This month when I went looking for songs about being creative and breaking patterns and getting yourself out of a rut I had a really hard time find a song. There are lots of depressing love songs, or even happy love songs, but for some reason my brain encountered a block when it came to songs about creatively solving problems.

So what did I do? I applied creative problem solving techniques to the block and started playing with the words I had in my head. Once I started to do that it took me mere moments to come up with this month’s Pop Music Positivity song: Breakout by Swing Out Sister (from1986).

And while it doesn’t speak to creativity directly, it’s a great Someday-busting song because (as you can see in the lyrics below) it speaks about action and spontaneity - two of my favourite Someday-busting tools . And the video is definitely creative with all the colours!

What’s your favourite song about creativity and breaking patterns?

Enjoy! (If you want the full video - with intro! - and higher volume you can watch it on YouTube.)

Swing Out Sister: Breakout

When explanations make no sense
When every answer’s wrong
You’re fighting with lost confidence
All expectations come

The time has come to make or break
Move on don’t hesitate
Breakout

Don’t stop to ask
Now you’ve found a break to make at last
You’ve got to find a way
Say what you want to say
Breakout

When situations never change
Tomorrow looks unsure
Don’t leave your destiny to chance
What are you waiting for
The time has come to make your break
Breakout

Don’t stop to ask
Now you’ve found a break to make at last
You’ve got to find a way
Say what you want to say
Breakout

Don’t stop to ask
Now you’ve found a break to make at last
You’ve got to find a way
Say what you want to say
Breakout

Some people stop at nothing
If you’re searching for something
Lay down the law
Shout out for more
Breakout and shout day in day out
Breakout

Breakout

Don’t stop to ask
Now you’ve found a break to make at last
You’ve got to find a way
Say what you want to say
Breakout

Don’t stop to ask
Now you’ve found a break to make at last
You’ve got to find a way
Say what you want to say
Breakout

Lay down the law
Shout out for more
Breakout and shout day in day out

Breakout
Breakout
Breakout

Lay down the law
Shout out for more
Breakout and shout day in day out

No one has only one Someday. As complex beings we all suffer from Someday Syndrome to greater or lesser degrees in a wide variety of areas in our lives. Each week as I go through the results of the Lab Rats’ worksheets, I will choose one particular issue for each person. It likely won’t be the same issue each week, instead touching on all their issues at some point during the process and looking at progress in their Someday Journey.

This week we start off by exploring what I see (from what they sent me) as the Someday that most challenges each Lab Rat. It comes from an exercise in which I asked the Lab Rats to look at the goals in their lives through two filters: “I want to” and “I need to” in relation to their family, their work, their relationships and their health.

With six Lab Rats, I saw a wide variety of issues but one thing was common to all: a lack of motivation to pursue even things they wanted. This lack of motivation is the exact reason why I created the I’ll Get Around To It Someday ebook and worksheets – to give people passion to carry them through the periods where they can’t get themselves to do something even when it’s a goal they want with all the passion their body, mind and soul can muster.

Helen

Helen has everything else more or less in great shape but for her she procrastinates like hell over her health. To her it feels like hard work without any fun. And working hard on her body doesn’t produce the same sense of self-validation and self-reward that working hard in business or in other less personal areas of her life.

As someone with similar health problems that Helen has I know exactly what she’s going through – this too remains one of my few Somedays - and will work along with her so that we both clear out the procrastination.

Johnny

Johnny’s big passion is music – but he knows his skill puts him at hobby level and he’s tired of just putting in time at work to live for the evenings and weekends. His great procrastination comes from finding that job that excites him enough to break free of his procrastination habits.

Some gurus say to find your passion and then the money will follow, while others say work doing whatever you need to and find your passion elsewhere. Johnny’s tried both and neither has worked so far. He’s therefore taking this Someday Journey to try to merge the two extremes and create or find work that includes enough passion to not procrastinate and to produce results but at the same time leaves him energy for his family and hobbies outside of the office. He hopes to find it in becoming an expert in the green-economy.

