Note: This is a guest post by Bob Lotich of ChristianPF.com.

Getting Laid Off

Almost two years ago, a larger firm purchased the company that I worked for. It turned out that when you have two fortune 500 companies merge, there is often quite a bit of overlap between departments. So it didn’t come as too much of a surprise that the department I worked in was completely eliminated.

We were given some advance notice and a severance package, but in July 2008 we were still getting laid off. I had never been laid off before and it was eye-opening to see how different people responded to the same news. We had some people who were excited about the news, looking forward to the new opportunities that would present themselves, and on the other extreme we had some people who seemed to lose all hope in life.

Regardless of whether I got laid off or not, just being in that environment and watching people’s response to the news was an invaluable life lesson. I saw fear strike and nearly paralyze some people, I saw people fill themselves up with anger, and I saw some people take the lemons and make lemonade.

I have to admit that it was probably a bit easier for me to stay positive in that environment. First, I didn’t really like my job that much, so I was interested in the idea of finding something else. Second, I was underpaid for what I did, so taking a paycut was less of a possibility. And third, I was a “young whipper-snapper” who would have an easier time adapting – or so the older workers said.

Providing New Opportunities

But the truth of the matter is that while layoffs are often perceived as a negative thing, it really can be an open door of endless possibilities – if we let it! As I watched my entire office process the news and begin job searches, it was amazing the effect that a positive outlook had. Most of the people I would have classified as “optimistic” or “hopeful” quickly found jobs and many of them actually found better jobs paying more!

And I remember a few co-workers who had a terribly negative outlook and didn’t even try. When they were asked how the job search was going, they responded by complaining about the company and talked about how things used to be. They fed themselves with negativity and I watched as it eliminated more and more options until they were backed into a corner with few choices.

I tried not to be “that guy” who was always looking at the bright side when everyone else wanted to complain – but secretly I was. Even if I wasn’t overtly making mention of my optimism, they could tell because I didn’t join in complaining. Having been a complainer before, I knew that I needed to keep my mouth shut if I was going to maintain a positive attitude.

Optimism Affects Actions

I had always thought it was better to stay positive than to feed on negativity, but after this experience I finally understood why. It is because your outlook affects your actions! The people in the office who walked around with the confidence that they would find an even better job, often did. I don’t really think it happened because they hoped more than the others, but because they had their eyes open and were taking steps to make it happen!

It reminds me of a middle-aged single woman who is longing to meet the man of her dreams, but never leaves the house! Yes, he could end up knocking on the door, but why not improve your odds by getting out of the house and meeting him halfway

It really was so sad to watch a few of my co-workers, so bound up with anger and self-pity that it prevented them from taking any action. And sadly some of them got exactly what they were expecting to happen.

Victor Frankl

I remember reading a bit about Victor Frankl, a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust and he said that one of the keys to survival was choosing the right attitude. If anyone could say that attitude is a choice, it would be a concentration-camp survivor. Frankl wrote, “The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”

I don’t mention Frankl’s story to make light of layoffs – I do realize that they can be incredibly trying times in one’s life. But I think we can learn from Frankl’s experience. If a positive attitude is essential to staying alive in some of the worst conditions known to man, then it will also be important to remember in the workplace challenges that we may face.

After this layoff, Bob pursued full-time blogging and recently surpassed his day-job income with his blog earnings. He used this experience to write an extensive article about how to make money with a blog. He typically writes about getting out of debt, saving money and other personal finance topics from a Christian perspective at ChristianPF.com.

“Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.”
Spanish Proverb

“How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.”
Martin Luther

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
Karen Lamb

One of the most common problems is procrastination. We know what we want to do and should do. But still we end up spending hours upon hours doing easier work or escaping via TV, blogs or music. And ask ourselves: “why am I so lazy?“.

Now, nothing wrong with a little escape from time to time. But if you procrastinate too much you will not get the most important things done. And you will also send yourself into negative spirals where your self-esteem plummets and you spend your days or more in a vague negative funk.

So what can you do? Here are 7 timeless tips to help you to stop procrastinating and start living your life more fully. And if you want to then you can learn much more about becoming more productive, focused and reducing procrastination in your life then have a look at my Stop Procrastinating Now Course.

1. Stop thinking. Start doing.

“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.”
Eva Young

A bit of planning can certainly help you to achieve what you want to achieve. A lot of planning and thinking tends to have the opposite effect.

You think and think and try to come up with the perfect plan. A plan where you don’t have to make mistakes, where you will never be rejected, where there will be no pain, difficulties or worries. Such a thing does of course not exist. But as long as you work on that plan you can protect yourself.

