Why Do I Keep Saying ‘I’ll Do It Later?'

Speaker A00:00:28

Ralph, I keep putting off money tasks. How do I break that? I'll do it later. Habit. What a great question.An abion producer found us some statistics for this because I said, I bet this is a chronic issue. 20% of US adults are chronic procrastinators. I honestly thought that number would be higher.And a 2024 survey found that 71% of Americans admit to procrastinating. Now, that's a number I believed in. And for so many of us, me mean well, maybe we pray about it. But the to do list keeps winning.You don't lack discipline. You're fighting fear and you're fighting perfection. That's what a lot of this is. And the cure for that isn't pressure. It's movement.Because when you say later, listen, I remember when my kids were real young. I'll do that later. I'll do that later. But that later is where good intentions go to die. And 10 minutes today beats 10 excuses tomorrow.You don't have to fix everything. You just have to start something. Let's talk about starting something on today's show. Hello and welcome. I'm Ralph.Thank you for joining me today on Financially Confident Christian. This is the Daily show that my whole goal is to help you break that cycle of financial shame and live in confidence.And here's a big takeaway for today. I coach what I call micro moves. Those are the tiny actions that turn stuck energy into progress. And believe me, like you, I fight perfectionism, too.I believe I can do it all in perfection. But guess what? I. I can't. And the antidate isn't motivation, it's motion. That's what we're going to talk about today.If you felt stuck, you feel like, I can't get anywhere. It's not motivation, it's motion. And I remember this myself about three or four months ago. My wife is a great saver. She's a great person.We're doing all this kind of stuff. And she goes, ralph, she says, do you have a High yield savings account?And I said, no, I just kind of have money parked in the savings account for the business and for my personal account. She goes, ralph, what are you doing? You could set up one of these high yield savings accounts and you can make more money. And you know what?She's right. But guess what? It got put on the back burner. I'll get to it. I'll get to it. I kept on putting it off and putting it off.Finally, she said to me one day, she says, ralph, did you ever Set up that High Yield Savings account. I'm like, oh, I got to do this now. Because she, she won't stop. But she was right. And guess what? I did it. You know how much time it took me?Eight minutes. Eight minutes. And guess what? I'm earning interest every single day. Like five times what I was getting on the regular savings account.That one small click and that's all it was. I went on my home banking app. I made two or three clicks. But that one small click shifted me from guilt to gain.Just small acts have big identity changes. So let's get to today's question. What keeps you stuck in the later?And listen, I'm telling you, I embrace this and what would happen if you move today? Here's the first thing I'm encourage you to do. Name the blocker.Now, if you follow football, the front line of football, there's a people up here, blockers at your offensive and your defensive line. Well, you've got something that's blocking this right now. And the truth is you can't fix what you won't face. For me, it was confusion.I really didn't know what to do to make that next step. I knew it made sense. Listen intuitively it made sense to go get that High Yield savings account, but I wasn't exactly sure how to do it.So ask yourself, what's the blocker? Is it fear? Do you not understand something? Go get educated about it. Is it confusion again? Go find somebody to explain it to you.For so many of us, it's perfection. We feel like, oh, if we can't do it perfectly, we're not going to do it at all. But name that blocker. Write it down.Because here's the thing, you shrink it by naming it. If you say, here's why I'm confused by this or I'm going to find perfection. I'm fearing this because here's the truth. God doesn't heal what we hide.And that awareness will break that paralysis. Second thing, and this is one, this is a takeaway. Write this down. Define a 10 minute first step. So I finally did.In my own life, small action beats big intentions. A lot of people talk about big intentions. Those great as a. You know, they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But just pick one task.Just think of the smallest visible window you can make and set a 10 minute timer. Describe I got a timer here in front of me, right here, I got a timer. Set that thing for 10 minutes and just say, here's what I'm going to do.Before you're even ready, just click start on that time and go, Okay, I gotta go do it. The timer's running. I got 10 minutes. Because faith isn't waiting for perfect conditions.If you wait for perfect conditions, guess what's gonna happen? You're never gonna do it. But faith is moving in obedience. Like I said. Create that time box and start. Just make it simple. Constraints create clarity.Tell yourself, I'll just do 10 minutes of this. I'm going to go set up this account. I'm going to start that timer. The