Joyce

From Joyce’s first worksheet, I saw a strong distinction between things she wants to do and things she has to do. Although all the Lab Rats looked at their need-to-do stuff versus their want-to-do stuff, with Joyce the former is blocking the latter. For example work-wise she wants to get paid to teach seminars, but knows to do so she needs to promote herself. And because the promotion is a need instead of a want it won’t happen no matter how much she wants to do seminars, promotion just won’t happen.

I used to suffer from a similar strain of Someday Syndrome and learned what works best for me in this regard. Joyce however is not me, so before I start tossing out suggestions, we’ll wait a bit and see what direction the next few worksheets take her.

Kristin

Combining her lack of interest in her job with her recent pregnancy, Kristin has pretty much checked out. Her focus right now is on her body, her baby and her relationships. She sums up everything about her job with:

• Things I want to do:
  • Develop my writing career.
  • Spend more time building up my blogs
• Things I do because I should:
  • My day job.

Since the baby situation is temporary (as all pregnancies are), we need to focus on what Kristin will do once she’s given birth and finished her maternity leave. Clearly she has no interest in returning to her day job, so over the next few months we’ll create habits for Kristin where she does indeed build her writing career.

Marie

Facing a crisis of past choices, Marie’s not sure she wants the profession that comes at the end of her dissertation. She’s found that many people in her field are bitter, backstabbing and negative and that’s not who she is or who she wants to associate with.

Not surprisingly therefore, what was once a passion has become a chore and even though she’s supposed to write on her dissertation every day, nothing happens and she stresses herself out about rival studies or other situations that might render her work invalid.

She’s reached a point in the dissertation where there’s no going back. The only option is to finish it but the big questions blocking Marie from continuing are: Why and How.

I think many people who devote so many years to something like a dissertation can identify with Marie and I’m certain her journey will touch the lives of many readers.

Michelle

Michelle lives for other people. It’s not what she wants, but it’s a habit she’s created with good intentions and now can’t break without causing chaos in the lives of those around her. Her sister relies on her to keep her from feeling lonely. Her colleagues rely on her to hold their hands instead of focusing in her own work. And her boyfriend’s mother relies on her for transportation and a clean house. Plus Michelle puts the opinion of her extended family concerning her health and eating habits before her own.

This problem is a common one, especially for women. Society socializes women to put themselves after everyone else but it’s not healthy. Think of all the women on valium in the 60s and 70s and all the women on Prozac now. Instead of medicating herself until she accepts the situation, Michelle’s made the decision to find what she really wants and then learn how to implement the changes without creating too much chaos.

Your Guided Tour

What Someday are you not getting around to? Don’t you think it’s time to stop putting off your dreams and time to start pursuing them?

With a Guided Tour of the I’ll Get Around To It Someday ebook you get a more detailed version of the Lab Rat experience, with all the accountability and none of the public exposure of all your Somedays.

Click here to find out more about what the ebook can do for you, or click the button on the left to order your Guided Tour today for only $199US – that’s nine weeks of email coaching for half my usual coaching rate.

When we think of creativity we think of art: painting, acting, singing, writing, crafts, and such. If we’re being generous we might call science research or computer programming creative. And of course, management gurus talk about creative problem solving without anyone really quite sure what they mean.

But what about daily life? Where’s the creativity in getting up, getting the kids to school, going to work, trying to fit in some exercise, fighting the battle of the bulge, tuning out in front of the TV and falling into bed exhausted before starting it all over the next day?

According to Wikipedia, creativity is:

Creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. Creativity is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight. An alternative conception of creativeness (based on its etymology) is that it is simply the act of making something new.

When we get stuck in routine and living on autopilot, nothing’s new. It’s all the same day after day after soul-sucking day. Turning off the autopilot isn’t easy, however. Habits and routines (especially unconscious ones) are hard to break. Fortunately conscious creativity will help and here are six ways to turn off the autopilot and to help you live more fully.

1. Don’t always do things the same way
2. Make yourself accountable for every minute
3. Do things you wouldn’t normally do
4. Live in someone else’s shoes
5. Explore a new environment
6. Learn to do absolutely nothing

Break Patterns

Take a different route to work. Make a sandwich with two slices of ham around a piece of bread. Eat dinner in reverse (dessert to maincourse to salad). When you start to break patterns in your life you force your brain out of its ruts and open yourself up to new ideas and new ways of thinking.

