Rory Vaden

Alexander Graham Bell said, “The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.” And Napoleon Hill said, “Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”

There will never be a perfect time to do anything because the best time is always now. Stop waiting for the stars to align before you take that first step in your life’s journey, and don’t procrastinate because it can hold you back from achieving your goals.

My guest today is a good friend of mine, Rory Vaden. He’s a New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of Brand Builders Group, which is a leading personal brand strategy firm that focuses on helping people become the type of person that everyone wants to do business with. 

In this episode, we discussed the mindset shifts and practices you can implement to stop procrastinating, how to rewire your brain to become an ultra-performer in your life, what happens when your focus is spread thin, and so much more. This is the third part of our series together, and I’m excited to share it with you.

Let’s jump in.

Who Is Rory Vaden?

Rory Vaden is a bestselling author and a co-founder of Brand Builder’s Group, one of the leading personal brand strategy firms, whose mission is to help every person tell their story, identify their voice, and share their unique message. Rory has worked with such famous personalities as Kevin Harrington of Shark Tank.

I’ve worked with Rory for many years, and we thought it would be valuable to bring together a series on building a reputation and your personal brand to help you take your life to the next level. We’ve already done the first and second installments of the series, and this is the third part, which I’m excited to share with you.

Rory Vaden is also a writer and a New York Times bestselling author of the book, Take the Stairs, which became a #1 bestseller on Amazon, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. It was also a number two bestseller in the New York Times. The book was translated into 11 languages and continues to impact more and more people. 

Rory is also an influential and talented speaker who has participated in the World Championship of Public Speaking competition not once, but twice. At one point, he even became the World Champion First Runner-Up.

Rory has earned the highest ranking designation from the National Speakers Association as a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), and his TEDx talk on “How to Multiply Time” has been viewed over four million times. Rory is truly inspirational and his fresh and sometimes humorous insights continue to amaze different audiences across the globe.

Why Do We Procrastinate?

No matter how much we tell ourselves not to procrastinate, it seems the longer and more complicated our tasks become, the more tempting it is to put them off. Why do we procrastinate? Some of the most common reasons for procrastinating are lack of motivation, fear of failure, fear of success, and stress. It’s important to figure out which reason you’re struggling so you can take the necessary steps to overcome it.

“There’s a number of reasons why we procrastinate. The number one reason, according to psychologists, why we procrastinate is because of self-criticism.” – Rory Vaden

Do you ever feel like you’re your own worst enemy? We all have those moments when we feel like we are not good enough and the world is passing us by. But what if you found out that your self-criticism was stopping you from reaching your goals? 

“[Procrastination is] thinking that, ‘I won’t be good enough,’ that, ‘I’m not smart enough,’ that, ‘I’m not capable, so why should I even bother if this isn’t going to work out for me?’ And there’s a lot of extraordinary pressure with that.” – Rory Vaden

Procrastination can be hard to deal with, but instead of letting the fear and anxiety take over, why not face the problem and get things done?

The 3 Types of Procrastination

It’s amazing how many people procrastinate even when they know it will affect them negatively. But in reality, there are three types of procrastination: classic procrastination, creative avoidance, and priority dilution. It can be difficult to pinpoint what type you’re experiencing because sometimes the different types of procrastination are mixed together. However, the key is to identify which types you’re struggling with, and then find a solution that works for you!

Classic Procrastination

We’ve been there. We’ve all had times when we procrastinated on some tasks, delaying them when we should have done them earlier. As a result, we’ve ended up doing more tasks due to the backlog and the consequences of the delay.

“There’s three types of procrastination. … [The] classic procrastination is consciously delaying what we know we should be doing. So, if I have some bills on the counter, I know that I should pay them, but I’m tired and I’m exhausted. So, rather than paying the bills, I’m gonna watch Netflix and chill [out] …” – Rory Vaden

Does this sound like you — Delaying paying a bill when you have the money and doing something else, instead? That’s a good example of classic procrastination.

Creative Avoidance

When you become more creative at blocking your own progress by finding every possible way to keep yourself from taking action, that’s creative avoidance.

“Creative avoidance is different, and this is something that people do as an art form. Creative avoidance is subconsciously creating things for yourself to do so that you can do those things as a means of feeling productive, but really it’s a giant scheme for avoiding doing the things you know you should be doing even when you don’t feel like doing it.” – Rory Vaden

So, instead of doing what you should do to make progress, you keep yourself busy doing other tasks that don’t serve the purpose. You may have a feeling of accomplishing a lot of tasks, but in the end, you have accomplished nothing on the things that matter most. This is what separates great achievers from mediocre performers.

“Success and greatness is not related to the volume of tasks that you complete, but simply the significance of them. And ultra performers are able to get themselves to do the things they know they should be doing, even when they don’t feel [like it].” – Rory Vaden

Imagine you were supposed to have a dental visit to fix a tooth problem today, but instead, you stayed home to clean the house. You may feel accomplished at the end of the day because your house is finally clean and tidy, but your tooth problem remains.