Do you have a problem with putting things off? You know you need to get something done and you know it would be best for it to be done by a certain time, but you delay and delay. Don’t worry you’re not the only one.
Many of us struggle with procrastination. Recently, I’ve seen it sneaking into my life again. I put off the difficult tasks to do something a bit easier and a bit more fun. When I realize that I just wasted a ton of time doing unimportant things and avoiding the truly important task I beat myself up about it. Have you ever done that?
Usually what we put off for later is the one activity that would be the most life changing for us. That business you always wanted to start is just an idea in your head because you haven’t made taken the time to even take the first few steps. That art project that you came up with months ago never materialized because you just couldn’t seem to get started. You’ve procrastinated starting that book for so long that you can’t even remember what it was going to be about anymore.
Some people claim that this kind of procrastination is caused by perfectionism. You want everything to be perfect before you start and because it’s not perfect you end up not starting at all. For some people that is true, but for most I think there is another reason.
I always say that to make positive change happen in your life you have to be willing to do things differently, but doing things differently is hard and the human brain doesn’t really like it when things are hard. The brain wants to conserve resources and play it safe. The problem is that playing it safe will not help you grow and contribute your best to society. Always playing it safe leads to mediocrity and mediocrity leads to dissatisfaction.
Most adults go through much of their life on autopilot. You do the same things. You have the same reactions. It’s easy and comfortable. Even if you aren’t happy with your current situation doing the same thing again and again is what you know. Change is painful. Change is hard. Change is not comfortable.
One of my goals for this year is to start a podcast. Notice that it is March and still there is no podcast. Why? I’ve been putting it off because it seemed hard and frightening. There were so many things I needed to learn in order to get a podcast off the ground. There were so many barriers to entry. I was nervous about putting my voice out there. I was nervous about asking people to be interviewed. I was nervous about doing the actually interviews so I delayed.
January passed and I did nothing to start my podcast. February passed and still nothing. All the time there was this nagging feeling. All the time I had the idea of starting a podcast hanging over me making me feel bad because I had this idea and I kept putting it off. I kept putting it off because I was afraid.
Many of us procrastinate because of fear. We are afraid to fail. We are afraid of not being good enough. We are afraid of looking stupid. We are just plain afraid. We all have those fears. We all want to avoid the possibility of pain and humiliation, but at what cost?
Are you willing to give up the opportunity to put your best self out there because you are afraid? Are you going to back away from life changing possibilities because you are afraid? Are you going to delay using your talents because you are afraid? I sure as heck hope not.
How can you tame this beast called procrastination though?
You have to make the pain of not doing it worse than the pain of doing it. You have to make change desirable.
Think about the daunting task that you’ve been putting off. What will happen if you don’t do it? How will it affect your life negatively? Really feel how it will affect your life negatively. Sink down into that feeling.
Now if you do it, if you actually get this task done how will it affect your life positively? What will it teach you? How will it make things easier for your future self? How happy would you be if it were successful? Close your eyes and feel that joy in your heart.
Now that you have that feeling, it’s time to break your task down into manageable steps and get to work. That big task that you’ve been procrastinating about is probably too big. You have no idea how to start. If you break large tasks down they are much easier to accomplish. Feeling like you can do it will motivate you to start taking action.
That’s how I managed to finally get this podcast off the ground. I gave myself small assignments to get done each week until I was at the point were the podcast would be ready. The first episode will go on the site on Thursday. The first couple episodes will be me talking, but after that I’ll be interviewing people who are experts in all kinds of subjects. They’ll give you steps to help you get over the obstacles that have been holding you back and help you live the life you’ve dreamed of.
Thanks for reading this post. I hope you listen to the podcast too.