How to stop procrastinating on your dreams

Do it for you

If you’re procrastinating by doing dishes or the laundry instead of working on your dream business or creative project, it’s actually a really amazing sign.

Recently, I was working on a new course of mine called Decide Your Direction, and I found myself doing the dishes, scrolling social media, doing anything but working on my course.

There was a moment where I realized exactly what I was doing and burst out laughing, realizing that I was procrastinating because this was a high-stakes project for me.

It mattered a lot to me.

It felt overwhelming.

I didn’t really know where to start, and I hadn’t created a new course in a long time, so I felt a little rusty at it.

But I caught myself in that moment and I recognized, “oh my gosh, I’m procrastinating, I’m resisting. That means this is really important, and it could be a really big move for me.”

So I took the four steps that I’m going to share with you today and immediately after, I was able to finish my first module on the course, and I felt so excited with the direction that my life was headed in.

I remembered how much the courses that I’d created before changed people’s lives, and I got excited to see that same transformation all over again.

So many of the clients I’ve worked with over the years experience this same problem.

They set a goal to write a blog every week, for example, and then really struggle to find the time.

But the truth is that no one is ever going to care about your dream more than you.

So you have to take your dream seriously.

You have to find the time if you’re going create the career or business that you really want, that feels fulfilling and meaningful and pays you really well.

By the end of this blog, you’re going understand that procrastination is not a flaw.

It’s actually a sign of massive transformation.

You’re going to know the simple, exact steps that you can take to move closer to your dream business or career.

That means you’re going create momentum toward making money in a way that fulfills you.

You’ll build confidence and self-respect because you’re going to be doing exactly what you say you’re going to do.

You’re going to shift from overwhelm to excited and in motion.

And these things are going to make your dream real because you’re going to be taking aligned action.

The first step to stop procrastinating on your dreams is to get really annoyed with yourself.

Because until you stop breaking your own promises, nothing is going to change.

You’re going to keep procrastinating and telling yourself that you don’t have the time.

But when you get annoyed with yourself, that’s when you create that inner commitment and decision to make a change.

I was stuck in endless busy work and tasks that were in my comfort zone, but I joined this Facebook group full of entrepreneurs.

And it was so exciting and motivating because they were sharing all of these wins about their ads and courses they were creating.

I started to get really frustrated with myself because I’m like, “I can’t even get to that point until I sit my butt down and actually create my course.”

So I started really paying attention to how I was spending my time, and I noticed that even though in the back of my mind I was like, create my course, create my course, I noticed that I was spending time on comfort-zone tasks, like writing my blog or even doing Pinterest, which worked really well for me in the past.

I had that moment where I told myself, “you’re never going to launch the course until you actually create it.”

To get over this resistance, I chose one day of the week to dedicate to creating my new workshop.

And there’s still another step because “create the course” is really overwhelming, and in a second I’ll share how you can make it even more actionable.

But this first step of dedicating a day was really just about declaring and deciding that this was a priority for me and I was going to move my schedule around to make the time.

The second step to stop procrastinating is to have a clear why and vision.

This matters because resistance is really strong.

So you need something even more powerful to overcome that.

Without a why, you’ll just keep procrastinating, but with a why, you’ll be pulled forward by this vision of what you want to create.

That’s going to help you follow through faster, get you more excited, and move through any of the uncomfortable feelings that arise with doing things that are scary or out of your comfort zone.

And this is going to help you go from not having a clear vision, to moving forward and creating that momentum to build your dream business or career so you can leave your job.

Personally, my why is freedom.

Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I don’t like where I live. I live in the desert and I’m a water baby. I love green. I love the ocean, and I really want to live by the water. So for me, that’s a big why.

I believe in having a why for you and a why for the world

And my why for the world — and me too, is that at 27 I got cancer and realized that I was working as a journalist from a sense of responsibility.

I had a lot of unhealed stuff from when I was younger. I wanted to feel visible and validated in the world, and I thought that having a prestigious job or climbing a career ladder at a big organization would give me a sense of belonging or feeling good enough.

Deeper down, I felt responsible for fixing the world. I realized at 27 when I got sick that…

I was living for other people and not doing what I wanted to do.

And there’s not really much money in journalism. When I got sick, I realized, I want to make a lot of money.

A lot of people might think that it’s shallow, but a situation like that gives you more perspective and allows you to admit what you really want.

So my why for the world is I want to help other women value their gifts and believe in themselves and know the actionable steps to take so that they can create careers and businesses and lives that feel fulfilling to them.

Because I want people to live lives that are meaningful to them instead of getting to the end of their life and realizing, “oh my God, I allowed fear to stop me from doing the thing that I most wanted to do.”

