How different would your life be if you just didn’t procrastinate at all? Or, think about how much better your life could be if procrastination actually made you more successful instead? Both might be hard to imagine, but today I am going to tell you why they are both possible.
Procrastination is something you hear about more often. There is a wealth of information about why and a lot of advice on how to tackle those moments. Yet, there seems to be something missing, it is still crippling action and people’s dreams.
I strongly believe that we have it all wrong, and mainly in our ability to deal with it effectively. What do I mean exactly?
What we know
Two parts of your mind at battle...
When you just feel lazy sometimes, downright lazy, it is completely normal. You feel this way because two parts of your brain are in conflict; the part that constantly seeks pleasure (limbic system) and your planning/forward thinking part of your brain (pre-fontal cortex).
Your limbic system is always working and unfortunately your pre-fontal cortex gets tired quickly, so your limbic system often wins the fight.
The more serious reasons
The more serious procrastination plays a role when you procrastinate because you have a fear of something; like failure, success, or the unknown. You will also procrastinate when you lack motivation, clarity or confidence for example.
The procrastination cycle
When any of the above happens, you might find yourself going through a similar cycle. You start off enthusiastic when you schedule a task or set a goal. The time comes to take action and you start to feel a bit of apprehension and trepidation starts to build.
You want to move forward, but there is an invisible cord attached to your back keeping you where you are. It can feel extremely overwhelming as you struggle to make sense of why it is so hard.
You might desperately want to take action, but there is a lot more of inaction going on and you resign to rescheduling the task. You have a glimmer of hope that next time will be different. Next time comes around, but unfortunately it is still the same.
You might push through and get the job done (depending on deadlines and other pressures) or if it is something more personal, you will probably keep putting it off, until you forget about it, or resign to the idea that you will never do it.
The worst for me is what it does to self confidence. This is when you start to put yourself down because of it. You might criticize yourself, feel like a failure and always ask yourself ‘what is wrong with me?’ etc. If this happens often, you might start labelling yourself as lazy, a procrastinator, a loser, you name it. Please don’t!
What is missing?
What are we missing? What are we not getting about procrastination? I believe that everything that we experience serves us in some way, if we are open to it of course.
Could it be possible that procrastination is the ‘quieter voice inside of you’ saying that something isn’t aligned and needs to be before you can continue forward?
Looking at it from this perspective, you could use this tool to help you identify what needs to be dealt with first, to then have success in whatever it is that you want to do. For me, that is not negative at all, quite the opposite.
If you procrastinate on something that you really want, isn’t it worth it to learn ways to manage your procrastination more effectively? I used to be a chronic procrastinator myself until I found the hidden gems about procrastinating.
And so, as with everything in life, you have a choice. You have a choice to keep procrastinating and putting off what you really want to do or you can learn how to deal with it in a more productive manner and use it to your advantage instead.
If you want to know how you can do that too, grab my free report – and learn how to finally use this to your advantage instead. www.positiveprocrastinating.com
You can have and create what you desire in this world, sometimes you just need to get out of your own way first! Are you ready?
Kirstin O’Donovan is a Productivity Coach, Author and founder of TopResultsCoaching. www.topresultscoaching.com
Kirstin helps individuals to get more organized to achieve their business goals successfully. She works with her clients to increase productivity, overcome obstacles, develop key skills and a mindset geared for success.