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It's Sunday night,
the day has come to a close,

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and the sight of twinkling
stars in the night sky

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is as welcome as the crisp night air.

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00:00:23,081 --> 00:00:25,322
That is not very welcome,

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because it's Sunday night

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and I still have to write
my English essay.

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So I get ready to write,
and I realise that in order to write well,

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I've got to channel some
of my favourite writers:

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Steinbeck, Jane Austen.

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Except, it might have been a while,

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so strictly to remember
what they wrote like,

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I indulge research with a novel ...

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or two ...

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After that's done,
I sit back down at my desk

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ready to crank out what I'm sure
is going to be a masterpiece.

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Except, that's when I realise
my nails are too long.

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How am I supposed to grip my pencil
properly with my nails being too long?

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It simply can't be done.

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So I spend half an hour
looking for the nail cutter,

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and I file down those bad boys.

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After every nail on my body
has been trimmed,

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and buffed and polished,

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I get right back on task.

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And that's when it hits me, 


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I haven't worked out yet today.

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Or this past year, but somehow that didn't
seem relevant until right this moment.

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Two hours, three push ups
and 24 cat videos later,

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I realise that exercise just isn't for me.

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But of course, one must follow
the standard conventions of hygiene,

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so, since I exercised, I hop
into the shower for a quick cleanse.

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I exit the bathroom
fresh faced and hydrated,

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but one glance at the clock across
the room stops me cold in my tracks.

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It's 12:30am and I haven't written
a single word of my English essay.

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I somehow manage to finish
the essay and turn it in,

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but it isn't my best work.

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I feel like a failure, and the future
doesn't seem all that exciting.

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The question 'What's next?'
generates only a dreadful sense of gloom

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because I know what's next,

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the same cycle of emotions
I went through while writing that essay.

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So on Monday night, it's the same
guilt, stress, anxiety, failure.

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On Tuesday night, it's the same -
guilt, stress, anxiety and failure.

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And on Wednesday,
and on Thursday, and on Friday.

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No matter how much
I tell myself to be better,

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that I'll regret it if I procrastinate,

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I can't seem to change my behaviour.

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It seems like this will just
be my life till I graduate,

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and my same bad habits will follow
me into college, and my career too.

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I even see a vision
of myself in my old age.

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Alone, in a messy apartment,

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crying and blowing my nose into my shirt

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as I watch 'Say Yes to the Dress'.

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And I'm watching TV because
I'm procrastinating on writing my will.

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(Laughter)

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00:03:07,546 --> 00:03:12,706
So, I was procrastinating
on writing my will.

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Now, that's what I am: a procrastinator.

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Now believe it or not,
being a procrastinator isn't easy.

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I invest a lot of time, 
effort and resources into it.

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For example, every day after school,
I dedicatedly follow a rigorous schedule.

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From 3:25 to 4:30, I dawdle.

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From 4:30 to 6:42, I delay.

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From 6:42 to 7:14,
one can usually find me loitering.

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And then until 11:29, I'm just
way too busy twiddling my thumbs.

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So other than these
valiant efforts on my part,

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what exactly does
being a procrastinator mean?

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Well, a procrastinator, simply put,
is someone who puts off doing work.

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There are two types actually.

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There's the situational procrastinator,

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who's behavior depends
on the specific task they have to do.

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If they don't like it,
they'll push it off and try to avoid it.

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Think most people with laundry, cleaning,

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and anything involving
unpleasant conversation.

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Which is why my mother
still has not given me 'The Talk'.

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Then there's chronic procrastination.

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Now, the chronic [procrastinator]
has trouble finishing any task at all.

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They generally have a tough time
getting anything done.

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In case you're wondering,
I kind of fall into this category.

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The chronic procrastinator's worst
nightmare is when an unpleasant task

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combines with their high
impulsivity and lack of self-discipline,

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to create a whirling cesspool
of 'erm, I'd rather not ...'.

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So knowing all this, we can say

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that there's a definite link
between work and procrastination.

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There's a definite link
between our attitude towards work,

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whether we like it or not,
and procrastination.

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So me being this procrastinator,
what does that say about me?

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Does this mean that I'm nothing more
than a lazy person, doomed to failure?

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Does this mean that I lack the basic
skills necessary to manage myself?

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Well, let's find out.

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So, after the essay debacle,

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00:05:07,041 --> 00:05:09,812
just to make sure that
I'm not the only one with this issue

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while everybody else
is sitting around in 'perfect world',

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sipping apple cider out of wine glasses
while lounging pool side,

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(Inhales, exhales)

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I ask around a bit.

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Turns out a fantastic amount
of people are procrastinators!

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Almost all of my friends

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go through the same
homework completing process as me.

