Start Now. Get Perfect Later.
How to Make Smarter, Faster & Bigger Decisions & Banish Procrastination
ROB MOORE
Contents
Foreword
The audio and ebook version of this book contains something we have never done before: an extra set of content which essentially means youre getting two books in one.
I tend to get bored, itchy and somewhat ranty when Ive finished a book. The best therapy for me is to crack on and write more, and the extra material here grew organically out of Start Now. Get Perfect Later. That book will, by now, have dragged you quickly (but perhaps kicking and screaming) through all the layers of excuses, noise, baggage and inaction, to get more done. Quicker. Easier. Now.
This Appendix, Routine = Results, will help you implement your immediate and important actions into a time, diary and life management system. Practical and immediate, it will help you second guess and game yourself, get out of your own way and old habits, and create new ones that hold you accountable. I didnt know when formulating this content that the two sections would be siblings, but my publisher and I believe they should sit next to each other on your digital shelf. So here you go two books for the price of one. You buy one, you get one free!
Thank you for following my work. You help me more than you know.
Rob.
SECTION 1
Introduction
Start now. Get perfect later. Just do it. End of book.
If that were all it took, this book wouldnt be needed. You mostly know what to do, so why dont you just do it?
The ironic purpose of this book is to get you to do what you know youve got to do, and you need to do, yet you need to read a book to tell you to go and do it!
To add to the irony, Ive thought about writing this book for years. I thought I was quite decisive, but now Im not sure. I did 17 different things to put off writing the book so Id feel better in the moment, only to feel frustrated as I got further behind and closer to the deadline.
In the end, I used the tricks that can be found in back on myself, as some kind of sado-masochistic pleasurepain paradox. If youre reading this book, it worked. Writing a book is a big, hard thing and, without a huge reason to get it done, I may have let myself off the hook. Most people have a book in them, the thing is it is still in them.
You become a Jedi Master of all methods of self-delusional procrastination and overwhelm when writing a book. So in reading Start Now. Get Perfect Later, not only will you learn how banish procrastination, and to make smarter, faster and bigger decisions, youll also be taken on a journey of voyeurism through all my personal struggles writing my 10th book. On the outside it may look easy, having written nine books before, but the journey of battling with my inner bas-tard (official terminology) is the same. I guess I just know how to put it back in its box from time to time now.
I (finally) decided to write this book because underneath property, business, art and money, all subjects of books and companies I have operated past and present, indecision lurks and overwhelm stalks. Whether youre creative or commercial, a zero-aire or billionaire, a master or a disaster, you will always have to face these demons. I used to think decisions would get easier as I got better, but I was wrong. One property managed or over 700, no books written or 10, no world records or three, deep in debt or making millions, I found that decisions just get bigger and more important.
I used to wish it were easier, but soon learned I needed to get better. At any time, age or level of experience and wisdom, you can make a good decision that elevates you and a bad one that humbles you. I wanted to write a book that everyone could get benefit from; whether youre an entrepreneur who listens to my podcasts, or a property investor in our Progressive community, or you picked up this book on the off chance. Personally and professionally, socially and financially, making smarter, faster and harder decisions to banish procrastination and overwhelm will serve you well. Through this book, I hope to serve you well, for better health, wealth, happiness and decisiveness. And on the subject of decisiveness:
After studying over 500 millionaires, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Charles M. Schwab, journalist and author Napoleon Hill found that they shared a single quality: decisiveness. Analysis of several hundred people who had accumulated fortunes well beyond the million dollar mark disclosed the fact that every one of them had the habit of reaching decisions promptly, Hill wrote in his 1937 classic, Think and Grow Rich.
In addition to making decisions quickly and confidently, they also change decisions, if and when needed to, slowly, Hill noted. On the flip side, Those who reach decisions promptly and definitely know what they want, and generally get itThe world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going. People who fail to accumulate money, without exception, have the habit of reaching decisions, if at all, very slowly, and of changing these decisions quickly and often.
Whether you want to be a millionaire (inflation-adjusted million is in fact around 64 million in todays money), or not is neither here nor there. Being better at making faster, better, bigger and harder decisions will help you:
1 Get more done in less time
2 Battle less with analysis-paralysis and second-guessing yourself all the time
3 Improve your general confidence
4 Be a better parent and husband or wife
5 Find the ideal partner
6 Align with the right people in your life (staff, friends, partners)
7 Free up time to do more of what you love
8 Train yourself to make continually better, bigger and harder decisions, faster and more intuitively
9 Quieten your mind and help you stress and worry less
10 Maintain a healthy body and mind and live longer
Oh, and did I say it will make you more money?
So lets Start Now.
inner bas-tard - youll meet my inner bas-tard later, and maybe your own too.
You are not a procrastinator, but
Im a procrastinator, you may say to yourself. Maybe even in public? Like its some kind of badge of honour you wear like swimming badges stitched into your Speedos. Like you can look at your DNA under a microscope and see the procrastinator gene.
Be careful what you label yourself. What you think about, you bring about and what you name yourself, youll blame yourself.
I always procrastinate. Im never decisive (I think).
Theres no need to take on the identity of being a procrastinator, because actually thats a lie. The reality for every single one of us is that we are very decisive in areas where we are confident and experienced. Lionel Messi knows exactly when to shoot without asking for permission from his teammates. Lewis Hamilton knows when to brake without scheduling it in his diary. Nelson Mandela knew how to forgive without putting it on his to do list.
They have the knowledge and intuition to call upon and carry forward. They just know, because theyve been there many times before. The decision muscle has been built, exercised and stress-tested over time. And so it is with you, in your areas of skill, focus and experience. The better you are, and the more memory of previous success you have, the more instinctive and accurate your decision-making is.
Until you start something new.
Maybe Messi wouldnt be as decisive in a ballet class? Maybe Mandela would have procrastinated over pulling the trigger of a gun? And maybe you are struggling with indecisiveness in some areas. But that doesnt identify and render you indecisive. You wouldnt want a teacher to label your child stupid just because they dont like science, so dont do the same to yourself.