Be aware of why you do things in a certain way. If you answer “because I’ve always done it this way” then the next time you do it break the pattern and try doing it a new way.

Be Hyper-Scheduled

People think creativity and new ideas come from chaos, but think of people like da Vinci and Michelangelo – they weren’t chaotic artists. They were tradesmen who worked hard and worked to a schedule. Haydn and Bach had to come up with new pieces of art on a regular basis or risk getting fired by their patrons.

Become a taskmaster and schedule yourself and clear out the distractions that keep you from making creative leaps in whatever you do.

Be Spontaneous

Most of us have schedules – and we like our schedules and routines. Break out of routine periodically and do something that embarrasses you slightly like karaoke or a nudist beach or even holding hands with your spouse as you walk through the mall.

And if someone suggests something that you wouldn’t normally do, say “yes” right away not giving yourself a chance to think about it.

Trade Roles

How many movies are their along the lines of Freaky Friday or books like the Prince and the Pauper? By putting yourself in someone else’s shoes you’ll break yourself out of regular patterns of behaviour and thought opening yourself up to new experiences.

Of course you might not be able to do this work-wise, but at home, trade around what you do with family members. Kids become the parents for a day and the husband becomes the wife. Have fun with it!

Change locations

House swap with friends for a week and break even more patterns. Go big and do a house swap vacation or even a work exchange in some other part of the world. Or go small and rearrange your office, putting the desk in some spot in the room that you least expect it to be.

And in meetings or classes, don’t sit in the same seat. Make a conscious effort to sit in a different spot every time you enter the room.

Stare at the Wall

Most times we’re a go-go-go culture and when we do turn off we do so in front of the computer or TV. I’m not talking about meditation where you focus on your breathing and try to clear your mind. Staring at the wall is simply sitting on the couch or bed with nothing in your hands and nothing distracting your vision.

It will likely feel uncomfortable, but by pushing past the discomfort your mind will start filling with ideas, often coming up with solutions to problems that have been plaguing you and have been avoiding resolution.

When we think of a typical artist, we picture a person living in chaos, papers or paint everywhere, abandoned food rotting on the table (or floor), appointments forgotten, and sleep patterns only a chaos scientist could understand.

Ask many writers about their writing process (or watch movies about writing such as Stranger Than Fiction or I Capture the Castle) and you’ll get an impression that this chaos does nothing for getting writing done (contrary to popular belief). In fact, many writers (myself included) will often do anything other than write (so indulge the chaos). You see, as much as we love the creative process, it overwhelms us.

I don’t know about other writers but for me, when I write I feel all the emotions of my characters often all at once and this avalanche of feeling plugs my ability to get the words down on paper. In her fantastic course, How to Think Sideways (now off the market), Holly Lisle says:

We want and need feelings. We will die inside without them. But sometimes, sometimes…sometimes, dammit, we need to think. You cannot plan a career with the thinking half of your brain tied behind your back.

NaNoWriMo as Motivator

Many writers use National Novel Writing Month (which started November 1st) as a way to apply discipline and get themselves thinking as well as feeling. A writer “wins” NaNoWriMo if he or she can get 50,000 words written in the month.

Although I don’t participate in NaNoWriMo, I did it once (but didn’t “win”) in 2007. I credit the month with giving me the drive and the habit to write regularly and push through to the end of long projects.

With everything else going on in my life, I don’t have the time to commit to the NaNoWriMo schedule, but the idea of corralling creativity through structure gave me a different idea.

Extreme Structure

This month I plan to take structure to an extreme. I’ve set up my Google Calendar to ring an alarm through the day to move me onto the next task in my list regardless of where I am in the task.

I’ve broken my day into sections, anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. I also have marked off breaks where I will purposefully NOT be productive. By being so rigid with m schedule I hope to increase my productivity, focus more on what I really want to get done, and have more time dedicated to non-productive activities (like doing things with the boyfriend).

Throughout the month, I’ll be reporting my progress here on the blog, because of course, an experiment has no worth if no one measures the before and after. And what will I be measuring?