2. Don’t blow a task out of proportion.

“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.”
Olin Miller

“Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.”
George Claude Lorimer

By over thinking and putting things off you are not only trying to protect yourself from pain. You also make mountains out of molehills. The quotes above are so true it isn’t even funny. The more hours and days you put something off the worse it and your self-doubts grows in your mind.

Because you are dwelling on it. And so it expands in your mind. And since you are putting it off you are probably thinking about it in a negative way. This makes a little thing a big Godzilla, a horrible beast that is threatening to ruin your life.

So plan a little and then take action.

Often you don’t even have to plan, you have been there before and you know what needs to be done. So stop overthinking and just do it no matter how you feel and what you think. How you feel right now changes as quickly as the weather so it’s not the perfect guidance system or anything. And you don’t have to obey what it says (it’s not chains made of iron).

You can just do what you know is right anyway.

3. Just take the first step.

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

When you start to look too far into the future any task or project – starting a blog or business, getting into better shape, traveling to that place you’ve always wanted to go to – can seem close to impossible.

And so you shut down because you become overwhelmed and start surfing the internet aimlessly instead. That is one of the reasons why it is good to plan for the future but then to shift your focus back to today and the present moment.

Then you just focus on taking the first step today. That is all you need to focus on, nothing else. By taking the first step – by just setting up your website or going out running for 5 minutes – you change your mental state from resistant to “hey, I’m doing this, cool”. You put yourself in state where you become more positive and open, a state where you may not be enthusiastic about taking the next step after this first one but you are at least accepting it.

And so you can take the next step. And the next one after that.

The thing is, you can’t see the whole staircase anyway and it will shift and reveal itself along the way. That’s why the best of plans tend to fall apart at least a bit as you start to put it into action. You discover that your map of reality doesn’t look like reality.

4. Start with the hardest task of your day.

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie

Maybe you have an important call to make that you also fear might be uncomfortable. Maybe you know you have gotten behind on answering your emails and have big pile to dig into. Maybe you have the last five pages of your paper to finish.

Whatever it may be, get it out of your way the first thing you do.

If you start your day this way you will feel relieved. You’ll be positive, feel relaxed and good about yourself. And the rest of the day – and your to-do list – tends to feel a lot lighter and easier to move through. It’s amazing what difference this one action makes.

5. Just make a decision. Any decision.

“In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Theodore Roosevelt

We feel bad when we sit on our hands and don’t take action because it’s unnatural. The natural thing is to be a decisive human and take action.

When you procrastinate you want to do something but you don’t take the action that is in alignment with that thought. You become conflicted within.

What you do always sends signals back to you about who you are. Sure, doing affirmations where you say to yourself that you are confident can help you.

But taking the confident actions you want to take over and over again is what really builds your self confidence and a self-image of you being a confident person. When you procrastinate you lower your self-esteem and send signals back to yourself that you are a ,well, a kinda lame and indecisive person.

6. Face your fear.

“Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the “someday I’ll philosophy”.”
Denis Waitley

I think this is true. It’s easier to live on that “someday” thought. It’s harder to just take action. To risk looking like a fool. To make mistakes, deal with failure and not avoid that pain. To take responsibility for your own life.

The easier choice can come with a sense of comfort, with a certain level of success, pangs of regret for all the things you never dared to do and a vague sense of being unfulfilled. You wonder about what would have happened if you had taken more action and more chances.

The harder choice gives you, well, who knows? But it will sure make your feel more alive.

7. Finish it.

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”
William James

“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.”
David Allen

Not taking the first step to start accomplishing something can make you feel bad. But not finishing what you have started can also leave you in a sort of negative funk. You feel fatigued or stressed and sometimes you don’t even know why. It’s like someone zapped your inner power.

If that is the case, go over tasks and projects what you are currently involved in. Is there something there you know you want to finish but haven’t yet? Try to get that finished as soon as you can you will start to feel a whole lot better.

Just be careful. Don’t think you have to finish everything you started. If a book sucks, read something else. Using this as an excuse to quit something that feels hard or unfamiliar is not a good idea. But there is no law that says that everything has to be completed.

Note: This is a guest post by Vlad Dolezal of An Amazing Mind.

Once upon a time, a poor peasant heard that the princess of his country was looking for a husband. The old king was getting very old, and the kingdom was starting to desperately look for a heir.

So the peasant set out to ask for the princess’ hand in marriage. When he arrived at the palace, he found out he will have to compete with several other peasants to prove his worth as the next king.

