Procrastination can apply to any part of your life, your work, your marriage and all your other important relationships. It stems mostly from a fear of failure which in turn creates inaction – after all, if you do nothing then there is an assumption, consciously or unconsciously, that it is impossible to go wrong.
This lack of faith in your own abilities gets worse when you are under pressure to deliver. Clever procrastinators will then invent a huge range of other tasks designed to hide their inaction, but sooner or later the inevitable will happen – the main task you are dreading has to be completed – and you have probably run out of time.
That means you going to upset people who were relying on you. You have let them down and it was probably not the first time and they are now thinking that you are no longer up to the job, no longer the partner or friend they trusted – your self-fulfilling prophecy has come to pass.
Those who procrastinate, frequently fail in their careers and personal relationships and the sad thing is they have no idea of the kind of people they have become. Procrastinators are not lazy or uncaring, quite the reverse, they just lack focus and commitment when they perceive or imagine that something is a little more challenging than normal.
Every warning bell in their body then unconsciously decides that this is one job too far and urgent evasive action is now required. It will occur again and again until you accept that just maybe you might be a procrastinator and look to do something about it.
Powerful Positive Thinking offers the solution for change, but if you have been a procrastinator all your life you may need more expert help to retrain your mind. There are some incredible scientifically proven courses designed to break the habit of procrastination and deliver a new you.
But for the moment, let’s first focus on positive thinking and set about changing the basics. It starts with that fear of failure that has always held you back and prevented you from making solid work and relationship commitments. It’s also worth mentioning that some procrastinators also fear success – worried that if they do too good a job they will be asked to do more – different problem but same solution.
Check back in your life and start to ask yourself a few difficult questions – as explained earlier, few procrastinators recognise that they even have a problem to begin with so you have to be honest with yourself particularly if you are finding it difficult to hold down a job or sustain relationships.
Were you discouraged by parents or other authority figures not to get out of your depth? Was there an occasion when it really did go wrong and you are now afraid of a repeat? Do you find it difficult to make decisions? Successful entrepreneurs recognise such challenges or failures as experience building and that is how you must view yours.
Write down where you think it went wrong, why you find this aspect of life so difficult and what you would do now to correct the situation. That’s learning from experience so the more you can write down and metaphorically correct in yourself, the more you will benefit.
As you write down the problem you must also add the solution. You now intend to be more decisive, if you are having problems you will not be afraid to ask for help. You will not invent other tasks as a substitute for failing to complete the real project.
You are effectively writing your own specification and you must tell the Universe that the new you is going to be a massive success. When you are sure that you have everything in place – and this may take some time if you are a serial procrastinator – then you must totally destroy your paper.
You have successfully delivered your order to the Universe and it will deliver on condition that you forget all about it. Stop thinking about the specification and concentrate instead on action – a key part of powerful positive thinking.
You are now the person who will be writing “To Do” lists and asking for help. You will tackle the bigger problems and hardest projects first for your own peace of mind. If you run into difficulties you will be quick to recognise them before it is too late.
You are not a bad person so people will understand if you re indecisive. They will be pleased to help and advise and slowly but surely you will deal with the problems of procrastination, you will work within a recognised schedule, you will be less distracted – and because you have implemented powerful positive thinking – you will feel good about yourself.
So what are you waiting for – your first and hardest task starts now.
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