The silent disease called procrastination, its killed more dreams then failure has. Why in the world do we procrastinate? And more importantly, what can we do to not only erase it out of our lives but be highly motivated to take action on our goals?
I’m an advocate for making decisions and taking action, so I’ll keep this conversation short and get right down to the taking action part.
Procrastination is simply the absence of courage.
What happens in a moment of procrastination is unconsciously your fear takes over and you start to focus on why it won’t work, whether you can or can’t do the task and the possible implications of the task. It’s basically irrational.
It’s like the story of the hare and the tortoise. The tortoise could have easily thought that the hare is much faster than it, and that he’s heavier so he’ll never win, so why race? He should have procrastinated. Instead he tried and you remember the glorious end of that story!
What you want to do is focus on strengthening your courage.
Human traits are just like human muscles. If you want to build muscle, you must strengthen the muscle. The muscle is there waiting to emerge, however you must go to the gym or do a certain sport and you must do it consistently and get out of your comfort zone, you must feel the pain to grow that muscle.
Courage works the same way. You must diligently make strengthening your courage a habit, do it daily, develop the habit, feel the 'pain' and create courage, because the pain will then equal results.
For example, you may feel the pain of growing a bicep. However, which pain is bigger, the pain of the exercise or the pain of regret? It’s the pain of regret and it is the same with attaining any human trait.
We must focus on which pain is stronger, the pain of getting over my procrastination and creating courage or the pain of not doing it?
What does procrastination mean to you long term?
Procrastination is like a drug, you can take it in the moment or every day and feel nice, fuzzy and comfortable.
However in the long run, there are side effects, for every action there is a reaction.
People who quit drugs, always have a hard time. However once they do finally stop and they stay off it for years, they are actually very empowered people. They feel stronger than ever, they even start looking physically different because the side effects of the drugs are no longer there.
PROCRASTINATION IS A DRUG & COURAGE IS TRUE HAPPINESS. Yes I want you to shout that now! You must be willing to change the meaning of procrastination because right now it makes you comfortable. Someone like yourself who is reading this is probably an action taker. I bet you’re actually diligent in the right circumstances and you’re just beating yourself up for procrastinating.
So what do you need to do? Focus on the times you’ve been diligent, where you’ve actually taken action - why did you take action? What motivated you?
You have those traits, you must find them and be conscious of them because it’s not like you procrastinate 24 hours. You had to do something to get to reading this which means you are an action taker in the right moment, build on that, start with that foundation.
Where to from here?
You may be thinking, I’ll probably end up procrastinating after reading this article.
What I’d suggest you do is take a phrase and touch your knuckle while you say this phrase. What we want to do is change your behaviour towards procrastination and that starts by doing something different, by doing something you haven’t done before. That is how you will change.
Imagine it like this: you go to work and you walk the same path every day, it is bland & it is boring then suddenly BAM, you see a couple one dressed as superwoman & the other dressed as superman randomly run past you.
That’s going to shock you, that’s going to weird you out or at least make you think, why are they dressed like that at this time in the morning?
My point is that, your boring walk suddenly changed your way of thinking, you were in your old pattern of walking to boring old work and suddenly something happened that was unexpected.
Take this phrase and press the knuckle on your left hands index finger and say 'procrastination is elimination, courage is my truth' – I know that sounds weird or woo woo, but again, successful people do what unsuccessful people won’t do.
You want to change, don't you? You have to do a different behaviour, try something new, and plus, no one will see it, only you will!
Say this phrase next time you procrastinate or about to procrastinate, then get up and take action.
Now you can’t say it in a low voice and all quiet and sitting down hunched down, NO! YOU HAVE TO PUT FEELING AND POWER TO IT – procrastination numbs, taking action is POWERFUL -- you must say the powerfully.
Take action on the phrase on your knuckle and take action on the 5 SECRET questions.
How do you beat procrastination?
With gratitude!
Hugh Bayati is the Founder of MPowerDNA.com, he is a High Performance Coach, Trainer & Speaker and creator of Creator of 5 SECRET Questions To Erase Procrastination. I have passion & enthusiasm in assisting people to align their mind with their emotions to erase procrastination, make decisions & take action. I believe in working on your inner world (mind, emotions, identity) & outter world (taking action to get results). Did you get any relevant insights in this article? You may want to take a look at my free 5 SECRET Questions to erase procrastination: http://bit.ly/1Fd3sK7
