Undone Webinar: Four Contemplations to End Procrastination

By Leo Babauta

In this webinar, I shared four key ideas to contemplate to motivate us to take our Undone practice seriously and not procrastinate, and I answered some awesome questions.

I’ve broken this webinar recording into two parts:

  1. Part I – My Talk: Four contemplations to motivate us. (See notes)
  2. Part II – Questions & Answers: I answered questions on dealing with our backlog, worrying we’re not doing the right task, using the Pomodoro technique (and other intervals), using containers to deal with addictions, the frustrations of others on our spiritual path, and more!

Part I: Leo’s Talk (with notes)

You can download this video here, or download just the audio. Or watch below.

Here are the notes from my talk (video is below the notes):

4 points to contemplate to motivate ourselves to begin again:

  1. The rarity & preciousness of human life – the rarity of life makes it all the more precious and valuable.
  2. The absolute inevitability of death – you never know when your moment of death will come. Death doesn’t only come at old age, and nobody knows when. Old age also comes quicker than we imagine. When we realize we don’t have much time left, It’s important that we don’t waste time.
  3. The awesome and indelible power of our actions. Called karma – every action, large and small have consequences. We may never know the measure of those consequences. Every moment so far in our lives, we have been affecting the world in a subtle but real way. Every moment, we have been creating the world that exists for ourselves and others. Every moment matters. The actions, thoughts & words of each of us are important. We must ask ourselves: how am I living? What actions am I taking? Am I a force for good in this world, or am I doing nothing to help? We must conclude that we can do much, much better, and that we have to do better. There’s no excuse not to.
  4. The inevitability of suffering. Sorrow, disappointment, pain, illness, broken relationships, frustration, anger, jealousy, are all part of life. No one can avoid this suffering. Given that this is so, how can we not make a serious effort to prepare our minds and hearts for this inevitable suffering? Train in mindfulness and compassion.
    

    The only adequate response to the realities of our lives is some kind of spiritual practice. Recognize the seriousness of our human condition, and live as seriously as we can in response to the gift and the problem of our lives.

Part II: Questions and Answers

You can download this video here, or download just the audio. Or watch below.

Questions answered in this video: