God's Dictionary: Procrastinate

Procrastinate

pro- = for + -crastin = tomorrow

In my counseling practice, people have consistently asked me about a cure for procrastination. It always reminds me of that old vaudeville joke, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” “Don’t do that!”

There really is only one cure for procrastination and that’s to stop doing it. The Latin roots mean to put off till the morrow. The thing that interests me most about procrastination is the why of it. Why do we procrastinate?

In most cases, procrastination is one of two things: either a bad habit which can be changed or a form of resistance. I’d say ten percent is habit, and ninety percent is resistance. So, we procrastinate because we are in resistance. In resistance means I don’t wanna.

The only way I know to remove resistance is to figure it out. What are you resisting? Why are you resisting it? Do you still want to resist it? Or, do you want to stop resisting it?

Let’s take these one at a time. If you want to continue your resistance, fine; then you don’t get to judge your behavior as procrastinating. If you want to put down your resistance, what works for you? Barreling through? Making accountability agreements? Taking incremental chunks or the whole enchilada?

Most of the time resistance is a form of fear, and it’s most often solved by attention. Ask: how can I attend to my fear and do what’s mine to do today?

Infinition: Procrastination is an old habit that I both accept and release now. I no longer resist. Instead, I persist and finish what’s mine to do.

From Dr. Susan Corso's blog God's Dictionary