The night before the competition, he went to buy some food.

“You look worried young man.”
“Yeah. Tomorrow, I’ll be competing for the princess’ hand in marriage. Of course I’m worried. When it’s done, then I’ll be able to relax.”

And the next day comes, and the peasant competes with the others, in a long day of traditional disciplines, devised to test his worth as the next king. The disciplines include such gems as throwing pitchforks into moving targets, and taming an angry boar with only his bare hands and a length of rope.

(That’s quite a ridiculous way to choose the next king, but hey. It’s tradition.)

And the peasant emerges victorious, and everybody celebrates, the princess rewards him with a kiss, and they retire into the princess’ private chambers.

“You look worried, my dear.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“What’s wrong? You just won my hand in marriage!”
“Yeah, I still can’t quite believe it’s real. When we’re standing together at the altar, a week from now, and say our vows, then I will finally believe it and be able to relax and be happy.”

A week passes, the marriage takes place, and the newly crowned prince retires into his private chambers with the princess.

“You look worried, husband.”
“Yeah. I would really love to help the people of this country, your old father is no longer able to rule properly. But my hands are tied. I can’t do anything while he’s still alive. When he dies, then I will be able to help our people, and I will be happy.”

A few months pass. The old king dies. The whole country mourns for a week, and then goes about its business as usual.

“You look worried, my lord.”
“Yeah, there are unrests in the border regions. When I’ll dealt with those, then I will be happy.”

So he deals with the unrests. And then a dragon attacks the country, and the new king bravely fights him off. And then plague comes, but the king smartly manages to contain it and cure his people. And then there’s drought, and then floods, and fires and storms, locusts, invading armies, ingrown toenails…

Eventually, the king finds himself on his own death bed. The royal scribe comes to see him.

“You will soon die, my lord. Do you have any parting words of wisdom you would like to share with the next generations?”
“It’s about bloody time. My whole life has been one catastrophe followed by another. When I die and enter the afterlife, THEN I will finally be happy…”

***

So many people focus on happiness ever _after_.

“After I get my degree, then I will be happy.”
“After I start earning $100,000 a year, then I will be happy.”
“After I retire, _then_ I will be happy!”

And like the peasant in the above story, they end up chasing the ever elusive “after”, but never actually reach it.

There is no happiness in the after. The happiness is in the NOW! As the old saying goes:

“Tomorrow never comes. Because when it comes, it’s today again.”

Don’t make the same mistake as the peasant. Stop looking for happiness in the future, and instead savour everything you already have. Happiness is already with you. You just need to tap into it.

Pause to smell the proverbial roses along the way (although here in the city, the only things along the road I could pause to smell are… well, let’s just say you wouldn’t want to smell them.)

Errrm, as I was saying… think of roses.

Right now, just slowly breathe all the way out, and take a deeee-ee-eep slooo-ooo-oow breath in. Then breathe all the way out, through your nose, even slower than you breathed in.

Good!

And I’ve got a quick exercise you can do right now to get really happy! I call it “3 Simple thing I love about…”

Just pick an area of your life. Any area of your life. Could be your work, or your family life, or your car, or the room you’re in right now. Then simply make a mental list of “3 Simple Things I love about [blank].”

Here’s my example:

3 Simple things I love about living in the UK

1. The bus drivers – I’ve never seen such happy and satisfied bus drivers before. It’s probably got to do something with the fact that over here, we always greet the bus driver when we get on the bus, and thank with for the journey when we get off. It’s great to see such people as bus drivers enjoying their jobs.
2. The non-smoking bars and clubs – I love being able to go out with friends for a night out and return home with my clothes still smelling fresh.
3. The awesome British and Irish accents – ’nuff said.

The “3 Simple things I love about…” is a great quick exercise if you ever find yourself bored, like in traffic or in the checkout line at the grocery store. It instantly annihilates the boredom, and fills your life with happiness.

Do it right now! Pick one area of your life, and list 3 Simple things you love about it.

There’s no happiness in the “after”. So enjoy the now!

Check out Vlad’s blog to get even more happiness in the now! It’s got psychology, personal growth, and a crapton of attitude!

One big mistake that I have made many times and I guess others do too – many might even do it on a daily basis – is to think what you feel right now is kinda permanent. That it is how you really feel about things and will feel in the near future too.

However, it is really hard to predict how you will feel just an hour or 15 minutes from now. The mind fools you as you identify with the emotions you are feeling right now. This can really hold you back in your daily life. Which of course makes a huge impact on your overall life.