1. Amount of writing done (word count / progress on an outline)
2. Guest posts written
3. Blogs commented on
4. Various Someday Syndrome visitor statistics
5. And various other actions that should draw in more readers and clients.

Someday-Busting Contest

Now it’s your turn. I’m sure there’s some way that right now you could put just a little more structure in your life and in turn be more creative with your time.

Either email me or leave a comment here below with your structured-creativity intention and at the end of the month I’ll pick one person to win a month of Someday-Busting Email Coaching.

Speaking of which, I’d like to congratulate Emma for winning the October contest. At the end of the month maybe we’ll get her to do an update to her Someday Syndrome Interview and see how the month has changed her situation.

I like to be busy. Busy is good. Problems occur when I go past being busy and become overbooked, overwhelmed and frantic. That’s not good. That’s when I realise it’s time to say no and cut my activities – many of them useful and productive – back to a manageable busy level.

Busy is exciting. It’s active and stimulating. Our society is extremely busy these days, and it’s beginning to be looked on as a BAD THING. We’re told to downsize, declutter, destress, relax, smell the roses. What nobody tells you is that you should be smelling the roses while you’re busy pruning them.

Busy is who we are

For many of us in this world, busy is an essential part of who we are. Relaxing for us is simply a different form of activity – when we relax we go climb a mountain, run a marathon, volunteer for a third world mission or some other form of activity. People like this (obviously, I’m one of them) go crazy if they’re forced to be inactive.

I’m not talking about frenetic activity that has a person running here, there and everywhere, like a chicken with their head cut off. I’m talking about having purpose and meaning in what they do. If a busy person can see the benefit in sitting meditating for an hour then they’ll do it. If however, there’s no benefit for them, then they’ll be fidgeting within five minutes.

For busy-people, a holiday just sitting on the beach is torture. They’ll do that the first day, then that’s crossed off their activity list and they’re onto find something else to do. Something that has a purpose and reason behind it, an end point with a tangible result. Busy-people are the one’s who take their laptops away with them and schedule work time into their holiday.

“But that’s a workaholic” I can hear you all shouting. No, it’s not. A workaholic takes their laptop with them, goes to their holiday destination and stays inside and works all day every day while their family is outside. A busy-person takes their laptop so they can work while their more laid back and phlegmatic partner naps or sunbathes. Then puts it away to move on to the next holiday activity. There’s a big difference.

Busy is essential to good health

I’m not a doctor, nor any part of the medical profession. But I’m going to tell you, with total conviction, that being busy is good for your health. Being busy will keep you alive longer. Short of being hit by a truck, at least. How’s that?

Think of the stories you’ve heard about people who reach 65 or 70 and retire – and are dead within a couple of years. That’s why there are so many Retirement Coaches appearing now, because it’s recognised that the lack of purpose and activity can be deadly.

We all need to have something to do, something to look forward to and work towards. It’s inbuilt in human nature. We were not designed to be couch potato’s and sit watching tv or the computer all day. We were created to have ambition and drive. Our minds and bodies are designed to be active, moving and learning throughout our lives.

Resting is good too

Yes, we need to take breaks and relax at times. Being busy 100% of the time is extreme and unhealthy. Burnout results from never taking a break. However those rests are designed and scheduled to recharge us – body, mind and soul – to enable us to continue being busy after the break.

If you think you’re too busy to take a break, you’re too busy. If you don’t see the reason for taking a break, if you think you don’t need one – then try and see the reason behind it. Understand that you’ll be more productive and get more done after a short break. If you’re heading for burnout – take that break right away!

The right busy brings happiness

Think back to a time in your life when you were really happy. You were loving what you were doing. I’ll bet that at that time you were busy doing something.

Now think of a depressed person, or yourself if you’ve been depressed. Depressed people don’t get things done. They don’t have the motivation to do anything. One of the aspects of treating a depressed person is to get them active and busy.

Why? Because activity and purpose fills our lives with meaning.

Being busy the right way

Notice I said activity and purpose. We can be ‘busy’ checking facebook every five minutes, tweeting everything we do, fiddling around the house and say we’re busy. Or we can be busy being productive and constructive and really be truly properly busy.

