October
2006 Anticrastination Tip Sheet
What's the opposite of Procrastination?
THE ANTICRASTINATION TIP SHEET
An Idea and Tip Sheet to Blast Away the
Procrastination Habit
From Rita Emmett
Author of THE PROCRASTINATOR'S HANDBOOK, and
THE CLUTTER-BUSTING HANDBOOK
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Chicago Area People - Want To See Rita In Person?
She will speak about PROCRASTINATION at:
Arlington Heights Library (Illinois)
Tuesday, October 10
7 PM
No charge
To Register call 847-392-0100 or log on to
www.ahml.info
ANOTHER FREE TELESEMINAR! (a class you take by phone) SECRETS TO
BLAST AWAY PROCRASTINATION AT WORK
Thurs, Oct. 26
7:30 Eastern time (6:30 Chicago time, etc.)
To register:
http://www.pascoaching.com/teleseminar_info.htm
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Comments from Happy Readers about books available on our web
www.RitaEmmett.com
"THE PROCRASTINATOR'S HANDBOOK is magic. Just reading it got me to
take action. I don't have to think about it or make a plan. This book
broke a cycle of in-activity."
----- Jim Zaccaria, health & wealth coach
RE: 101 GREAT WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE -- $14.95 at Amazon but only
$7 on our web www.RitaEmmett.com
till the end of November.
"I feel that reading a new entry in this book each day is improving
my life 1% each day, especially when I have taken the action. Therefore
when I read the entire book, and take action I will have improved by
101%!!! "This is one of the best anthologies I have ever read regarding
self help. No way is this book a "Shelf Help" book in our home!"
--- Gayle Kopels
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A CLUTTER-BUSTING TIP FOR HALLOWEEN (for those books your children
have outgrown but are too good to toss out ... the books, not the
children)
"Books For Treats" encourages you to give gently-read children's
books at Halloween. Our motto is, "Feed kids' minds, not their cavities.
Give them brain candy." If you are interested in joining the effort, go
to www.BooksForTreats.org
for details. You can download a kit with a sign for your door, a
book-sorting guide, book box divider templates, and bookmark templates,
all of which you can print from your printer. (sorry, I cannot remember
who sent this tip)
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The Product Formerly Known as The-Book-in-a-Box:
The title for the "Step-By-Step, No More Excuses Sit Down And Write Your Book Stress-Free For Busy People System
has been changed to:THE PROCRASTINATOR'S GUIDE TO AUTHORSHIP: Stop
Putting Off Your Success
So if you already own the "Step-by-Step System" or if it was called
"Book-in-a-Box" don't panic and think we have something new. It's the
same product with a new name. Nobody liked the old name.
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Message From Rita
Emmett's Law Of Goal Setting
As soon as you set a goal that is important to you, equally important
obstacles start popping up all over the place
Have you ever decided on something really important to you - almost
life-changing - and you just cannot get started? For example, have you
ever decided with all your heart that you are going to lose weight and
then a loving friend gives you a box of your favorite candy or some
homemade fudge? Sometimes you wonder if they are trying to sabotage your
goals, but often it comes from a person who didn't have a clue that you
were determined to finally make that change.
I hear stories like this all the time. The guy struggling to quit
smoking and his pal brings him three cartons of his brand because he was
in another state where they sold cigarettes dirt-cheap.
The couple determined to start attending church and every Sunday
morning their car won't start. Then some neighbors tell them that "if
the car gives you trouble call us. We'll drive you to church." So
finally the car starts the following Sunday morning.
I call these crazy incidents "GOAL STOPPERS".
"Goal Stoppers" are not the same as phony baloney excuses and they
usually are outside our control.
There are a ton of explanations and theories about why this happens.
But another way to attack this phenomenon is to start recognizing when
you are in a "Goal Stopper" situation and figure out how to get around
it (Like the couple who set up a "back-up ride" in case their car acted
up again.)