Should I stay at home or just go?

You may for example not feel like going to the gym today. Your mind might say “It’s ok, you don’t need that anyway, you were there three days ago”. And so you lie back on the couch. But you can also say to yourself “No, today is workout day and I will go even though I don’t feel like it/don’t think I need to”. And so you go. And after you have been there for maybe 15 minutes you start to enjoy it and you’re glad you went.

Or there might be a party this weekend. But you are hesitant to go because you will only know one other person there. Maybe no one will to talk to you. Maybe it will be awkward. You may tell yourself “Well, it’s better to just stay home and take it easy”. But then you go despite those uncertain feelings and small disaster scenarios in your head. And you have a great time and met a new fun friend that is into the same things as you are.

If you go with your inner voice and what you are feeling right now you will miss out on a lot of stuff. And when it comes to your personal development you will be wildly inconsistent.

Be consistent, be awesome.

People will often not get the results they want. A part of that comes from advertising that tells us over and over that we can get what we want much faster than is really realistic. This leaves us disillusioned. But another part of this lack is because people don’t apply the actually very helpful pointers and advice they get in a consistent manner.

If you want to lose fat on your body you have to go and workout consistently. You can’t just do it when you feel like it. Like maybe a few times a month. You have to monitor what you eat and think before you stuff things into your mouth. If you go with what you feel you may want to reward yourself a bit too much with treats. Or think that you will just work off that extra sugar when you go to the gym. But as I understand it at least the very most important factor for fat loss is about consistently eating less calories than you use.

Now, I don’t want to paint a bleak picture where you have to behave like a robot and can’t have one single ice-cream this summer. And I am not saying that you shouldn’t trust your intuition or gut in life and when it comes to big things and decisions.

But I have come to understand that my mind doesn’t always want what I know is the right thing to do. The mind often tries to get us to choose the easiest option in our daily lives. It makes it seem like what you feel now is reality. Even though emotional states are fleeting and you can change them around in just a few minutes or hours by going to that gym or party.

And the thing is if you start to not take what you feel or think right now too seriously and do the right thing anyway you can not only get much better results than you may have before. You will also feel a lot better about yourself right now when you do what you know deep down is the right thing to do.

I don’t know what the best tip is to increase your productivity but here’s a personal favorite of mine. It’s my favorite not just because it helps me to get more things done but also because it’s very simple, a great way to brighten your mood and to build an awesome day.

Plus, you can apply the same tip in other areas of your life too. And use it to build confidence in your own abilities, raise your self-esteem and face small or big fears.

What is it?

Start each day with doing the hardest/ most important/ most uncomfortable thing first.

That’s it.

Maybe you have an important call to make that you also fear might be uncomfortable. Maybe you know you have gotten behind on answering your emails and have big pile to dig into. Maybe you have the last five pages of your paper to finish. It’s often something that is hard to do and also kinda unpleasant.

Whatever it may be, get it out of your way the first thing you do. If you don’t then you may build it up more and more in your head and a call that you may be reluctant to do now grows into this big nightmare in your mind where your boss yells at you and everything is just terrible.

If you let it go so far then it’s also easy to wind up in place where you just put off for tomorrow. And the next day. And so on. As you walk around with vague negative feelings hanging like a gloomy raincloud over your head.

On the other hand, if you start your day by doing it you will feel relieved. You feel relaxed and good about yourself. And the rest of the day – and your to-do list – tends to feel a lot lighter and easier to move through. It’s amazing what difference this one action makes.

You can use this “get a good start to your day” tip a bit similarly in other areas of your life too. Besides using it to increase your productivity you can also use it to:

• Improve your social mood. If you start your day by feeling social then you’ll feel like being consistent with that for the rest of the day. If you start out by being closed off and feeling guarded then it becomes harder and harder to break out of that shell as your day progresses. You can get yourself off to a good start by for instance assuming rapport. This means that just before a meeting, you just think that you’ll be meeting a good friend. Then you’ll naturally slip into a more comfortable, confident and enjoyable emotional state and frame of mind. This works surprisingly well even if you don’t feel that social in the morning.
• Increase your energy levels. If you work out early in the day you’ll feel energized for the rest of the day. This can be crucial on days when you feel tired and zombie-like.

What you do early in the day often sets the context for your day. In our minds we have a tendency to want to be consistent with what we have done before. Use that to your advantage. Access the best parts of yourself by starting your day in a better way.

Try this tip out for a week and see how much this simple little thing can improve your life right now.