Busy without being productive is not really busy. It’s just time-filling. It leaves you feeling worse than when you started. Busy, working on activities that you enjoy, that you understand and can see the final result, is the busy that feeds your soul so you feel complete and satisfied.

How do you feel about being busy?

About Mel

Melinda Brennan is a Business Coach who helps Work at Home Mums find clarity and direction amongst the enjoyable chaos of working at home.

You can find her online at WAHM Biz Builder or come and say hello to her on Twitter.

As with the first three Lab Rats, Kristin, Marie and Joyce are all looking for accountability. By going through the ebook I’ll Get Around To It Someday (launched earlier this week) with the whole world watching them, they’ll be forced to follow through on the exercises instead of starting them and trailing off the moment it becomes work.

Kristin

Kristin is an Australian geek who plays with big databases. Over the years her career has taken her away from her roots and further into geekery, and now she’s bored. She’s highly paid for the geekery and the company treats her well, but deep down it really isn’t her.

Her big dream is to ditch the day job and make a living for myself through writing, only she has no idea how to go about it. She has a blog and went back to school part time, but wonders if perhaps the writing courses are just another way of procrastinating instead of just starting.

Getting pregnant means a 12 month maternity leave and Kristin hopes to turn that time off into the start of a the writing career. Specifically she’s looking for clarity on what she wants and what steps to get there.

And by doing this all publicly, Kristin also hopes to help other soon-to-be moms with similar dreams.

Marie

Marie is also in school, but not at all part time. She has about eight months to finish and defend her dissertation. Unfortunately, her chair has left the university and her motivation went along for the ride. Supposedly she needs to write every day on the dissertation, but it’s not happening and the terror of the job market at the end of it all has paralyzed her.

I remember this stage. When I was finishing up my Master degree, I almost didn’t finish two courses on purpose so that I wouldn’t have to enter the “real world.” After more than twenty years in school, the idea of leaving (as much as I hated it by that point) was scarier than the horror of having to repeat courses.

Marie’s hopes that her wandering motivation has gotten itself lost in the maze and that by being a Lab Rat they’ll be reunited. Plus she hopes that the walls of the maze give her a structure and keep her on the path towards completing her dissertation.

Joyce

Joyce is another writer, but one who’s a few steps ahead of many of us. You see, she had her first book published over two years ago. Unfortunately, the whole process doesn’t get easier and since then she’s made progress on two other books, but she finds “something else” to do rather than work on them.

The Getting Started Monster hassles her every day and self doubt just adds to the fear. Once she does get started, she will finish (eventually) and she hopes that she’ll be able to vanquish the Getting Started Monster within the passageways of the maze, like Theseus and the Minotaur.

About her situation, Joyce says:

One of my biggest procrastinating problems is feeling so overwhelmed with everything that I do, that I end up doing nothing at all.

By becoming a Lab Rat, Joyce hopes to find guidance and learn how to commit to her writing instead of putting it off indefinitely. And by eliminating procrastination from her life, she hopes to achieve a greater sense of self-worth, knowing she’s learned to give her best in every situation.

Your Own Trip Through the Maze

Do you recognize yourself in these three Lab Rats? Or perhaps in the three from last week? If so, why not consider taking a trip through the maze yourself?

The I’ll Get Around To It Someday ebook is now available for download and to make sure that you’re keeping yourself accountable (and getting the most out of your investment in yourself), I am offering Guided Tours through the maze for only $199US.

Yes, that’s right. For the price of less than an hour and a half of my consulting time you get nine weeks of email coaching, taking you through the 20 worksheets that go along with the ebook.

So, if you want to stop saying “Someday” to your dreams, then click here for more details about the ebook and the Guided Tour.

So far, we had had three lectures in this series. The first was on time management. The second, organized by a tutor new to the course, gave us a talk on time management. Standing brightly before us, the woman from the Sociology department informed us that she would be giving us a 45 minute talk on… time management.

It still took me five and a half years to get my doctorate, given all that focus on effectively managing my time. I spent three years teaching undergraduates how to do things that in reality, they would never consider, like going to the library and actually being sober. I was a total nerd: a real expert as an undergraduate at planning my time and ensuring that I had plenty of time to research and write my essays.

