Reflection #005 – Procrastination is a Negative Habit that Steals Your Dreams.
Fortunately it is a negative habit that you can overcome by following the simple strategy which I am sharing in this article.
(This article was originally written in 2021 for a 28 day book writing challenge, where I guided clients through the process of writing the first draft of their book in just 28 days).
Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.
Napoleon Hill
So let us look at the negative habit of putting something off until later (and sometimes that later never arrives). Specifically, let’s look at how it undermines your effectiveness, your productivity, and even ends up sabotaging your success.
Naturally, there are sometimes good reasons to delay doing something, but mostly these reasons are just excuses used to justify putting off a task until later.
However, the task or activity that you put off is usually one that has the potential to improve your life in some way. But instead of getting excited about its potential, you end up delaying and procrastinating about it.
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Procrastination is a Dragon that Needs to be Slayed
The good news is that you are not alone. Procrastination is one of most people’s biggest challenges to overcome. And most people put off slaying this dragon until sometime in the distant future. Yes, that’s right. They end up procrastinating about slaying their procrastination dragon!
But I know that you’re not that person. Otherwise you would not be reading this article. You’re keen to learn how to slay that dragon before it gets too big to attack.
Most importantly, you don’t want the dragon to grow so big it rents all the space in your head (or takes over your life completely).
If you want to delay going through the strategy below for an hour, I thoroughly recommend Jordan Peterson’s first Big Ideas Lecture he completed, back in 2002. He read a book for very young children by Jack Kent called “There’s no Such Thing as a Dragon” to a group of University of Toronto alumni (most over 65). He explained what it meant: Pay attention — or else.
Here’s a link to a YouTube video of the actual children’s book being read, which is just over six minutes long.
To summarise Jordan Peterson’s lecture, the “dragon” represents issues that get ignored, but grow so big they create big problems. By noticing them and dealing with them, the dragon shrinks down to a manageable size. So whether you are procrastinating about something negative, or putting off doing something positive, because it seems overwhelming and you don’t know where to start, it’s time to notice the dragon, and make peace with it.
“The really happy people are those who have broken the chains of procrastination, those who find satisfaction in doing the job at hand. They’re full of eagerness, zest, productivity. You can be, too.”
—Norman Vincent Peale
What Triggers Your Procrastination Dragon?
Find a place where you can “close the door” and go through this dragon-slaying exercise. Allow 20 minutes to reflect on the questions and apply the steps detailed below.
This exercise is adapted from The Sourcebook of Magic Volume II by L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
1. Think of a Time When You Have Procrastinated
When was it? Where? With what?
Was it something that you ought to do? Something that would improve your life?
How did you know to put it off? What triggers you to do that?
Was the trigger any of the following?
- An unpleasant feeling, discomfort, tension, painful emotion, etc.
- The idea about the amount of effort or work it will take.
- Fear about what “might” happen if you tackle a distasteful or unwelcome task?
- Did you have a lack of knowledge about how to proceed?
- Maybe you felt incapable of chunking the mountain–sized task down into molehill size pieces.
- Perhaps you believed that the task was boring, menial, insignificant, such as a tiresome chore, tedious paperwork, housecleaning, gardening, etc.
As you reflect on that situation in the past, did your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or values (or lack of them) drive your decision-making? Did your schedule and time management skills (or lack of them) make it challenging to actually focus on the task? Did demands from others take priority (which indicates a lack of boundaries)? Or did you just put the task off until…?
“Procrastination taught me how to do 30 minutes of work in 8 hours and 8 hours of work in 30 minutes.”
—Source unknown
2. Accept and Welcome the Sense of Procrastination
Now that you have identified the trigger, take a moment to sit still, and allow the sense of procrastination to flow into your thoughts and feelings.
As you do this, welcome it into your awareness, accepting, acknowledging and noticing this sense of procrastination.
To help you accept this, think of something you just accept like rain falling or detours around road works. Feel this acceptance. You can anchor the feeling with a word, gesture or touch on your arm or leg. Apply that anchor to accepting the sense of procrastination.
What happens when you just welcome in the uncomfortable feelings? When you just let these negative feelings flow in, what happens to the procrastination?
3. Identify What is Creating the Feelings / Emotions
Are you using a learned map to evaluate your experience? Are you applying unrealistic standards or expectations to the task, activity and/or emotion? What meaning does the feeling of procrastination have? Do you feel you have to get the task or activity perfect first time?
4. Give Yourself Permission for the Feelings / Emotions
It’s okay for you to:
- experience the feelings / emotions of facing the procrastination dragon, or of negative habit of procrastination.
- start or continue the task activity you are putting off.
- to be a beginner, to make mistakes, to take risks, to not have to be the expert on everything.
Notice what happens to the sense of “putting off until…” when you give yourself permission to feel what you feel about the dragon task or activity.
5. Get Clear on the Importance of the Task or Activity
This step is really powerful. If you get clear on how important and valuable the task or activity is, and how it will benefit you, then your motivation to get started, or continue, will kick in.
So get clear, and if you discover what you are putting off isn’t that important to you, then take it if your to do list.
On the other hand, if you realise that for you to move forward, and even go beyond where you are right now, then great.
To get clear, ask yourself:
- What do you believe is important about the task or activity?
- What do you understand are the benefits?
- What meaning does it have for you?
- What do you expect to happen when you complete the task or activity?
- What do you realise is holding you back, and what difference will it make to your life if you take action?
- What is valuable to you about this, and how does it align with your values?
- What are you deciding to do now?
Keep repeating the answers to these questions, amplifying your positive intentions, and notice what is happening to your feelings / emotions as you think about this task or activity.
6. Blow Out the Procrastination Dragon’s Fire
Possibly there are other resources you will bring to blow out the negative fire that’s holding you back. What if you put off procrastinating? What if you put yourself first and feel fully passionate about the task or activity? How about refusing to sell yourself short, and said NO! to when others try to breach your boundaries?
7. Taking Your Tame Procrastination Dragon into the Future
Now that you have tamed the dragon, what task or activity are you going to focus on and achieve today, and into the future? Dragons are powerful creatures, so make sure you utilise their energy and strength to be productive and the things on your “to accomplish” list done.
A great strategy is to get the least enjoyable important tasks done first (and apply a high degree of passion to them so they are done quickly). Then you can continue the moment of your passion and energy to the more enjoyable stuff.
“The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.”
—Rita Emmett, describing what she refers to as “Emmett’s law”, in “The Procrastinator’s Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing It Now”
Love Your Dragons
When I first started training as a Neuro Linguistics (NLP) and Neuro-semantics practitioner, I was surprised to discover dragons being referred to in a negative sense. As a lifelong fan of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books, I have always thought as dragons as majestic, powerful, and friendly creatures. To have them referred to as negative states came as a bit of a shock.
However, the lovely thing about NLP and Neuro-semantics is that you learn to tame, befriend, and even dance with your dragons. So, like the “There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon” children’s story, this is the goal of this article.
I hope it helps you to start to befriend and love your dragons, But if you feel you need a hand with taming them, please book a personal development coaching session with me.
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