Procrastination Street

Myira Khan • 27 May 2020

Procrastination Street - Understanding the viscious cycle of how our internal saboteur leads us up procrastination street and ways to stop it from happening!

Our internal saboteur (or inner critic) can trick us in many ways to lead us up procrastination street!

Our internal saboteur can quickly identify and point out many other tasks that all of a sudden need your attention and it becomes vitally important that you engage and complete these tasks straight away! In fact they become more important that the real task at hand!

But why? Why do we allow ourselves to be lead up procrastination street in the first place?

When we first think about the real task at hand and imagine ourselves starting, engaging or completing the task, we can very quickly visualise and think about all the difficulties and challenges that may be in our way of completing the task and what we would have to face or overcome in order to finish the task.

Even if we were to take the first steps in our task, thoughts of possible failure can come to mind! Whether that is failure in attempting the task itself and having to give up or the fear of failure once it's complete and being marked or scrutinised by others or the lack of success in it's launch or implementation - the fear of it not working!

It is these thoughts about the difficulties or challenges you may face in attempting the task or fear of failure in your attempt or completion of the task, which starts the journey towards procrastination street!

Our negative feelings or fear trigger our distraction impulse, i.e. our need to be distracted by an alternative task and therefore our interal saboteur kicks in and starts to lead us towards procrastination street!

So we find ourselves dealing with a less challenging or more pleasant task. Whilst this may lead to a temporary relief from the real task, our feelings about the real task will eventually re-emerge as we think about the task that we still to tackle, and very often the fear or challenge can be felt stronger each time we distract, procrastinate and then think about the real task again.

This cycle of: fear/difficulty of the real task > leading to avoidance / procrastination > leading to fear/difficulty of the real task = creates a viscious cycle of avoidance or procrastination each time we try to attempt tackling the real task.

We only break this cycle if we either abandon the real task or project completely or we complete the project at the last minute and up to the deadline (which usually doesn't feel good!)

But how about breaking this cycle completely?

So that every time you have a task to complete, your fears or thoughts of the difficulties or challenges of completing the task do not sabaotage your success, and your internal saboteur is not triggered into action!

3 ways to stop your internal saboteur leading you up procrastination street:

1. Be clear and specific in what your task is. Identify the actual task you want to complete rather than a general idea of what you would like to do.

2. Create a definite and specific plan of action. Having identified the overall task / aim of your project, write out the list of specific steps you need to take in order to complete your task or project.

3. Schedule when and how you will complete each step. Include the time/date, what action you will take and what resources or support you will need to complete each step.

These pro-active actions support you to be prepared to tackle each step rather than being put off by the task feeling too difficult, challenging or overwhelming. You are setting yourself up for success at each step - so your fear of failure also diminishes!

And remember to celebrate each step you take - for every step is a success!

Ways of dealing with our internal saboteur and breaking this cycle will be the focus of our Grow To Glow Book Group, which is taking place this Thursday 28th May at 6pm (UK time) via Zoom.

To register for your place on our Book Group please email myira@myirakhancounselling.co.uk

#procrastination #goals #achievement #goaldigger #barrierstosuccess #wellbeing #lifehacks #selfcare #growth #development #fulfillment #planner #organised #BookGroup #coaching #TherapeuticCoaching

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