We used to teach standard tips, like keeping a timetable, to-do lists and such. Whenever I sat in front of my students for our yearly session on “exam revision and time management”, I could see in those keen – or at least moderately compos mentis – faces the truth that there was no way they were going to actually do anything I suggested. I was reminded of Arnold Rimmer in the series Red Dwarf, and his beautifully painted revision timetables.

Over the years, I’ve learned a thing or two about time management. It was harder when I worked full time, studied full time and also managed to write nine big fiction books over the course of about two years. I just put my head down and worked solidly, I recall. Writing fiction was a break from writing up my research and working. Perhaps the single most important thing I learned in all the years of study, work and writing was that time management is a very personal thing indeed.

You need, to start with, to know whether you’re a morning or a night person. It’s no good all these people saying you should get up at 5am if you’re the kind of person who goes to bed at that hour. We are naturally built to do different things depending on the time of day, and it isn’t the same for everybody. The most effective forms of time management are flexible, and take into account the fact that you have good days and bad days, hours when you’re going to be great for deep concentration and other times that are perfect for physical activity. Although if you work for somebody else, a lot of your day ends up being planned for you, fitting your own activities around that will depend on your own knowledge of yourself. I could have woken up at 5am to write my thesis every morning before work, but I’m at my most creative at night, so I worked late into the evening instead.

Perhaps the oddest thing about time is that the less you have, the more efficient you are. I wrote far more when I was balancing full time work and study with writing fiction. Of course, that couldn’t last because I wore myself out, but creating balance is essential. If you have hours of time every day where you can do anything, you’re likely to end up doing nothing. You get wrapped up in the idea that you have “plenty of time” and it’s more difficult to get on with things that need to be done.

I now run a business so I have a lot of control over my time. It’s perfect, but I know if I have no plan, I won’t do anything. So I schedule time around gym classes when I’m at home. Knowing myself well, I get things like the Amnar podcast done at the beginning of the week and edit in batches when I’m not with my business adviser or working on other things. The real magic behind time management, you see, is to know all about yourself, what motivates you and how and when you work best at what. And to change things around, any time you get bored.

Life is a series of choices. We might not be able to choose all of the things that come our way (like illness) but we always choose our attitudes, our reactions and our next steps.

When people say, “But I have no choice,” it’s a lie. Everything is a choice.

In an extreme case, your choices might be to do something you don’t want to or die, but you do have that option.

Most cases, however, aren’t life or death, no matter how dramatic they feel. There are always options, usually many of them. We say, however, that we have no choice because in reality we don’t like the consequence of making another choice. And when we complain about “having” to do something, really, we’re just dealing with a consequence we hadn’t thought of when making the original choice. For example, someone who wants to retire but they can’t because their youngest is still in high school is dealing with the choice to have kids, and with the consequences of other choices along the way.

In my experience, most complaints come from people making unconscious choices, and from not considering the consequences of those choices.

During my university career, I often made non-choices. I never chose a major; I simply took courses until I found a program that had the fewest required courses that I didn’t like. Later, when I was stuck in my office job and not leaving, I kept saying, “But I have no choice. I have to stay.” That was a lie. I wouldn’t leave and take a pay cut, which I could have easily done if I’d applied for a job in another office.

I wasted a lot of time saying, “But I have no choice.”

Eventually I did make a choice to take a pay cut; I started my business and discovered a bunch of other unanticipated consequences of my choice, but that didn’t matter. I was ready to deal with most of them because I’d made a conscious choice for the first time.

Are you actively choosing all your actions or do you let the decisions happen without your input?

Remember as well that procrastination is a choice - whenever you don’t move towards your dreams, you are choosing to procrastinate and waste time.

Making Active Choices

Take control of your life and start making active choices!

And to help, here at Someday Syndrome, there’s a new ebook in the Someday Syndrome Cure series: I’ll Get Around To It Someday.

In this workbook you get short lessons followed by exercises and worksheets that lead you from procrastination to action, from fearing changing to embracing it, and from never starting or finishing to following through on all your dreams.

So click here to take a look at what the book can do to turn Someday into today.

Or click the button
to the left to buy it now.

