ello, it’s me…Procrastination. Here to remind you: you’re not good enough, equipped enough or motivated enough to reach your goals. Also, I’ll make you feel complacent and like putting shit off, FOREVER.
Okay kidding, it’s Beth. Stealing this blog back from my own procrastination. But am I right? I bet that sounded pretty familiar. It’s what procrastination does to us! It starts in your mind: I can’t do it. I don’t know how to do it. I’ve never done it before, what if I fail? Let me put it off as long as possible and maybe, just maybe, it will go away.
Guess what? It doesn’t go away. And chances are that you’re hurting yourself even more in the long run by not dealing with it. “Because I just don’t even know where to start” or “I have never done it before, what does that even look like?” are my favorites. The more I strive to understand why my mind goes here, the more I realize we all struggle with the horrible ailment of procrastination!
The reality is that some of these thoughts we tell ourselves are true. How are you going to go about creating a website from scratch if you’ve never done it? What’s the first step? What’s the next step? And after that? Sure, you can google, but how much of your time is this going to take away from all your other responsibilities? Then the doubt and excuses jump in. Maybe I’m just not ready to start my own business. Maybe I need to get certified in this first, maybe I should save more money, or be in better shape… and the list goes on. Our minds will literally come up with anything if we let them.
This is what you do: JUST. DO. IT. Take all that shitty energy you’re using for excuses and use it to force yourself to get started. When I began my weight loss journey (I’ll do another post on this!) I cannot tell you how long it took me to actually start. And once I did finally start, I must have failed and started again at least 20 times—no exaggeration. It wasn’t until I had gained so much weight and felt so helpless that I had no choice. I had to start moving.
The trick is to get up and push yourself into action before you can think yourself out of it. Try not to think about the whole entire project in front of you. Just do what you can do at this moment. As soon as you notice yourself getting in your head, just stop, get up and start moving. My life hack—stop thinking!!!
One thing that can be really helpful is finding an accountability partner. I am thankful every day that for me, it’s my significant other. But it can be anyone you trust to push you in the way that YOU need to be pushed. My boyfriend needs brutal honesty and a kick in the ass (which means I am perfect for him!) while I need someone who is patient and kind with their encouragement and asks the right questions (and that makes him perfect for me). This really works. The Bible says we need community (Romans 12:4-5) and this is a great example of why.
It’s true: we need each other. You cannot get through this rollercoaster called life alone. So stop the hamster wheel of overthinking. Find yourself a support buddy. If you don’t have one, email me. I believe that you have the power to overcome the lying voice in your head that is procrastination, once and for all.
