desk and it stays on your desk until the task is accomplished.

Years ago, we remembered seeing a round wooden “coin” about the size of a half dollar that had the word “tuit” printed on both sides. Whenever someone would say something like, “I’ll do something when I get around to it;” the “coin” could be given to take away his excuse because he just got his round tuit.

If you can find or make a round tuit, you could place it in your pocket. Every time you reach into your pocket, the round tuit would remind you to hop to it and accomplish your most important task.

(Rik is a business instructor at NMC and Janel is the owner of Positively Outrageous Results. They have consulted with over 400 businesses in 40 different industries, and can be contacted at: biz_results@yahoo.com )