“But I don’t want to do writing!”, my 4-year old son complained a few days ago.
…Cartoons blaring in the background,
…Game console in his lap.

The Nocrastinator’s 7-Day Challenge

The Back Story.

It was early morning on a weekday.

My wife and I were going through the carefully orchestrated routine that starts the day, in a household with two young kids.

Every minute is accounted for.

So while having the TV babysit our 4-year old for a bit is not the best use of his little brain cells…

It keeps him out of our hair long enough for us to get everything ready.

I guess my wife got tired of hearing the same cartoon for the 15th time this week.

So she suggested that our son practice his writing, while Mommy & Daddy got ready.

As you might imagine, he wasn’t just going to up and volunteer his precious cartoon time to do “work”.

Thinking about it for a bit, we decided to make a game out of it.

“Okay – if you write 12 superhero names, then we’ll go to the bookstore after school to get you a new superhero book!
But you have to finish writing them in the next ten minutes.”

His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.

He loves him some superhero comic books.

He also loves him some competition.  Any kind of fun contest, and he’s there.

I’ll get back to how this story ended in a minute…

Sooo…. why are you telling me this story?

I chose to share this story with you though, for the lesson I learned from it.

People, not just kids, have lots of choices on how to spend their time.

Let’s face it – we’re short on sleep, short on time, and our attention is at a premium.

There’s too much information, too many responsibilities, too many directions to go in.

All this stuff combines into a gumbo soup of “Busy-ness”, “Stress”, and sometimes “Distress”.

My personal epiphany.

When I faced up to my frustrations with not meeting the full potential that I knew I was capable of, years ago, I became obsessed with cracking the code.

• Figuring out how to stop being so busy with routine stuff…
• Figuring out how to stop majoring in minor things…
• Figuring out how to make and spend more time on things that would really count.

I learned lots of theory about:

• beating bad habits,
• forming good habits,
• time management,
• how to be more effective, and so on.

The problem is, all too often this stuff felt like WORK.

I realized though, that by playing tricks on my mind…

By turning the WORK into a GAME…

I could get a lot more accomplished, without getting the same issues of mental fatigue, weariness, or even boredom.

Power Walking Super-Stardom.

My wife gets on me because sometimes (just sometimes – it’s not like I’m weird or anything),

when I’m walking on a busy sidewalk, or in the airport,

I’ll pretend I’m in a race with everyone ahead of me.

(Yes.  It’s true.  I still do it.)

I’ll narrate the entire race in my mind, as I “streak” past people.

Poor, hapless people  who have no idea I’m racing with them.

(Not that they would stand a chance against my power-walking might, anyways.)

“Our champion is way in the back!  This is so unlike him!

What will people say?

Wait… he’s making a move!

He’s gaining on them… he’s catching up…

Look at that stride, ladies and gentlemen!

Never have we seen a stride so good before!

He’s caught up… he’s nosing ahead…

It’s a photo finish!  He wins! He wins! He wins!”

(Part of that inner dialog is inspired by Bill Cosby – Combustible Huxtable)

Watch from 5:19 to see the particular quote.  Yes, I’m a Cosby baby.

Whatever.

It’s fun, it’s a bit ridiculous, and it makes me laugh at myself.

Plus, I get where I’m going more quickly, and burn an extra calorie or two.

Work, even mundane work, can be made fun, when turned into a game.
Or a fun competition.
Or both.

This was the motivation behind my creating the Nocrastinator’s 7-Day Challenge.

The Power of Accountability:

Over the past year, I discovered that despite KNOWING all the right things to do, the right actions to take, I often would not take those actions.  Not consistently, anyway.

Maybe I just have less willpower than most (that’s a very strong possibility).

Or maybe,just maybe, I was trying to do things the hard way.

Through sheer willpower, and discipline that I hadn’t built up yet.

Don’t get me wrong – discipline is the absolute foundation for being consistently productive.

But discipline doesn’t come from willpower.  It comes from forming good habits.
So that the work ends up becoming something you do naturally, within your comfort zone.

• So consistent results comes from discipline…
• Discipline comes from good habits…
• Good habits come from repetition…
• Repetition comes from willpower…

AND from finding creative ways to do the reps even when willpower fails.

That’s where games come into play.

That’s where you get a 4-year old wanting to write dozens of (superhero) names a day.
(After just wanting to veg out in front of the TV, moments earlier.)

I decided to amplify my personal will power (what little of it I have… LOL!), by getting an Accountability Coach.

I’ll have to dedicate a standalone post to the transformative power working with Shae Bynes of Get It Done Coaching has had on me, in the past 4 months.

Back to the story:

So we could have forced our 4-year old to do the reps.

To practice his writing “because we said so”.  (And sometimes, we do that, when other approaches fail.)

But how much more effective was it to get him WANTING to write?

Never mind that his motivation wasn’t to get better penmanship.

He’s getting in the reps.

He’s forming the good habit of writing.

And in time, it will become natural.  People will marvel at his discipline.  His consistency.

Not knowing that to him, it was all a game…

Dr. Mani’s 30-Day Summer Article Writing Challenge:

It was 2 years ago, almost to the day.  May 31,  2009.

World-renowned Internet-Marketer, Heart Surgeon, and Philanthropist, Dr. Mani, had invited me to join his 30-Day Summer Article Writing Challenge.

It was the first challenge of it’s kind I’d ever been involved in – write 25 articles in 30 days, and post them to eZineArticles.com.

Up until that point, I’d never posted a single article to an article directory.

30 days later, I had 25 reps.

I’d written 25 articles, and they were driving me hundreds of new web site visitors on a regular basis.

The power of turning work, into play.

The Nocrastinator’s 7-Day Challenge:

The Nocrastinator’s 7-Day Challenge is a first-of-its-kind interactive social media game, in which you:

1. Choose a task that’s important to you,
2. Publicly commit to it, and
3. Put in an hour a day for 7 days straight.

The deadline helps you focus.

The public accountability prevents procrastination.

The structure forces you into a plan of action.  And builds your habit / discipline muscle.

And I’m thrilled to be sharing it with you.

I hope it will have the same transformative power in helping you conquer a worthy task, that up until now hasn’t received the TLC it needs from you.

Now.  I’m off to the bookstore, to buy my 4-year old some superhero books.

http://www.WhoIsBolaji.com/7days