So that’s my why for the world, and plus my last office job was really toxic, and I decided I’m never working another one of those jobs again.

Life’s too short. So it’s important to have that motivating why that’s really going to push you and overcome the resistance.

The third step to stop procrastinating is to set really small, specific milestones and deadlines.

This matters because like I said before, if you just say, “work on my course,” or “look for a new job,” or whatever, it feels really overwhelming, vague, abstract, and your brain can’t really grasp on how to do it.

And when you feel like you don’t know how to do something, then it’s really easy to get stuck in procrastination, cleaning things, scrolling, doing anything besides what you most want to do, deep down, for your fulfillment.

So small steps really help you create that consistency, which again builds momentum.

And small steps really do add up. People tend to sometimes look at that bigger picture and think, “oh, this small step won’t do anything.”

But as you start checking off these small steps, you’ll see how they all build up and then that will give you that excitement that you’re making progress towards your goals.

And that feeling then feeds into more progress.

So it really does just all feed in on itself.

What I did with my course was instead of “work on my course,” I said, “I’m going to outline the first module.”

(This help will help you against overwork too, if that’s something that you struggle with.)

And so I did.

I finished my first module.

I felt so confident and excited, and now I’m excited for next week when I’ll continue to work on the second module.

So for you, instead of “start a business” you might find a daily task that you can do like a habit.

I really believe in creating habits because if you have a lot of fear to overcome related to your goal, then it’s easier to do something daily then once a week.

For example, let’s say you want to start a YouTube channel or start a blog.

I recommend finding time to work on it every day and setting incremental milestones like “write 500 words a day” or “post on social media once a day.”

And I do have a habit tracker, Play with the Day yearly goal journal, that’s going to help you set monthly goals and intentions.

It starts with setting a big vision, then monthly goals and intentions, and then you break it into habits. It’s not a planner, the entire back is a habit tracker for 52 weeks.

So you literally write the habit you’re committing to down every day, which recommits your mind. Then you’re just sticking to your habits every single day.

This is the process that took me from a person who struggled to maintain good habits to someone who effortlessly creates NEW habits whenever she chooses.

So obviously you don’t need that journal, but I recommend getting really clear and diligent with sticking to your habits because your habits create your life.

Sometimes there is mindset work, but you need to just get into that daily habit of doing your task.

The fourth step to stop procrastinating is burn the boats.

This is really important because it’s really easy to do lower-value tasks that don’t have as much resistance around them.

So you might waste a lot of time on a logo or waste a lot of time on a website or waste a lot of time interacting with people on social media if that’s not part of your goal.

So you need to identify your needle mover, which isn’t part of today’s conversation. I can talk about that in the future.

But you need to identify your highest leverage task, and then drill that down into a specific step.

A lot of times this is going be the thing that you’re most scared of, so you really need to identify that and commit to it.

And a lot of times it does require an identity shift.

So, for example, for the past 10 years, with the exception of a health sabbatical for like three years, so I guess seven years, I’ve been writing weekly blog posts and I’ve always identified as a writer.

It’s always been my zone of genius. But the future is video. I felt for a long time that I need to do more video, but the problem was that my blog took so much time and I was thinking, “oh, I’ll just do YouTube videos with my leftover time and energy.”

But I’d get to the end of the week and what do you know?

I wouldn’t have any time or energy to do YouTube.

This kept me stuck in my comfort zone and the results in my business were reflecting that I wasn’t growing.

So I had to change my identity. I realized, “if I really want to focus on YouTube in 2026, I need to prioritize that.”

That means that I need to stop my weekly blog or, you know, do my video and then have the blog come from the video instead of the blog first.

That’s a huge change.

I mean, I was attached to my blog, but…

Sometimes we need to let go of what’s meaningful to make space for what’s new in our lives.

And I noticed when I was looking at my to-do list and it read, “write blog, film video if time.”

And I’m like, “oh my God, IF there’s time, and that’s why it’s not happening.”

So I immediately flipped that and said, “no, I’m going to film the video and whatever there’s time left over for, there’s time left over for, but my video is my priority.”

And so if you want to build the business that you want or create a career even take the time to think about what those things will look like, you have to make that a priority and let go of other high-priority tasks that are associated with previous versions of yourself that don’t match where you’re going.

And if you want support deciding on your next direction, if you have a lot of ideas that you’re mulling over in your head and you’re not sure where to focus or what your next step should be, join the waitlist for the Decide Your Direction workshop.

In this workshop, you’ll get career clarity in two hours, even if you’ve been stuck for years.

Join the waitlist.

And I’d love to hear from you!

What project are you procrastinating on 😂 or what’s your small next step to make progress?

Comment below. I love hearing from you!

All the love,

Suzanne