So you’ve been procrastinating? You’re not alone, everyone has procrastinated at some point in time. Maybe you have a project you “should” be finishing, a task that needs to be taken care of, or you are avoiding your daily working activities and saying to yourself “I should be working right now.”
Essentially you are avoiding a situation that may become uncomfortable or can cause pain. Often procrastination and motivation go hand in hand but the underlying emotion is fear. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear that it won’t work out, fear that no one will buy, fear of what others will think about you.
Fear and doubt is created by projecting a negative outcome onto the future goal or experience. Basically you are currently responding to something that may or may not even happen which in turn manifests as procrastination.
Once you procrastinate long enough, feelings of guilt, not being good enough, second guessing your abilities, and even depression can arise. At this point you can say goodbye to creativity and the unproductive cycle continues. Something I know is that every time we get knocked off our game, a breakthrough is coming.
The best news is, procrastination is a habit and like any habit, it can change and be replaced! It’s time you nip this in the bud and actually have actions and steps to take to stop procrastinating and start doing. Say it with me, “My break through is coming.”
Dive into these 7 steps and jump start your motivation.
1. Commit to yourself.
When creating a new habit, the first thing you need to do is decide and fully commit to yourself and your goals. What are you committing to from now on? The best way to find clarity on this is to take all of the things you “should” do and turn them into “must” and “will” do.
Once you brainstorm and transition this list, put it on paper.
-What exactly are you changing?
-What is the habit you are replacing this old habit with?
-What game plan are you creating moving forward?
Start with a plan. A failure to plan is a plan to fail so make your plan and work your plan. Right now you just need to regain commitment for yourself and your goals. Commit to this new plan and new habit for the next 30 days. This is your life, these are your dreams, don’t just dabble in this for a week. Choose to commit for 30 days and play full out so you sustain motivation moving forward.
Here is a phrase you can create for yourself and your new commitment. “I choose to release ________ because it is no longer serving me. Since I let that go, I am committed to __________ so I can achieve _________. To do this, I am dedicated to doing _________ for the next 30 days and I am so excited.”
2. Consider the big picture.
In times of fear, doubt, and procrastination, people often forget why they started the journey in the first place. At all moments in time, you need to have a selfish goal and a self less goal. What do you want to accomplish for yourself alone? What do you want to accomplish for others and how will you impact others? One of these needs to have the ability to get you out of the bed in the morning.
Allow yourself to dream again. When was the last time you took pen to paper and wrote down 20 desires you want to accomplish in the next year? Dust off your dreams and your desires and really allow yourself to dream big.
Dreaming allows you to become toward motivated rather than away motivated which increases the focus on what you do want. Knowing that your thoughts create things, it’s important to only focus on what you do want to happen rather than what you don’t want to happen.
3. Remember your worth.
It’s time you remember it was a miracle you were even born. Procrastination, doubt, and fear come up full speed ahead when you have forgotten who you are.
Moments like these, there are always 2 questions I always come back to:
-What do I know is meant for me?
-What do I know is true about me?
You know the amazing qualities and skills you have inside of you, it’s time you own it. Start with a list of 10 reasons why you are incredibly amazing.
To help, I’ll share mine with you.
1. I have high energy and it’s contagious
2. I make friends everywhere I go
3. I am brilliant at what I do and my clients are seeing high level results
4. I do everything with love
5. I’m really good at juggling a lot of ideas at one time
6. I give out compliments to strangers to lift others up
7. I am caring and thoughtful and always put others as a high priority in my life
8. I’m so good at doing my hair, people often ask if I’m a hair dresser
9. I believe in others until they easily believe in themselves
10. I am always facing my fears and doing the scary things to show others they can do this too!
It’s time you show up, own your strengths, love on yourself, and fully step into the confident version of you I know you can be.
4. Hold yourself Accountable
This is one of my favorite things I help my clients with, accountability. Without deadlines and holding yourself accountable, dreams become things that might happen some day. Create a deadline and then announce it publicly. Tell everyone you know, put it on social media, post it in your workplace, email your friends, whatever you need to do to be accountable.
Place your goal everywhere so it is always in your sight and top of mind. The more you share your goals with others the more others will be so excited to celebrate you when you succeed as well as you will encourage them to go after their dreams.
5. Watch your words
As you continue with your new habit and commitments, this is one of the most important steps moving forward. How you speak to yourself is vital when moving away from procrastination into doing and taking action. In fact, the way you spoke to yourself is probably a big reason why you were in procrastination in the first place.
From now on avoid phrases that diminish your motivation. Change “I have to” into “I get to” or “I choose to”. Make sure not to use “I can’t” or “I’ll try”.
You can do this!
You will do this!
You must do this!
Focus on the things you want moving forward and talk to yourself the way you would talk to your friend going after his/her goal.
6. Build a routine
You have to start somewhere. Take one step at a time no matter how big or small that step is. Action will always bring you back excitement and motivation. How can you take action today?
Once you start doing you will not only feel better but you will actually take strides towards accomplishing your deepest desires.
Make the new routine fun, track your progress, be consistent, honor your commitment, and remember just put one foot in front of the other. The more you do this new habit, the better it will be and the easier it will feel.
7. Celebrate every win
This is the fun part, rewards! Give yourself a pat on the back and a high five. Don’t wait until the end to celebrate yourself. Set quarterly, monthly, and weekly rewards that you get to have if you reach your commitment goal. Celebrating yourself ever step of the way no matter what you accomplished. Every accomplishment is a good accomplishment.
In what way would you love to treat yourself?
What prize would really motivate you and get you out of bed if you knew you would have it in the next 30 days?
Every time you finish a daunting task, its not only satisfying but you get to have yourself a dance party celebration moment. The more you celebrate, the more you tell your brain that this is working and you are building a conditioning behavior where every time you achieve something big or small, you will feel joy and excitement.
Take these 7 steps, to fully stop procrastinating and start doing.