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They don't like the hassle of completing
hours for honours societies,

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so they don't,

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until the very last second.

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My 23-year-old cousin
hates paying his bills, so he doesn't,

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until the very last second.

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My teacher hates
grading our tests, so he doesn't,

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until the very last second.

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And my parents hate
filing their taxes, so they don't -

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say it with me now:

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until the very last second.

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Yeah, IRS just loves them ...

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So I'd established that procrastination
is a big issue that needed some attention.

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I started wondering
if it would always be this way for me,

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if I'd always be
so unsatisfied in my life.

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And that's when it hits me.

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What would make for the best
world-changing innovation?

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What would make for the most
epic TEDx Talk ever?

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How about the one
in which I fix procrastination?

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I could see it right then:

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'An End to Procrastination'
by Archana Murthy.

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So here I stand, in front of you
today, solving procrastination.

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So I was pretty determined to solve
this little nuisance once and for all.

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Except I had no idea how I was going to.

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The whole point of this challenge
being revolutionary

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was that no one had ever done it before.

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Lucky for me, however,

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I happened to find myself stuck
in a car trip with my family,

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when my mother pulled out
a book to read, aloud.

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The Bhagavad Gita for children.

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For those of you that don't know,

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the Bhagavad Gita is an ancient Hindu text

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that supposedly contains
the answers to life,

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and this is the part where my ears perk up
and I'm suddenly interested

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because if the answers
to life are in this thing,

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then cure for procrastination
has got to be in there somewhere.

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So I'm trapped in the car.


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I'm animatedly listening, not wanting
to miss the unveiling of the big secret.

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The excitement is mounting,
and mounting, and mounting ...

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and then I hear it.

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I hear the ultimate truth.

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And the secret to procrastination is this:

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one must do action without any expectation
of the fruit of the action.

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That is, one must do work
without any expectation of a reward,

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or conversely, a fear of consequence.

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It should be done simply
for the sake of doing the work itself,

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with no emotion invested
in any other external factor.

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Now, this didn't make sense to me.

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The way I saw things, the entire world
operated solely based on external factors.

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In my my reality, I did my homework

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because if I didn't,
I wouldn't do well in my classes.

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My teacher grades our tests

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because if he doesn't,
he will fail in teaching us.

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My cousin pays his bills

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because if he doesn't,
he won't have a place to live.

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I thought everybody did things
because they had to,

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because there were consequences
and rewards that controlled them.

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But, since I was at rock bottom
and I had no other go,

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I decided to give this advice
of the Bhagavad Gita a try.

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So I developed into a method 
that I could follow in my own life.

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Now, there are a few guidelines
to this method, but before we begin,

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I need you to understand
that the first thing I did

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was name this method
something extremely important.

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I call it: 'Murthy's Method
to Mindful Metacognitive Meaning'.

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MMMMM, or 'Mmmmm' for short.

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Guideline number 1:

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in order to succeed,
one must set a concrete specific goal.

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I set the goal of studying
for my SAT every day.

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So the goal behaviour was to come home,
study for my SAT for 30 minutes,

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do my other homework,
and then if I had leftover time,

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to enjoy other leisure activities.

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Additionally, while I was
going through my routine,

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going on my phone
or my internet was not allowed

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because it gave me a means
to procrastinate all too easily.

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Number 2:

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only feelings of positivity
must surround this endeavor.

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This entails both propagating
my own positive thoughts,

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and pushing off any negative thoughts.

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For example, whenever
I procrastinated until 10pm,

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or just skipped doing my homework entirely
and completed it the class period before,

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I had to acknowledge the error,

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and then put a positive spin
on the situation.

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Perhaps by saying that tomorrow
would be a clean slate

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and a new opportunity
to make better choices.

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Number 3:

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at the end of the day,

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I had to acknowledge
either a feeling of satisfaction

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upon making some sort of
sincere effort towards my goal,

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or if I failed to do that,

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I had to acknowledge the feelings
of guilt and anxiety within me.

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This again doesn't mean that
I was to beat myself up over failure,

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but that I was to understand that it just
didn't feel good when I avoided work,

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and that it did feel good when I didn't.

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This step is imperative,

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because self-reflection
is key to the entire process.

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Being aware of your emotional
reactions to the method

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and asking yourself
why you feel and act the way you do,

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that is what causes lasting change,

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as opposed to going through the process
without, well, processing anything.

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Number 4:

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No matter if I accomplished
a lot, a little, or nothing at all,

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I was to take some time
out of my day to feel grateful

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that I even had the ability
to do whatever goal behaviour

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it was that I wished to accomplish.

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I exercised feeling grateful
that I was even in a position

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to take an SAT
to pursue a higher education.

