You may have heard of Seth Godin. If you haven’t, I would recommend you read his blog. Or even better, read one of his books.

I enjoy Seth’s writing. Some of his books have been inspirational for me. So, I was intrigued when one of our Smarter Eggs, Jonathan Amm, highlighted to me an interesting collaborative project that had been organised for Seth’s 50th birthday. Given that his writing has featured in every Smarter Egg learning group so far, I felt duty bound to participate.

I invited some of the Smarter Egg community (tribe) to share how Seth had inspired them. I collected some of the inputs and submitted this piece to the project.

(Congratulations to Ben Love for spearheading this initiative and thanks again to Roger Overall for his wonderful photography).

There is a quote, which is often attributed to Mark Twain, that goes something like this:

A person who doesn’t read has no advantage over one who can’t.

The truth is that most of us don’t read very much at all. And for those that do, a lot of that reading time is spent with newspapers, magazines or miscellaneous work-related papers and articles.

Most people don’t read books. Most business people don’t read enough books. Yet, if you ask them, they will admit that they should read more. Common reasons that business people will give are not having enough time, not knowing what books to read and not finding books that interest them.

I have noticed when talking to business people who do want to read more, who do want to find interesting books and who would like to learn more, that they have something of a blind spot to an option that can provide them with a lot of the benefits but with less of the hassle – audiobooks!

Virtually everyone I know in business has a CD player in their car. Very few use that CD player to listen to audiobooks. Most of us now have some form of digital audio player but only a few of us use them to listen to books. Are audiobooks one of life’s biggest hidden secrets?

I don’t have time! Really?

With busy lifestyles, it’s difficult to make time to sit down and read. It’s not impossible but it’s tough. However, there are many opportunities for us to listen to audiobooks every single day: while commuting, while walking/jogging and while doing household chores.

The technology is there. Pop a CD in the player. Turn on the iPod. Plug in the earphones.

If you want to learn how much time you have available, try listening to a 5-hour audiobook. Your initial reaction will be ‘Wow, five hours – that’ll take me a couple of weeks to get through’. Trust me, if you plug into the book every time you have a chance to listen, you will be shocked at how quickly you will get through it. We consistently underestimate how much time we spend, say, commuting. Some people I know would get through that book in a single day. But right now, they believe they don’t have time.

Why listening can sometimes trump reading.

More and more authors are now also narrating their own audiobooks. This can be good news for us, as in the case of authors like Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk. Their passion for the material and the particular emphasis that they give to particular words and points gives us extra value over the plain written word. I even find myself listening to books before reading them (books that I need to research quite deeply for purposes of work). And once you’ve heard the author’s unique interpretation of the words, you just can’t read the book any other way.

Sounds great. How do I start listening?

Most mainstream books now have an audio equivalent. There are many of ways of sourcing these but I would recommend two: Audible and iTunes. Audible was one of the first audiobook retaliers online and has become the #1 source. I personally use the US-based Audible.com. It has the greatest selection to choose from. But there is also a UK site – Audible.co.uk, which may well suit you better. You can purchase books individually or sign up to a plan which gives you a certain number of book credits per month. Apple’s iTunes is another easy way to access and download audiobooks. You may well have some iTunes credit waiting to be spent – check out the Audiobook category, you will be surprised at how many books are now available.

And if you’re still holding back on making the jump into iPods and mp3 players, then there are still a decent number of audiobooks available in CD format. Some of your bricks-and-mortar bookshops will have a CD section. Better yet, have a look at what’s available in your local library. You will see if there is a CD format available when you look at a book on Amazon.

Go for it. Let me know how you get on. If you’re already an audiobook listener, let me know which ones you would recommend to others.

Q1: How would you like to feel when your work is done today?

Got it?

Q2: What actions could you take now to maximise the likelihood of feeling like that?

The answer to Q2 will probably include stuff you don’t feel like doing now.

You have two choices: face up to what you need to do  & do it now OR think about it but do something else.

So, how do you think that latter option will make you feel?

For many people, procrastination is perceived as being the same as laziness. If you’re not getting things done, if you’re not meeting your commitments, people are quick to generate all manner of unpleasant labels:  sloppy, unreliable, useless, lazy.

But is this fair? Is it even true?

For me, laziness suggests an unwillingness to do anything. When I think of laziness, I think of apathy, inactivity and a lack of energy.

Wait a minute. Procrastination isn’t actually a passive or inactive process at all. It’s, in fact, a very active process. We choose to do something else rather than the thing we should/could/want to be doing. We substitute one activity for the one we are avoiding. So, for most of us, we are not apathetic, inactive or lazy when we are procrastinating.

I would even argue that using terms like laziness will only feed a negative mindset that will make your procrastination habit progressively worse. In our programmes and when coaching clients, I always say that you can’t criticise yourself out of procrastination. Breaking the habit has to begin with an acceptance of a positive outlook, a belief that it is possible for you to replace procrastination with production.

Just because you’re procrastinating on something does not mean you’re lazy.

What is it that causes us to delay action? What is it that causes us to procrastinate?

Steven Pressfield calls it Resistance. His wonderful book, ‘The War of Art’, explores this concept better than any other book I have found on the topic. It’s a book I use in the Smarter Egg Overcoming Procrastination programmes.

This quote captures the essence of the idea:

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.

