Procrastination is the enemy of all of your dreams. You know what needs to be done, and you want to see the results of your work. The problem is that you keep pushing the important tasks off until tomorrow. Before you know it, weeks, months, and years pass by with no progress in sight. What if understanding that the Joke of the day can stop all procrastination right in its tracks.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld developed a strategy that helped him to win in life as a comedian. If you don't know who he is, he is considered one of the world's highest-earning comedians. He is best known for his self titled sitcom about nothing.
He developed a way of life that guaranteed him to be more successful. It's always hard to know how successful, but he knew that if he kept up this strategy, he would be a better comedian, which would make him more money. His strategy is one that any person can adopt.
The way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. - Brad Isaac
Create a Joke of The Day and Keep Working On Your Craft
The story is simple, and young comics always ask Seinfeld what they can do to be great like him. His answer is to make a Joke of The Day. He knew this:
- Better comics create better jokes
- To create better jokes, you have to make more jokes
- Write at least one joke a day
The joke of the day is the path to being the best comic that you can be. You still can't control the result or whether people laugh at your jokes, so instead, Seinfeld focused on the process and the things he could control.
One thing to point out is that there is nothing in there about creating the most amazing jokes each day or only producing the best of the best work. It also does not say if you're kind of tired, you can skip a day.
What he means is that each and every day that you wake up, you're going to force yourself to write the best joke you can in that moment.
The Joke of The Day is Not Just for Comedians
Anyone can participate in the joke of the day.
- Writers can write a certain number of words
- Basketball players can put up a certain number of shots
- An audio engineer can create a new beat
- An artist can create a small painting
- Someone trying to get in shape can walk down the block
- A cook can make a new dish
The list of possibilities can go on and on. The main point being driven home here is that consistency is the key to success. No one shows up at the top. Higher performance have usually mastered this.
High Performance Embrace The Joke of The Day or The Sienfeld Strategy
If you look closely at people at the top of their field, you will see the Seinfeld Strategy. They all have their joke of the day they work on getting done no matter how they feel.
What happens is you get into a rhythm of showing up and doing the work no matter what. There is no such thing as not being motivated because they train that way of thinking out of themselves. Every day is a day that a new joke can be whipped up.
If you look at most people with big dreams and little results, you will notice that they put so much of their focus on results. They want to win, they want more money, and to have insane skills. These are all results that only come to life after following a process.
When you begin to focus on your joke of the day, you stop caring about the result, and instead, you focus on the small step in the process each day. You make your best joke or sing your best notes, and that is it. It helps you to understand that the process takes time.
How to Stop Procrastination and Why Its Killing You
How does all of this stop procrastination? Procrastination stems from a phenomenon called "time consistency." What time consistency does is favor immediate rewards over future rewards.
When a student is given a paper due in three months, there are no immediate rewards for getting it done. Instead, you focus on things that can bring you pleasure and reward right now. You procrastinate and push things into off until they begin to matter a lot more.
You are always two people in one. You have your future self and your present self. Your future self sets goals and creates a wonderful vision for your life. But the future self can't do the work to get there, only the present self can, but it does not always understand why you would work for something that comes with no results until much later.
These two minds within yourself are always at each other's throat. Just think about when you want to eat healthily. Your future self knows it will pay, but your present self wants to eat the tastiest foods in the moment. It does not care if it will kill you in the long run.
The Joke of the Day works because it gives your present self an immediate reward that feeds into your future self. They both can be winners when you focus on the process and consistency.
No Consistency and There is No Greatness
Its easy to want to be great, its hard as hell to actually be great. Everyone wants to win and live the best life that they can. The problem is that most people struggle to be consistent. Its easy to figure out what you need to do to keep getting better each day. If you figure out that you're going to:
- Create a joke of the day
- Write 500 words
- Read for 10 minues
Those are three great habits to begin your work but there is one big problem. You still have to show up and get these all done each day. No questions asked! It doesnt matter how you feel or the fact that you really don't want to do it.
The reason some people become great is because they spend years before you ever hear about them showing up and being conistent. They spend years working on the boring stuff that most people don't want to spend their time on. When others don't see the immeiate reward they give up but you have to be willing to keep showing up.
Taking Action on Your Joke of The Day
Here is what you need to do to get started.
- Figure out what habit would make the biggest difference in improving your skill
- Figure out what habit would build up your mind
- figure out what habit would build up your body
- Begint track and measure your success with doing these habits each day
- Download Habit Stacker
It's not complicated in theory, but doing it will be much harder than you expect. You want to build up to the point where you are tracking 5-15 habits a day. It's important to track them, so you always know where you are with each of your habits.
Important Note: If you want immediate results, forget about it! Habits pay off after years of following and committing to the process. Most people can't hang with this because they want things to pay off fast, and they often quit too soon.