Dr Phil on Self Discipline and Procrastination from Oprah.com - January 2012

Dr Phil is there to help:  http://drphil.com/



A Cartoon drawing done of Dr Phil and Oprah
( no cartoonist to credit!)

From Oprah's magazine - Oprah.com - January 2012

May We Help You?

Question:  

I start projects without finishing them.  It happens with everything from painting a room to looking for a job.  I set out with so much motivation, but I can't maintain it, and then I just stop.  I have a lovely wife who often picks up my slack.  If I say I'm going to help fix something at home and I don't finish, she hires someone to do it.  My life has always been this way:  I dig myself into a hole and someone steps in to help me.  I want to change, but I generally feel overwhelmed.  How can I fix this?

Dr. Phil:

  You have some degree of insight into your pattern, but let me offer a little more.  You're spoiled:  Someone has always bailed you out in a pinch, which may seem like help - but it's not.  If others, like your wife, didn't rescue you, you would learn to take care of your business.  You do what feels good at the moment, although it's not what's best for the future.  Life is about prioritizing, and adults have to be mature enough to plan ahead and discipline themselves.

     Sit down and list your top ten priorities.  then make a second list of the activities that take most of your time followed by the ones that take the least.  Now compare the two lists.  I'll bet the farm hand that you spend very little time on what you value the most.  Why?  Important goals require hard work.  That's intimidating to an immature person, which is who you've been so far.

Dr Phil is an expert in the filed of addictions.

     How do you change?  Number one:  Make a plan for the priorities you want to work on in a day.  Short of an emergency, there is no veering from that plan.  Number two:  if you catch yourself slipping, pause, regroup, and get back to work.  Number three:  Set up a system to ensure accountability.  Arrange to report on your progress midday and at the end of the day to wither your wife or a good friend.  Working together toward your shared goals will make your dynamic less like that of a mother and her child and more like the partnership it should be.

Ten Life Laws by Dr. Phil McGraw