What can you do if you've tried all the usual tips to stop procrastinating and still had no success? If YOU'VE HAD ENOUGH of starting new projects, usually with buckets of enthusiasm, thinking this time things will be different; only to find yourself right back in that place of inaction, feeling defeated and totally frustrated yet again, then it's likely you've been misinformed about how to deal with this problem. Fortunately the three steps I'm about to share with you will have you turning this around in no time at all. Follow and commit to these steps and not only will you learn how to stop procrastinating forever, but you will find it possible to achieve all those important outcomes in your life which till now you have been struggling to make happen.
So how do we stop procrastinating? We need to realize that we are doing it in the first place. Human nature allows us to do things and then disguise them as other issues. We tend to make excuses for our bad habits and usually end up blaming them onto other things or people. So the first step in learning to stop procrastinating is to identify that we are procrastinating.
So what exactly is procrastination? Procrastination is when a person literally avoids doing a task that they know they should be doing. It could be any task, from making a simple phone call to someone, or losing weight, to more important issues such as finishing a duty in the workplace that may cause you to lose your job if it isn't completed.Procrastination is a bad habit that usually has bad end results from doing it. If this sounds familiar, then it may be time for you to learn to stop procrastinating.
To be successful you have to deal with the underlying way in which procrastination works. You procrastinate because of the way you are wired biologically. Everything you do in life is driven by your desire to gain pleasure and avoid pain. You will also do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. So if you link any pain with taking action, even in order to gain pleasure, your association with the pain will stop you from taking action and you will procrastinate.To stop procrastinating there's no point in focusing on the pleasure you will get from achieving your goal instead of the pain to get there because you already know your drive to avoid pain will always win. Rather you must compare the pain you link with taking action to the pain you will feel if you don't take action.
I was working with a friend recently who wanted to lose weight. She had identified that she needed to do exercise to help her achieve this. Unfortunately she always found a way to get out of the exercise and wanted desperately to stop procrastinating. I asked her to tell me what losing weight would do for her. She said she would feel more comfortable in her clothes; that shopping for clothes would be more pleasurable, she would feel more attractive and she would feel happy that she was doing something to improve her health.
Then I asked her to tell me what came to mind when she had to exercise. She told me it was hard, she hated being out of breath, was sure people were laughing at her and she didn't want to have painful muscles the next day. No wonder she couldn't stop procrastinating! Like all of us, she is wired to avoid pain first, so even though she wanted to lose weight to experience all the pleasurable benefits she had given me, skipping the exercise because of the pain she linked with it was the greater motivator. I asked her to tell me what would happen if she didn't exercise. "I'll stay fat." she said. "What will that mean?" I asked. She said she would continue to feel unattractive, her clothes would cut into her skin because they were too tight, people would snicker behind her back whenever she was out to eat and she would possibly get diabetes. I wanted her to stop procrastinating so I asked whether she would rather experience the pain linked to the exercise or the pain linked to staying fat. There was no hesitation. The pain linked to staying fat would be far worse and more permanent.
She agreed that whenever she felt tempted to skip exercise from then on she would immediately interrupt that pattern and focus her thoughts on how it would feel to stay fat versus how she would feel doing exercise. I knew if she could do this that it would cancel out the debilitating pain she linked with exercise and she would STOP PROCRASTINATING. Last I heard she was still exercising every day. If you follow the above process you too will be able to determine the right action to take to interrupt your own procrastination habit. Review your results and act.Once you have spent some time approaching your situation differently you must notice whether you are getting different results. Are you procrastinating less, maybe completely? If so you will have found a way that works to help you too and you will know what to continue doing. But what should you do if you have followed these three steps and you have still not found a way to stop procrastinating?
So to stop procrastinating we must first set goals in our lives. We need to figure out what it is that we want to achieve, and then make a list of goals. They need to be realistic goals that we can achieve. If we set them too high we are setting ourselves up for a disaster.After we set our goals we need to commit to doing them. That is the hard part, but if we can understand that we are procrastinating and why, it will be much easier to learn to stop procrastinating.
Learn More About [How To Stop Procrastination]
So how do we stop procrastinating? We need to realize that we are doing it in the first place. Human nature allows us to do things and then disguise them as other issues. We tend to make excuses for our bad habits and usually end up blaming them onto other things or people. So the first step in learning to stop procrastinating is to identify that we are procrastinating.
So what exactly is procrastination? Procrastination is when a person literally avoids doing a task that they know they should be doing. It could be any task, from making a simple phone call to someone, or losing weight, to more important issues such as finishing a duty in the workplace that may cause you to lose your job if it isn't completed.Procrastination is a bad habit that usually has bad end results from doing it. If this sounds familiar, then it may be time for you to learn to stop procrastinating.
To be successful you have to deal with the underlying way in which procrastination works. You procrastinate because of the way you are wired biologically. Everything you do in life is driven by your desire to gain pleasure and avoid pain. You will also do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. So if you link any pain with taking action, even in order to gain pleasure, your association with the pain will stop you from taking action and you will procrastinate.To stop procrastinating there's no point in focusing on the pleasure you will get from achieving your goal instead of the pain to get there because you already know your drive to avoid pain will always win. Rather you must compare the pain you link with taking action to the pain you will feel if you don't take action.
I was working with a friend recently who wanted to lose weight. She had identified that she needed to do exercise to help her achieve this. Unfortunately she always found a way to get out of the exercise and wanted desperately to stop procrastinating. I asked her to tell me what losing weight would do for her. She said she would feel more comfortable in her clothes; that shopping for clothes would be more pleasurable, she would feel more attractive and she would feel happy that she was doing something to improve her health.
Then I asked her to tell me what came to mind when she had to exercise. She told me it was hard, she hated being out of breath, was sure people were laughing at her and she didn't want to have painful muscles the next day. No wonder she couldn't stop procrastinating! Like all of us, she is wired to avoid pain first, so even though she wanted to lose weight to experience all the pleasurable benefits she had given me, skipping the exercise because of the pain she linked with it was the greater motivator. I asked her to tell me what would happen if she didn't exercise. "I'll stay fat." she said. "What will that mean?" I asked. She said she would continue to feel unattractive, her clothes would cut into her skin because they were too tight, people would snicker behind her back whenever she was out to eat and she would possibly get diabetes. I wanted her to stop procrastinating so I asked whether she would rather experience the pain linked to the exercise or the pain linked to staying fat. There was no hesitation. The pain linked to staying fat would be far worse and more permanent.
She agreed that whenever she felt tempted to skip exercise from then on she would immediately interrupt that pattern and focus her thoughts on how it would feel to stay fat versus how she would feel doing exercise. I knew if she could do this that it would cancel out the debilitating pain she linked with exercise and she would STOP PROCRASTINATING. Last I heard she was still exercising every day. If you follow the above process you too will be able to determine the right action to take to interrupt your own procrastination habit. Review your results and act.Once you have spent some time approaching your situation differently you must notice whether you are getting different results. Are you procrastinating less, maybe completely? If so you will have found a way that works to help you too and you will know what to continue doing. But what should you do if you have followed these three steps and you have still not found a way to stop procrastinating?
So to stop procrastinating we must first set goals in our lives. We need to figure out what it is that we want to achieve, and then make a list of goals. They need to be realistic goals that we can achieve. If we set them too high we are setting ourselves up for a disaster.After we set our goals we need to commit to doing them. That is the hard part, but if we can understand that we are procrastinating and why, it will be much easier to learn to stop procrastinating.
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