If you have ever wanted to do something new, exciting and rewarding but found yourself not quite getting there, then you have already met Resistance. As far as I can see, we all have.

I was intrigued to see recently that Seth Godin is now exploring this very topic in his new book, ‘Linchpin’. Seth suggests that there is a biological source for Resistance. He calls it ‘the lizard brain’. Of course, this proposes that everyone has it. And I think he’s right.

How do we defeat Resistance? Acknowledging that it’s there is a good start. Understanding how it affects us will make things clearer. But, we only succeed when we roll up our sleeves and take it on. Defeating Resistance, overcoming procrastination, making a start: these need to be active processes. Movement is required.

What’s your next step?

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One common misconception about procrastination is that we only tend to put off the things we hate to do. There are so many examples of tasks we would love to avoid: housework, going to the dentist, having a ‘difficult’ conversation etc. It’s easy to understand why we might choose to delay acting on those.

Would it surprise you to learn that we can be equally as bad at putting off tasks that bring us pleasure? At the simplest level, this can include our inability to redeem frequent flyer miles on time but can also extend to the point where we actually are deferring our capability to live happy lives.

In the ‘rat race’ paradigm, it’s normal to defer the lives we want to live until we achieve our goal, our promotion, our next big target. “When ‘the big thing’ happens, then I can start enjoying my life!”

This article from the New York Times explores research on why we respond better to tighter deadlines when redeeming gift vouchers. Some of us might shy away from deadlines as we see them as being ‘overly-controlled’. But, ask yourself, why would you postpone enjoying life?

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Here now is a brief snapshot of some of those conversations, which, with the aid of some amazing photography from Roger Overall, gives a good sense of what the learning groups are all about.

A new learning group, built around our ‘Break From The Pack’ programme is about to start on February 1st. If you’d like to find out more about how to get involved, just let me know.

Credits!

The film-maker: Donal O’Shea. If you’re looking for help or inspiration on the use of video or film in your business, call Donal at +353 87 766 9776.

The contributors:

Roger Overall, Documentary Photographer

Greg Canty, Fuzion

Richard O’Brien, KJ O’Brien & Co.

John Prendergast, Aonach

Samantha Rathling, Expect Talent

One of the keys to overcoming procrastination is to allow ourselves to build systems, structures and relationships that give us the means to overcome the impulse to procrastinate. This piece from the The Economist provides a great example of a ‘commitment contract’, using the example of one of the most common New Year Resolutions – the desire to quit smoking.

If you are already struggling to make progress with your New Year Resolutions, try to think about ways that you could change the definition of what you are trying to achieve. Try to focus more on what you might lose. Try to involve others so that you don’t want to let them down. Try to put some form of external stimulus in place that keeps you going when it might be easier to put things off.

New Year Resolutions aren’t easy to achieve. But they’re not quite as difficult or as hopeless as you might fear.

The group has a diverse mix of people: from multi-nationals, academia, business owners and individual professionals. One such professional is Roger Overall, an award-winning documentary photographer. Recently, we were privileged to have Roger capture some scenes from a learning session. And he was even kind enough to write about it in this blog post.

Roger makes reference to a documentary film about the Smarter Egg experience. This will be available online here in the near future.

The sixth generation of ‘Break From The Pack’ programme participants are about to launch in January 2010. Already, this group is almost full.

Many people have asked me recently for recommendations for good books either for themselves or for loved ones. So, here are a few ideas for possible Christmas presents this year.

We have kicked around many books this year that have explored the irrationality of human behaviour but one that stands out as readable, interesting and thought provoking would be Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behaviour This is an ideal gift for anyone who is fascinated by how people behave.

Robert Cialdini’s ‘Influence’ is a real classic but this book, Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, is a more up-to-date and accessible take on this material. And because it’s broken into 50 individual fascinating stories, it’s ideal for those of you who like to read in the bathroom!

Christmas time is, apparently, all about celebration and good cheer, so what better time to be reading about how to be happier! In Happier: Can you learn to be happy?, Tal Ben-Shahar shares some of the learnings from his popular class at Harvard on this very topic. This book is easy to read and provides us with some pointers as to how we can be happier. Only problem here is to make sure the gift recipient doesn’t think you’re saying they’re a grumpy so-and-so.

Once upon a time, it was very common to see a Compendium of some description given as a gift at Christmas. Just like Annuals of our favourite comics, it was the kind of book you only tended to see at Christmas. If you’re buying a book for a new business owner this year, then you could do a lot worse than this compendium of business wisdom from Guy Kawasaki called Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging and Outmarketing Your Competition.

As Greg Canty has been rightly highlighting, there are plenty of great Irish book options available this Christmas. There are quite a few from ‘experts’ with their views on the economic crisis. Too much of this genre is weighed down by excessive finger-pointing but one exception is Marc Coleman’s Back from the Brink: Ireland’s Road to Recovery. This is a very sharp analysis of Ireland’s recent economic history with some challenging and stimulating perspectives on the future.

And finally, to the perfect present for a father-to-be, or any recent first-time father. In fact, you don’t have to be a father to love this book. Adam Brophy writes a weekly column on fatherhood in the Irish Times and his book The Bad Dad’s Survival Guide is a gently comic walk through the stages of being a dad. If you are bothered by the question ‘what do you give the man who has everything?’, this is a good answer.