28 Mar Procrastination, it’s not what you think – Dispelling the Myth.
Posted at 17:37h
in Uncategorized
When I realized that I had nothing more to fix around the house and had to finally face the daunting task of taking action on my projects, I knew I was knee deep into the trap of procrastination.
I felt frozen, and stuck. I realized I had to find solid strategies to get into action. So, I researched the subject to get to the root and pull myself out of it once and for all.
What I discovered is that it´s not just about laziness or poor time management, we procrastinate because of very understandable reason.
Mental Roadblocks
We lack clarity, we want something, but we haven’t gathered enough information to get into action. Getting clarity is a big part of the process, and it requires time.
We are not clear on what we need to get where we want to be, there are too many options, we get overwhelmed and we seek distractions.
For example, you want to bake cakes and sell them, but you have no idea how to market your cakes, how to organise your time, what pricing would be suitable, how to organise the delivery, and you simply drop the idea.
Another mental roadblock is perfectionism, a hidden form of self attack. Perfectionism can shift us from motivation to paralysis, we don’t start because it will never be perfect, or we never launch because its not perfect.
This makes us and others miss out, I mean, who doesn’t want to buy a home made cake right?
Emotional Disregulation
Our emotional state heavily influences our productivity. When we’re stressed or overwhelmed, access to our thinking and reasoning get inhibited, making it harder to focus and take action.
When we are stuck in a state of fight, flight, freeze or fawn, we cannot access our prefrontal cortex so easily. That means getting any task done requires a tremendous amount of energy.
This can manifest as feeling stuck on the sofa with the desire to do something, but unable to get yourself off the sofa. Hello doom scrolling.
A dysregulated nervous system means that we are not calm and grounded. Instead of pushing yourself to do a task or rejecting yourself for not doing so. Work on releasing the build up of stress out of your body first.
You can release built-up stress through relaxation techniques like deep breathing, a walk in nature, listening to music, or mindfulness.
Anytime you find yourself unable to get going on a task, take a moment to relax instead, and see how effortless you can get started.
Some of us have a chronic dysregulated nervous system as a result of accumulated stress and unresolved experiences in life. I am teaching you how to heal your nervous system in my group coaching membership.
Social Conformity
We are social beings. Fear of judgment and rejection holds many of us back. We fear failure, and we are afraid to take risks (and look bad), this results in a lack motivation, and we let ourselves get pulled away by distractions.
Maybe you have heard of tribal behavior or social conformity. Choosing to be different or to go against the grain can carry risks, including ostracism, criticism, or rejection from the group.
For families that means, we drink and party hard, and if you do not go along you will be made very uncomfortable. Or in your friendship group money is bad and you doing better will lead to rejection. Just to name a few.
Recognize how these fears manifest in your life and approach them with compassion, understanding and care is an important step.
From there you can build the resilience that will help you reclaim control over your actions and pursue your goals with more confidence.
You see, procrastination is not that simple, eventually, you have to take a deeper look, because every external issue is rooted in an internal problem. The sooner you acknowledge and tackle that, the faster you will transform.