Who: Andy Hayes of Travel Online Partners and Sharing Travel Experiences
Andy is a travel industry entrepreneur, working with small businesses in travel and tourism to help them with online technologies at while also a prolific travel writer, published author, and editor of a popular travel website.

Name one moment in your life when you threw a pity party for yourself and the reasons why you felt you weren’t able to achieve your goals. Were you feeling stuck? Had you felt you failed? What wasn’t working in your life?
Just one?

Before working full-time in the travel space I was working in a technology job inside a very large corporation and I was the proverbial square peg in a round hole. Days and nights became a real struggle and the issues I was having with not being satisfied at work started to bleed over into my personal life as well.

I pretty much went into meltdown, dreading getting up every morning to face the day. I was working on a few small writing projects which was my only glimmer of hope for the future. But I was stuck - frozen into position - so deep in an emotional well that I couldn’t see the forest from the trees. Pretty soon it felt like nothing in my life was going right - which in some ways was true, because I was letting the bad situation I was in control my every move.

It didn’t feel like a failure so much as it all just felt like “what’s the point?” I was very negative and not a pleasant person to be around!

Even our lowest moments fulfill a need in us or express our desires. When you threw yourself that pity party, what did you hope to gain? What need did you fulfill?
At the time I didn’t know. I think in retrospect I had hoped that in those depths of despair would come clarity, or at least someone to come along and say “hey, what about this?” Which is kind of what happened…

Tell us what you did to break up the pity party. What actions did you decide to take? Did someone help you buoy your spirits? Push you along?
I didn’t - at least not on my own. I got help. With Alex providing a unbiased and clear outsider perspective, I got a huge push to start getting realistic and start doing something to change! It was a pretty fundamental shift of thinking for me - a touch as light as a feather but that’s all I needed to stop looking down at my feet and start looking up at a way out. I had to make a plan ASAP to leave the job I was in, no matter what. I ended up handing notice in about 2 months later.

It’s appropriate timing being Time Management month as it’s really taken a lot of exactly that - well-managed time - to make things happen in the speed that I wanted them to. I needed out, FAST. So I had to make every moment productive. I mean, I was still working a full time job I hated and yet wrote an entire book in three months that was published in August. Crazy. I couldn’t have done it without (emotional) help though.

Can you look back on that moment and tell us how you felt when you did decide to take action? What results came about from your decision to take charge and move on?
I’m now well on my way to a successful small business owner, doing stuff that I love and working with people that I enjoy immensely. So I couldn’t be happier. Looking back on events that aren’t more than 6 months ago, it’s hard to believe I was the same person.

I remember the event very clearly that was when the shift happened. It was one of the Someday Syndrome exercises where I had to describe my future. I described it in detail but I’d also peppered it with a few blocks - things I thought would never happened. But once Alex asked some hard-hitting questions, that’s when the walls just came crumbling down. All of that negative energy started flowing and turned into positive energy to support positive change.

It’s still not easy, and again on the time management thing, at times I think I’m busier than I was before. When you decide to take your life into your own hands and live more, it comes with strings attached. You’ve got to take decisions and make things happen.

Everyone has a Someday problem hiding deep inside, even little ones. What variety of the Someday Syndrome do you currently harbor? What would you like to achieve but haven’t yet?
I was obviously playing into the Someday My Ship Will Come In, but now I’m on board and sailing. However living your dreams can be a pretty busy experience, so I sometimes get overwhelmed with the detail and fall into the I’ll Get Around To It Someday trap, unable to prioritise and instead choose nothing. I have lots I want to achieve but never seem to give myself enough time to do it. A razor sharp organisational scheme is a must have. A tip for someday readers: From a good to do list, to lots of shiny email folders - whatever it is that you need, get it and use it.

Examining your Someday Syndrome problem, what are you currently doing to resolve it and eliminate it from your life?
Well I’m still working with Alex to keep focus and get some perspective as I go through so much change. I’m trying to stay realistic so that I can make sure I’m doing what’s important and not just doing stuff because I don’t want to do something else. It’s hard because with such a radical life change you find yourself occasionally trying to do things based on the old paradigm, and I don’t want to end up back in “that space.”