timer's going. Let me figure this out. And when the timer rings stop.Celebrate that movement that you've done. Because that motion breaks the mental freeze. And once you start, God's going to multiply that momentum, which leads me to this Build a streak.Because progress rewires identity. It's kind of like an exercise routine. I've mentioned on the show many times that I'm on a health kick.When I started that routine, I had to do it one day. I had to set, okay, you know, I'm gonna do. I'm go down the basement. That's where I work out. Got my equipment down there.Spent a lot of money on equipment, and I sat there and collected dust. So I said, okay, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go down there for 30 minutes tomorrow. I set that timer.And I said, no matter what you do, Ralph, you're not coming up these steps unless you spend 30 minutes down there. And I could have sat there on the weight bench and said, oh, let me watch TV or listen to music. Wouldn't have helped me, right? But I set that thing.I set that progress. And then I said, okay, I did it today, and I felt good about it. Guess what? I'll do it tomorrow, and I'll do it the next day.And that one streak became a story. And that momentum is so much greater than the motivation. It was hard to get there. It was hard to start it.But when you act daily, you start seeing yourself differently. I know I see myself differently. I lift weights every day. Now. I didn't see myself as a bodybuilder.I'm by no means a bodybuilder, but you understand what I'm saying? But when I started seeing myself differently, I realized I'm capable of this. I can be consistent. It built confidence.And really what that is, that's God working through your faithfulness. Because when you're faithful, when you're diligence, God will honor that which leads Me, today's Bible verse.Now listen, I'm going to tell you right now. Today's Bible verse is a little harsh. But I thought it was so important to encapsulate this. It's from the Book of James, chapter 4, verse 17.And again, like I said, it's a little harsh. But think about the positive side of this. If anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it. It's a sin.You're thinking, wait a second, Ralph. Now you're usually a positive guy, but this doesn't sound very positive. But that's not what I'm saying it to you for. It's not about guilt.It's about guidance. See, God isn't condemning delay, he's inviting obedience.So if you know the good that you should be doing, but you don't do it again, this is God's words, not mine, not Ralph's words. These are the Lord's words. It's a sin. And I'm not saying not to judge you. Listen, we all have times of procrastination.But maybe that's when you invite God and say, listen, God, I know I'm procrastinating about this. Help me to break out of that and just do it. Because, Lord, I know this is the right thing to do.Listen, my example of that, that Satan's account, Guess what that was? That was stewardship. God had given me provision and I'm not murdering as much as I could on it. So I had to break of that. I invited him.That I said, lord, give me 10 minutes to do it. It took eight minutes. Why about we pray together right now, Lord, we want to break out of this I'll do it later mentality.But we need courage, Lord, so help us get courage to start that, Lord, help to free me from that fear of failure. It's so easy to live in that fear of failure. And Lord, just show me joy in the small obedience. Those little things that I can do every day.And Lord, just remind me that you honor progress, not perfection. It's so easy to worry about perfection, Lord, but we know that you've got this. And Lord, we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.So, your action item for today. I want you to take that timer. If you don't have a timer, use your phone, put 10 minutes on it and take care of that task that you've been delaying.Whether that's paying a bill, opening an account. Cancel. Listen, here's a great one. Cancel some of those subscriptions I've talked about this on the show a dozen times. Go look at your bank account.Go look at your credit cards. You need to cancel those things. Start small, because small still moves mountains.And while I'm talking about starting small, our new community is small right now, but we want to really grow it. You get to it by going to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/join. I want you to join the community so we can celebrate these wins together.I want to encourage you. We're going to be putting Bible verses out there. We're going to be talking about prayers on a daily basis. I want to help you keep that streak alive.We don't need to chase perfection. We need to celebrate progress. So Again, go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com and join our community Today.People are joining it and it's starting to grow. So as I close today, remember this. Start small, but start now. Progress beats perfection. 10 times out of 10 and streaks rewrite your story.So today I want to encourage you. Go be a financially confident Christian. You can do this. The Lord is with you. Stay financially savvy. God bless you, and you have a great day today.