Escape the Procrastination Trap

 

The twin motivators

Fundamental to the training we provide for those set on becoming a life coach, is an understanding about how humans are essentially motivated by two opposite forces, pleasure and pain.

Simply put, we spend our lives pursuing outcomes and situations that we believe will bring us pleasure, and avoiding those we perceive to be associated with pain.

Although the concepts of pleasure and pain may be simple to understand, the meanings, in this context, are intentionally broad.

For example, the term ‘pain’ implies anything that can cause discomfort or anguish. This can be physical in nature, but in today’s world it increasingly refers to the mental discomfort such as that we associate with ridicule, embarrassment, loss of face or status, and so on.

Easy to understand

Procrastination is easy to understand when considered in this light.

We put off doing certain tasks or taking certain actions because we perceive that they will be unpleasant, cause us stress, heighten our anxiety or show up our inability. (In other words, ‘painful’).

Instead, we busy ourselves with other activities that feel familiar, and thus comfortable and non threatening. (In other words, ‘pleasurable’).

By procrastinating, we side step any possible pain and life feels good … at least temporarily.

A heavy toll

However, continuing to procrastinate takes a heavy toll on us in the longer term.

As humans, our individual, as well as collective, growth and development, is dependent on us taking on and overcoming different challenges.

By continually sidestepping challenges and retreating to the familiar and comfortable, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to grow, evolve and experience life to the full.

Blaming and justifying

Procrastinators know this intuitively. Many will devise clever strategies to help assuage their guilt about the lost opportunities, and minimise the internal pain they feel.

They may look for someone or some situation to blame or use to justify their inaction (e.g. “I just didn’t have the time,” “It was far too complex,” “They were unreasonable,” “It wasn’t a priority,” and so on, and so on.)

Beating procrastination

Beating procrastination is actually surprisingly simple but it first requires an important, conscious acceptance.

The first and most important step

It is vitally necessary to commit to take full personal responsibility for the condition.

Procrastinators will often look to avoid this because of the initial mental ‘pain’ involved upon realising that blame and justification are no longer convenient options to call upon.

Admitting to a conscious awareness of the problem, and resolving to take responsibility for dealing with it, is the first and most important step in escaping the procrastination trap.

Inertia

The next step is to understand the simple concept of inertia and how it can be overcome.

Anyone who has studied school level physics will appreciate that a body at rest tends to stay at rest, thanks to the property we call inertia.

If you have ever tried to slide a very heavy object, like a piano or a big, solid wooden table across a relatively smooth floor, you’ll know that the most difficult part is applying enough force just to get it moving.

That’s called breaking its inertia, or tendency to stay put. The rest of the move is much easier.

In the same way, tackling challenges that we perceive to be big, difficult or complex is often far easier and more enjoyable than we think, once we have overcome the ‘mental inertia’ that we have built up.

(As an aside, mental inertia, unlike physical inertia, has a habit of growing, the longer it is left not dealt with!)

All that is required is to take a single important action, or series of small actions, to break the inertia and set the process in motion.

Maintaining momentum

The third and final step is to prevent inertia taking hold again by keeping the process in motion (or maintaining momentum).

This is done by following up on the initial action with further targeted actions that are required to overcome the challenge and see the task or project through to completion.

This final step is generally self perpetuating. That’s because action brings about results and results build satisfaction and confidence, which in turn builds sufficient enthusiasm and motivation for further action and results.

An amazing transformation

The vicious cycle that is procrastination has now been transformed into a virtuous cycle of achievement, growth and fulfilment!

Maintaining the wonderful feeling that comes with getting meaningful stuff done and permanently escaping the procrastination trap, simply requires a ‘rinse and repeat’ of the steps mentioned above.

The amazing transformation from serial procrastinator, to deliberate, responsible achiever is, after all, not that difficult.

However, it is without doubt both deeply satisfying and truly liberating!