Many people suffer the same problems you do. You’re not alone, and neither are they. What would you tell people in your situation right now to help them avoid what you’re going through?
Don’t be afraid to get help. Help doesn’t mean your weak - it just means some outside perspective. Even strong people need that. Smart people thrive on feedback. You need someone who will be honest with you, though, and someone who will follow-up with you and challenge you to aim high.

If you could ask for one thing, right now, to help you overcome your Someday Syndrome, what type of help would you ask for?
A good dose of patience for me is all I need, so I can have the clarity of mind to make sure I stay on track to my ideal future dreams.

And just what’s in store for the new Lab Rats? What sort of maze have I developed for them?

They’re going to be running through the worksheets in the next ebook in the Someday Syndrome Cure series: I’ll Get Around To It Someday which launches at the end of this month.

Each week, the six of them (yes, that’s right – the Lab Rats have multiplied!) will provide me with one worksheet from the ebook and I’ll discuss in public their progress.

And now that the Lab Rats have made themselves all presentable with their nervous grooming, let’s introduce (a few of) them.

Johnny

Johnny has decided to tackle the problem of procrastination head-on. He has a passion for his profession, but a poor record of delivering on time. He’s currently searching for a new position and finds it difficult to keep motivated and the habit of procrastination has held him back from finding the job he wants.

Like many procrastinators, he’s a perfectionist, worries about looking stupid, and has a tendency to distract himself easily (hmmm… that sounds remarkably like me!)

He’s tired of half-finished projects and he wants to develop some good habits, not just for himself, but as a good example to his kids.

As with the last round of Lab Rats, Johnny figures with the blog readers watching his progress he won’t have an excuse for not moving forward. He also looks forward to the feedback of the other Lab Rats and the blog readers.

Helen

Helen led off her Lab Rat application with the following:

I think I would make a perfect Lab Rat because my life is close to perfect already I just want more of it…

At first, I thought: Helen doesn’t need me! but then I experienced a mental shift and thought Yes she does!

Someday Syndrome doesn’t just affect people who aren’t clear on their lives. Somedays aren’t just big looming scary objects blocking the entirety of our lives – they are also small things, little irritations that act like grains of sand in our shoes and making the long hike through life painful.

Helen signed up to be a Lab Rat for two reasons:

1. To add another driver in her journey to achieving the life of her dreams
2. She knew I wouldn’t let her say “I’m too busy to focus on me and my dreams”

She hopes to achieve a number of things – the key one is clarity. She lives a life that she adores and she is incredibly blessed with what she has, however she wants to live more. She has a lot of dreams and ambitions and some of them clash so she wants to gain a level of understanding and clarity that will lead to her to remove these clashes and really consolidate and create her dream life. She also hopes to create a habit out of focusing on herself.

Going public with her journey will also make her really open and honest about what she wants without worrying about what people will think – which has been a large past issue.

Michelle

The last of this week’s Lab Rats (the other three I’ll introduce next week), Michelle is in major need of pushing her procrastination block out of the way. In her own words:

I’ve been overweight for 8 years. I kept telling myself every year that I’d start losing weight but I kept finding “busy” things that kept tempting me to say “tomorrow.” For example, I was planning on going to the gym after work but got into a fender-bender before the end of the day. Well, I didn’t get hurt and my car is perfectly fixable yet I made the excuse to myself that I needed to get in touch with insurance (it only took about 10 minutes to talk with the claims department) so I’d have to wait another day to go to the gym. Wow, 10 minutes totally blocked me out, huh? Well, it’s two days later and I still haven’t made the effort! Procrastination, procrastination…pro-cras-tuh-nay-shun!

Michelle also feels that she has a book within her and after writing several drafts, she doesn’t have a finished product (not even close!). The Internet and Facebook distract her (I know that one!) and she’s tired of the weird looks she gets when she tells people that she hasn’t finished the book she so proudly announced that she was writing two years ago.

She’s joined the experiment to get a professional’s insight as to why she slows down when she’s highly motivated and put things off when she has more than enough time to get them done. She’s hoping to discover any self-sabotage (if any) and nip it in the bud! In addition to that, she hopes to learn the necessary steps to take to stop procrastination and reverting to the same old Michelle.

Doing all this publically means taking responsibility for her choices and being accountable for forward motion.