Welcome to Motivational Mondays with Mark Kent your weekly Proactive Empowerment Performance (PEP) talk with Mark Kent.
Was your week empowered? Have you noticed a greater sense of control and completion in your life? Did having an understanding of Linearity (neatness and order) and Closure (finishing tasks, putting issues to rest) help you become more proficient in completing tasks and avoiding the negative consequences of fate?
Today I am going to show you a simple yet dynamic technique called PROACTIVE CLOSURE that will turbo charge your ability to achieve closure.
Do you remember on Motivational Mondays archives (2/12/2007) I discussed the difference between the rational brain and the emotional brain and how the emotional brain is reactive and manipulated by external events while the rational brain is more internally driven and less pervious to external influences
Proactive closure is designed to reduce the emotional brain's sabotaging influence on completing tasks and achieving closure
Functionally, Proactive Closure is the conscious ability to complete tasks first that you would normally avoid.
This is huge specific to self sabotage and procrastination.
Think of how much time and energy is wasted as a result of avoiding tasks we simply do not like.
It is easy to see how the emotional brain dominates this type of behaviour and can have a demoralizing impact on your ability to gain confidence in achieving control over your environment.
Just think of all the necessary and trivial tasks each day that you put off just because you don't feel like it. For example, it's Saturday morning and you have a report to write or laundry to do that you loathe.
The emotional brain will want you to read the paper, check some emails, watch the news and maybe even complete some unrelated tasks, anything but the intended goal.
Being unaware of your natural propensities to avoid larger or even small tasks can erode moral and productivity and perpetuate the cycle of self sabotage.
Conversely making a conscious effort to tackle first those tasks you tend to avoid promotes and improves proficiency in achieving closure and a sense of empowerment over your universe.
To develop Proactive Closure techniques consider these ideas.
1) we are all creatures of habits, be aware of and identify your avoidance patterns,
2) write down daily tasks that you just do not like to do and see if you can identify any specific avoidance tendencies associated to those tasks,
3) make a conscious effort to complete first those tasks you tend to avoid. This will help break the procrastination cycle, reduce the emotional brain's influence and give you confidence to move in first on your terms and improve your sense of mastery and control over the environment.
Next week I will show you how a simple test (Locus of Control) determines whether you are goal directed or externally manipulated and why that determines your ability to control external influences.
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Once again thanks for the opportunity to serve you.
To your empowerment, productivity, and motivation.
Mark Kent
