Kick Procrastination in the Butt
Written by Monique Jordan-Cave
Leadership and Holistic Coach
Hello magical human,
I hope you’re ready to Fill Your Love Cup Tool Kit and learn…
How to Kick Procrastination in the Butt once and for all!
We all struggle with this…
How would you describe the word Procrastination?
To me, it sounds and feels like such a dirty word. lol
Worst still, if you label yourself a procrastinator, you feel just as dirty as the word, right?
She’s like a sneaky little vixen that you spend way too much time with, even though you shouldn’t, but we always turn to her like an old friend.
I think it’s more important for you to understand…
Why this happens;
What this costs you; and
How to kick it in the butt… ;-)
Firstly, I have to start with.
There is nothing wrong with you, my love.
Every human experiences this habit.
You are not a bad person, you are not lazy, undisciplined or unmotivated and it has absolutely nothing to do with your time management skills.
Procrastination is an Effect, not a Cause.
Your brain uses it as a form of self-defence for your emotions and stress relief for your brain.
Which is the following cause for you to procrastinate?
1. Beliefs: Around self-image or self-worth
2. Fear: Of failing, embarrassing yourself or trying something new.
3. Self-sabotage: Because succeeding means showing up even more. Then no more safe procrastination vixen.
4. Stress: In your family, career, business or life that you are trying to ignore and lock away in pandoras box.
5. Excitement: You may even get a kick out of taking last minute action. (*I am guilty of this one!)
6. Limiting beliefs: How you feel about yourself or negative self-talk.
7. Uncertainty: You haven’t made a real plan or allocated time. So you’re not sure what to do, or when to do it.
8. Environment: If you sit down at your desk, and it’s a mess, you will feel resistance!
Think about it for a moment.
If any of the above are happening in your subconscious mind, and you try to start a task, especially one that demands your concentration.
She says…
“Hold up, wait a minute babe.
I have all of this of this going on at the moment, you’re ignoring me…
I just can’t deal with this task right now.
Nah, not now, not today.
Oooooooh I know, let me clean EVERY ROOM in the house!!
Ahhhhh, that’s better…”
AVOIDANCE = SHORT TERM Stress Relief
You disappear into a beautiful blissful world of cleaning or scrolling on Facebook…
Then it happens…
All of a sudden you feel like you’re being sucked through a time portal, hurtling back to reality and
BOOM!
HOURS have flown by and you have accomplished the one thing you didn’t want to do.
NOTHING = procrastination vixen won again...
Which then inevitably leads to…
PERSONAL TORTURE…
You feel genuinely guilty, even more sick and anxious because, now, you feel like you are running out of time.
So, you beat the shit out of yourself.
No joke. You start telling yourself really horrible things like “What’s wrong with you”, “What a waste of time”, “People are going to think I don’t have my shit together”, “You just had to do this one thing”, “Like, seriously, are you dumb”, and the list goes on and on.
Along with a few heart palpitations, just to really get your uncomfortable sweat on.
The true tragedy here, is that we can spend ages in that space of negative self-talk.
We end up beating ourselves up about everything.
Which leads us to feel even more unmotivated, and pretty shitty.
So you see my fellow unicorn, you are not a procrastinator.
You have a habit of avoiding stressful situations which leads to procrastinating.
BREAK THE HABIT…
So the next time you feel like you are in a situation where you are going to hesitate or spend too much time distracted on Insta or Facebook (or start wondering towards the cleaning supplies), I want you to try the following:
1. Acknowledge the stress or emotion:
Ask yourself: Why am I distracting myself with Y, when I really want to do X?
Be honest.x
2. Interrupt Your Thought Process:
Get up and shake yourself off.
Do some jumping jacks to give yourself a boost of energy.
Whether you fancy making a cup of tea or cuddling one of your fur babies… break the procrastination process.
3. Just Do It:
Because it’s been proven, time and time again, that if you just start, there’s an 80% chance you will keep going!
Whoop Whoop, bye bye vixen!
Pretty big odds, no?
Still not convinced.
Okay, imagine if someone said to you…
“Play THIS Friday’s EuroMillions Lottery and it’s guaranteed that you’ll have an 80% chance of winning”
You’d be silly not to buy a ticket!
Take back control, make a start, increase your confidence, and fulfil your vision.
What is the one thing, you will commit to STOP procrastinating on?
AND…
When will you start?
Let me know in the comments below.
Please feel free to share this article with a loved one, friend or colleague.
MJx