“I really want to do this thing but I keep procrastinating!”
Sound familiar?
What exactly is procrastination?
Procrastination is an idea or concept.
We us the word to describe a behavior – not doing something that we think we should be doing, putting something off to the last minute, or being slow and lazy to getting something done.
When looking at this behavior, I like to break it down to 2 factors:
1. What we tell ourselves about the task at hand. It is very common for people who are procrastnating to have a lot of thinking around the task at hand. As with many things, the more we think about it, the heavier it seems. Before long the simple notion of taking action (which probably only requires little to no thought) seems of monstorous proportions and we just don’t know where to start.
2. We feel bad for procrastinating. Most of us tend to beat ourselves up, judge our behaviors and and feel bad about ourselves – even if we do the thing. We tell ourselves stories about what this behavior means about our character and our value as a human being.
In both cases, the culprit is the same – THOUGHT.
Now, it’s important to note here that what I am not saying is that thinking is bad. It is neither good nor bad…it just is.
The challenge is, we think there is more to it than that. We believe that our feelings and thoughts are telling us about reality. In truth it’s all made up and we get preoccupied with the made up stories.
The next time you find yourself procrastinating, notice how you are feeling. If you are feeling anything less than light and easy, you know your are getting swept away in thought.
In that moment get up without thinking and take action – any action – and see what happens.
When you realize that your thoughts and feeling have nothing to do with the task at hand, you will be less inclined to listen to all of that thinking the next time around.
Stop beating yourself up. It may seem like the right thing to do but in reality, judging and condeming yourself for not completeing a task is only compounding the feelings and affirming your identity as a procrastinator.
Be easy with yourself – do not take it so seriously. Again, come from a place of lightness and love. All you are experiencing is the feelings of your serious thinking. You have my permission to not pay any attention to that kind of thinking and carry on.
And most importantly, if you catch yourself doing any of the above…it’s ok. You are a human being and this is part of the human experience. As we wake up to how we create our realities through thought in the moment we can give ourselves permission to ove more gracefully from one reality to the next.
…amd how amazing is that?
