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Procrastination will delay your dreams
Procrastination is a habit. If the task ahead of you seems so insurmountable
that you don’t know where to start, you’ll put it off – again and again;
perhaps you choose a distraction as being more favourable or comfortable.
It’s important to kill this habit if you want to manifest your goals. Do it
before procrastination becomes the assassination of your dreams.
Behaviours of chronic procrastinators include:
putting things off until a later date or the last minute
carrying out less urgent tasks before urgent ones
getting distracted before or while doing something
facing things only when they’re unavoidable
claiming that you haven’t got time to do something
waiting for the right time or mood to do something
not completing tasks at all
Does this sound like you? Procrastinators avoid things that require action.
Some of us do everything apart from what we need to do in order to be in
harmony with our goals. For example, when typing up an essay for a
deadline, a procrastinator might first browse the Internet and waste precious
time.
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We don’t just procrastinate over small tasks, but over our biggest goals, too.
My friend Tony’s mentoring client, Malcolm, is a clear example of someone
who procrastinated before taking action on his dreams. Malcolm was fearful,
unwilling to leave his comfort zone, and overanalytical. These are common
traits in chronic procrastinators. These qualities led him to deviate from the
path to achieving his goals.
The story with Malcolm began when he first went to see Tony for support to
reach his goal – something he really wanted: to start his own business. It
would need his full-time commitment, which meant he’d have to leave his
current job.
Malcolm feared what he couldn’t understand, which was how he would make
a viable income with his business idea. He lacked self-belief. He doubted his
own potential and he didn’t want to feel uncomfortable by compromising his
existing lifestyle. He told himself that he was being unrealistic, so he hadn’t
pursued his passion.
After Tony had set Malcolm on the path to starting his business, Malcolm
suddenly convinced himself that he didn’t have enough information to get it
going. He felt that he needed to do more research, which required more time.
He believed this because, again, he feared failure.
Research is, of course, crucial if you intend to start a successful business, so
his intentions were reasonable. The problem was that he 
did
have all the
information he needed; he was using an imagined need for further research as
an excuse to delay taking action. Malcolm was eager to start his own
business, and he believed it would add value to the world, but sadly he lacked
the confidence to take the leap and get started.
After spending months researching every detail of his plans, Malcolm
concluded that his idea was pointless. He wrote it off completely. He’d
managed to talk himself out of it. This came as a shock to Tony, because he
could see that Malcolm’s idea had great potential and that he was committed
to it.
But this wasn’t the end. Time went by and Malcolm’s job was made
redundant. Instead of finding another employer, Malcolm decided to invest
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his redundancy money into his thoroughly researched business idea. This
time he had no choice but to make it work; he needed an income to live on.
With a bit of capital to work with and no other option, Malcolm finally took
action. His business eventually became a success. If he hadn’t been made
redundant and received his payout, he might never have started his business.
Now Malcolm realizes that he was held back by fear and wishes he’d started
his business earlier.
You don’t need it all figured out. The more you
think you do, the more you’ll procrastinate and
fear moving forward. Have courage and start
now, even if you start small. Just go for it!
When you find yourself procrastinating, it’s important to devise a strategy to
overcome this. It’s easy to do this for smaller goals, like completing an essay,
but it’s more challenging with bigger goals, like creating a successful online
business.
So break your goals down. Big goals can be overwhelming, and it’s hard to
imagine how you’ll ever cross the finish line. It’s more effective to set
smaller goals and prioritize them in order of urgency.
If the goals still seem big after you’ve made
them smaller, break them down further.
If you can meet smaller goals, you’ll become more confident about bigger
goals. Even if you’re trying to manifest money, start by making the goal a
fraction of the desired amount. So, if the goal is to have £10,000, work on
making £100 to begin with. After you make £100, you can try to make
another £100 until you reach your target amount.
We have four types of feel-good hormones in our body: dopamine, serotonin,
oxytocin and endorphins. Dopamine, in particular, encourages us to take
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action towards our goals and provides us with feelings of pleasure when we
achieve them. When we lack enthusiasm for a task, it means our dopamine
levels are low.
When you break big goals down into smaller ones, you overcome this. Your
brain will celebrate every time you meet a goal by releasing dopamine.
You’ll then be encouraged to take further action on the rest of your goals.
If your final goal is time-sensitive, make sure each smaller goal has a
deadline on it. You can only meet big goals on time if your smaller ones are
done on time, too.
If you still struggle to beat procrastination, try the following techniques:
1.