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Or that I even had the mental capacity

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to sit through a test
and do my best on it.

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The Bhagavad Gita is also
a spiritual and religious text,

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so it does say to view
work as a service to God,

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and to offer it to him as such.

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If this helps, one
should follow this advice,

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00:11:00,161 --> 00:11:02,983
but if one doesn't
believe in this, ignore it.

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Guideline Number 5:

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I also followed guideline number 5,
which was to keep a reflection journal.

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While this meant nothing
by the way of scientific evidence,

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it was often just a bunch of random
thoughts jotted down on paper,

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it recorded my general emotional state

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as I went through
this transformative journey.

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So with these five guidelines:

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Number 1: set a goal;

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Number 2: be positive;

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Number 3: acknowledge
and reflect on my feelings;

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Number 4: feel grateful;

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and Number 5: record what happens;

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I was ready to dominate.

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So as I executed this technique,

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I realised that amazingly,
it was actually working.

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Looking back over my reflection journal,
I noticed two main trends occurring:

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an overall lessening
in stress and anxiety,

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and an increase
in satisfaction and happiness.

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I started to view my responsibilities
less as a drudgery,

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and more as something fun and worthwhile.

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That in-the-zone, completely focused
feeling was one that came often to me

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because I practised it,

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and one that I started to crave.

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This method even got my parents
to patch things up with IRS

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00:12:03,586 --> 00:12:05,617
and finally file their taxes.

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So, this method works.

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00:12:07,716 --> 00:12:10,286
That's great and all,
but why does it work?

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00:12:10,287 --> 00:12:14,538
Is all this stuff about focusing on work
and not the result actually relevant?

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Turns out, it may be the answer
to all our questions.

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See, the part I didn't
tell you in the beginning,

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was that every time
I sat down to write that essay,

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these horrible thoughts filled me.

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What if I put so much
time and effort into this,

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but it's really bad
and I fail the assignment?

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What if I can't find
anything to write about?

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What if I start writing this thing,
but it's super boring?

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So I essentially made a commitment
that I can't break.

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And let me tell you, there is nothing
I fear more than commitment.

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I would worry way too much
about the outcome

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and not spend my energy
on the work itself.

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Except this process happened so fast

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that it didn't register
as conscious thought.

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Instead, it was more a general
sense of dread and doom

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that gathered in the pit of my stomach
until I felt like I was going to explode!

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At which point I moved on to something
that could distract away my feelings.

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Pro tip: you know it's bad
when you start asking yourself

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why the room is suddenly
a pressure cooker,

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and you're the innocent
baby carrot trapped inside.

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So, procrastination is a result

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of the negative emotions
associated with work?

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Actually, yes.

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Study after study shows us
that chronic procrastination isn't,

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contrary to popular belief,
just laziness or poor time management.

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It's actually a product
of a negative cycle of emotions

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that creates other byproducts as well:

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guilt, stress, anxiety, depression,
and diminished self-worth.

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In fact, the cognitive mechanism
behind chronic procrastination

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is eerily similar to that
of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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We may laugh at the cartoonish way

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the chronic procrastinator
simply can't do what he puts his mind to.

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But in reality, his plight
isn't so humourous.

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For him, there's a fundamental error
between intention and action.

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When I used Murthy's Method or 'MMMMM',

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I was forced to confront
these stressful and negative emotions,

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instead of avoiding them,

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because I somehow thought I'd be able
to deal with them better later.

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Well, actually facing
these emotions and fears,

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accepting them and dismissing them,

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wasn't easy.

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The more I did it the easier it got,
and the payoff was enormous.

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I rewired myself to handle stress

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in a way that promoted joy, positivity,
self-acceptance and gratitude,

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instead of guilt and hopelessness.

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So this was revolutionary for me.

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It meant that the Bhagavad Gita
was actually right.

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My fixation on the results
of my work created all this negativity

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that stopped me from achieving
my full potential of happiness.

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And it's come to my attention

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that other kids could benefit
from this piece of knowledge too.

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Some people may not think
this is an actual or significant issue,

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maybe especially the older generation,

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but to today's youth, to you and me,

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this is a mammoth-sized issue
that affects everyone.

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About 20% of Americans
are said to be chronic procrastinators,

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and I think that's 20% too many.

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We have the ability to fix this,
so that we're not just a statistic.

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So to all of you here today,
I say that we can make a difference.

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Follow the 5 M method I talked about.

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Commit to changing your own habits,
ask yourself why you procrastinate,

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and go on a journey of self-reflection.

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Become that person
that always stands front and centre,

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loving whatever it is
that they're there to do.

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We have the power to make a change.

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Just, whatever you do,

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don't put it off till tomorrow.

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(Applause)

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(Music)