It’s mid-January where saying ‘Happy New Year!” is no longer contextual. Some of us are raring to go whilst some of us may be stuck in what I like to call the ‘New Year Slump’. Whilst the festive break recharges us, it also disrupts our daily routines and momentum. 

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We find it hard to get going. Coming up with excuses not to get going on the important things is proving a lot easier than actually getting the work done. 

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One of the most destructive effects of procrastination is the fact that it makes you feel out of control. Procrastination is like an ‘invisible force’ that keeps you from doing the very things you know you must do. 

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With the increasing demands on our time and attention, there seems to be an increase in procrastination as a chronic problem, especially among people who want to succeed the most. Procrastination usually sets in when you feel overwhelmed by all the ‘have to’s’ in life and instead of making steady progress you take on too much without ever getting any of it done.

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Feeling out of control takes away all your power to shape and direct your own life. It’s true that there are many things over which you have no control, but you always have full control over what really happens to you – and what really happens to you is a mental process independent of the circumstances and events of the outside world. 

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Being empowered means that you realise that you already have the power and this realisation also gives you the ability to take action. 

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You’re not alone as it happens to the best of us!

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Here are five empowering procrastination tips that can help you reach this realisation and become empowered to effectively deal with procrastination and inaction.

Let’s dive in. 

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1. It’s All Inside:

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Procrastination is an internal process and although it might feel like it’s happening to you, you are ultimately responsible for it. This procrastination tip can help to put you back in control almost immediately. Procrastination is not an external force, but an internal response and evaluation. The simple realisation that it’s ‘you’ that are doing it to ‘you’, gives you the power to do something about it.

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You always have a choice. Remember that even choosing not to do anything about it is a choice. 

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2. It’s All You:

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When procrastination drags you down it’s all too easy to think that ‘it just is’ and that you can’t do anything about it. Although it feels like you have no control, you actually do as per the previous point. 

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 In fact this is why you feel out of control – because you believe that you can’t do anything about it. There are two very important beliefs you need to develop to help you break free from procrastination. 

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The first is that you CAN overcome procrastination and the second is that YOU can overcome procrastination. 

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No one else can do it for you and because you created it, you can un-create it.

3. It’s All In Your Head:

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The reason why most people remain stuck in patterns of procrastination is because of fear. At the most fundamental level, all forms of procrastination come down to fear. What you don’t face controls you. To overcome the fear and the procrastination that comes with it, you need to confront and do the very things you don’t want to do. The instant you do, you take charge and it no longer has any control over you. 

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The ironic thing is that fear only exists in your imagination – it’s always something that hasn’t happened yet. Isn’t it silly to be crippled by something that isn’t even real? When you realise how much time and soul-sucking energy you’ve put into fearing something that isn’t real, the burden and worry melt away instantly. Is the Bogeyman real? How many nights have we spent as children worrying that he’ll come to get us in our sleep?

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Procrastination is the Bogeyman in your mind. It’s not real – it’s only the way you evaluate things in your mind.

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4. It’s All About Conditioning:

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Success at anything in life relies on consistency. The best of the best at anything are those who can repeat their greatness consistently. The way you get consistent is through conditioning. 

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Your nervous system operates through conditioning. When you do something over and over again it becomes ‘normal’ and when it’s normal you don’t have to think about it – it becomes automatic. The challenge is that this principle works both ways. 

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Whether your conditioned responses support you or whether it pulls you down, your nervous system does not make that distinction. If procrastination is your conditioned response you will always feel out of control, simply because that’s what you’ve ‘learned’ to do automatically. You simply need to ‘recondition’ yourself to a new response; to teach yourself to respond differently. If you’ve learnt negative behaviour, you can always unlearn it by replacing it with an empowering and healthy one. 

5. It’s All About Awareness:

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Having said all of the above, procrastination does serve a purpose - and a very important one as such, but only if you are aware of the benefits. We only procrastinate about those things that have value to us. At some level, either directly or indirectly, you believe that taking action will benefit you. If it didn’t it would not bother you, right? 

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Mind blown?

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Be grateful for procrastination and use it as a guide to ‘know’ what you need to act upon. 

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Being aware of this fact, and developing an awareness for what you do and fail to do can empower you to be in charge of yourself on a much higher level.

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When you are empowered you are in charge, and even if things seem to go wrong on the surface, underneath you know that you have the power to deal with it effectively. 

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Procrastination is disempowering and it takes away your ability to take immediate action and deal with any situation. Always remember that you are ultimately in charge of you. Tomorrow will be today tomorrow. As they say, “Time and tide waits for no man (or woman!)”. 

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As I always say, action breeds clarity. Even the smallest step counts. The biggest mistake you’ll ever make is not taking any action.

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If you’re ready to nip procrastination in the bum, book a complimentary 30-minute chat with me here. I would love to hear from you!

To Your Inevitable Success, 

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Ali x

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