Goals Stoppers almost torpedoed me when I started writing my first
book, "The Procrastinator's Handbook". First came some family illnesses
and I was in a serious auto accident, followed by even more painful
occurrences. In a three-month period, my mother passed away, my
father-in-law passed away and my 25-year marriage ended.
Maybe I could have found time to write during this period, but I
didn't have the emotional energy to think straight and focus on
anything.
Years later, once I regained my balance and again decided to write my
masterpiece, my daughter got married and I met a man in the cat food
aisle at the grocery store and fell in love.
Again - emotions. Even though the emotions were happy, they were Goal
Stoppers. Still no book.
And all of these Goal Stoppers were real and extremely important to
me; not mealy mouthed excuses. But still - no book.
Finally, in 1994, Bruce (the cat-food-aisle guy) and I married. It
feels as if I should have been married to him since the day I was born.
Life is good. More emotions but what about the book?
I decided "This is ridiculous (no, getting married wasn't ridiculous.
Ya gotta stay with me. The ridiculous thing was that the book still
wasn't started.)
So with great determination, I decided to work on the book again.
That year and the next, two of our sons got married. More emotions. I
finally figured out that life will ALWAYS have important and powerful
ups and downs. So to defeat these goofy Goal Stoppers, I will carve out
one hour per week to write my book.
Great plan, yes? The very first hour of my very first week of my
great plan, the phone rang. I decided to ignore it. And on the answering
machine I heard a dear friend sobbing. She had never in our lifetime of
friendship called in tears before. I answered it. As we talked, I tucked
away my notes about the book ... and forgot about them.
A few months later I wondered why was my book not even begun, and I
realized I was being attacked by goal stoppers. I wasn't sure what to
do, but felt that recognizing it was the beginning of stomping them.
Later that week, I was floating on a caffeine high in the middle of the
night and could not fall asleep, I decided to get up and put in an hour
on my book. And that was the breakthrough.
I put in an hour a week for the next four weeks. By the 4th week, I
was on my way and couldn't be stopped by anything. And the Goal Stoppers
stopped stopping my book.
But I see them popping up everywhere. Honest and real obstacles
showing up just when a person makes a commitment to a truly important
goal.
For six years, a friend has wanted to write his book. For three
weeks, another friend has tried to keep a commitment to block out two
hours a day for marketing calls. Both have been bombarded with crazy but
important challenges that absolutely MUST be addressed.
When these sabotaging Goal Stoppers assault you, the first thing to
do is recognize what is happening and know that it happens to all of us
many times in our lives. The next thing to do is figure out a way to
take one small step toward your goal. See if you can find a way to
side-step them (like my writing in the middle of the night) DO NOT let
these saboteurs stop you from pursuing your dream.
It seems that once you take that one small step, the Goal Stoppers
stop.
Understanding this pushed me to write - AND COMPLETE --- The
Procrastinator's Handbook. I wanted to get a book into people's hands
that would offer them quick & easy ways to move past goal stoppers.
Plus, I wanted to help procrastinators understand that they weren't
alone in hitting obstacles during their battle to reach their goals.
And now today I'm starting a new habit. Right now, I'm going for a
walk during my lunch hour and eventually I'll be walking two and a half
miles a day. To Side-step any Goal Stoppers, I've got a great set of CDs
that I'm dying to hear and have saved them for this walk.
Whoops - I see a call from a potential client is coming through on
the phone. Oh wow - now Bruce says when I get off the phone he has
something important he needs to discuss with me. Good grief. who is that
knocking at the door? Hey! What's going on here???
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Please share this Tip Sheet with 2 or 3 friends who would be
interested. And feel free to use this message in your newsletter, as long
as you include my bio and contact info:
Rita Emmett
Author of The Procrastinator's Handbook and The Clutter-Busting Handbook
www.RitaEmmett.com
Rita@RitaEmmett.com
847-699-9950
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