Why You’re Still a Chronic Procrastinator After All These Years.

Eathan Janney
Aug 28, 2017 · 6 min read

Maybe you are an entrepreneur, freelancer or creative—someone with the “blessing” of being able to work on your own time. Or maybe you are just dealing with procrastination in some area of your life and it just never seems to go away. Those bills remain unopened. The projects are unfinished.

You look back for 5, 15, 20 years (or more!) and its excruciatingly painful to come to the conclusion that you’ve been a chronic procrastinator for pretty much all of your life.

For example maybe you enjoy your career as a freelancer but you are always painfully backlogged when it comes to the nuts and bolts of running a business.

And you are especially discouraged when you look at the reasons you haven’t done some of the things that could have really made a difference in your life. They might seem silly and small and it’s especially hurtful to realize so much has remained unaccomplished for such stupid reasons.

It’s not in every area, every day, all the time. But when you reflect, there are very few areas of your life where you don’t hold back. There are almost no areas of your life where at some point you don’t hold back. And you wonder “why am I holding back?” and “What is wrong with me?”

Because when you do start to do something, there’s this sense of momentum and unstoppability that just takes over. You have passion for what you do and you get into a state of flow. When you are doing what you love there’s literally nothing more exciting. You love what you do. You are really good at it.

You suspect there is a way out and you are downright mad and even ashamed that you haven’t figured it out yet. What is life going to be like in the future if you keep up this awful habit?

You know about this guru and that one and this technique and that. But for some reason or another nothing is really working for you. You’ve been a chronic procrastinator all of your life.

STOP! RIGHT THERE!

You are completely capable of accomplishing a lot in the course of the day. You are doing things. YOU GET THINGS DONE.

Now I know you are reading this article for a reason. I’m not going to tell you that you don’t have a problem with procrastination. We want to find problems. We want to fix them for sure.

At the same time, we tend to find evidence for the things we believe already. And when we find evidence for the things that we already believe it actually perpetuates those things.

So if we don’t want to be a chronic procrastinator one of the steps is identifying ourselves as something else that we’d like to be as an alternative.

And really it takes a bit of serious work to ingrain that idea in your head—to become the idea of whatever it is you want to be. I’m going to start to show you how.

Try saying “I take instant action on everything that needs to be done. I never procrastinate.”

Really, do this. Take a pause. Put your hand over your heart. Close your eyes. Say it out loud.

How does it feel? Exciting? Awkward?

Maybe it feels like a pipe dream! But maybe there is something else that you see as not being a pipe dream that you can identify with—something that you can say to yourself to counteract this thought that you are a chronic procrastinator.

Either way, if you are going to stop procrastinating you’ll agree that there is going to be some Future You that is going to say something that’s better than “I am a chronic procrastinator.”

We need to discover that statement before your behavior changes. You need to become that new identity. If you want to change your behavior you actually need to change your mindset and identity first.

It seems like its going to work the other way around. “I’m going to stop procrastinating and then I’m going to describe myself as whatever I have become.”

But what you really need to do is shift your mindset first. You need to replace the “I am a procrastinator” identity with whatever it is that you want to be.

Watch your mindstream react to this process so far. For example, it may occur to you that the business of calling yourself a procrastinator relates to the unspoken wish that you might not have all this resistance. The reality may be that you don’t think there is any magic bullet that is going to make that resistance go away. Okay, let’s work with that.

Maybe for you the magic is going to be when you work with the resistance. You act in spite of the resistance. Maybe it is “I work through any resistance and I get things done.”

Whatever it is, you need to find that new identity. And you need to have the courage to be imperfect. You need to have compassion for yourself. Perhaps that has always been a tough one for you.

You can still do better in life and have compassion for yourself. By having the compassion you can achieve better things.

There is a voice in your head, that’s always talking—probably many voices. The voices are even arguing with each other—they are ALWAYS talking. Constantly. I don’t know what your voices say. But there is a voice that, when you are taking some extra time to do something, not only criticizes you for taking the extra time, but also labels you as being a chronic procrastinator. And that feels awful.

What is incredible is that just like an abusive boss, parent or partner when they criticize you for something that is just a symptom of you being human, it often doesn’t solve the problem. It actually makes it worse.

You might feel bad because you didn’t get started with something and then on top of that the voice comes in and says “Hey, you chronic procrastinator. When are you going to get your s*** together?”

THAT brings you down and there’s no question that it actually makes you procrastinate more!!! It’s a self fulfilling prophecy!

There are two ways that you can address this mindset issue.

First, turn that constant negative voice against itself! When the voice in your head says “You are a chronic procrastinator! You should feel horrible about yourself!” you use that as a trigger. It triggers you to say, “Wait a second. I have compassion for myself. NO. I work through resistance and I get things done. And I’m going to start doing the thing that I need to do. I’m going to do it right now. Because that’s what I do. I work through resistance and I get things done.”

Instead of going to this compressed place—this down-on-yourself place that will make you procrastinate more—you can go to this expansive place where you are standing up to this voice. You are saying “I’m only human and I’m going to get started now. I’m not going to feel bad about myself.”

There is another way to address this issue. In fact there are a few more. I’d like to tell you right now. But the truth is, the length of this article is far beyond what I’ve intended. And if I don’t wrap it this up then I’ll start procrastinating on some other task that needs addressing right now. Ha!

Let’s do this. If you’d like more tactics to address your procrastination, to really overcome it and become that new person that doesn’t even identify with the idea of being a chronic procrastinator, then you should contact me right now. I can help.

Send an email to eathan@invisiblestringsoftware.com with the subject “Instant Action” and nothing more and I’ll reply to set up a half hour meeting, share some valuable tips and evaluate if I can help more.

This is just a free consultation where we can discuss if I can help you. As for more, my philosophy is if you give me $1 let’s gain at least $2 in value back for you. If you are hesitating at all, don’t! TAKE INSTANT ACTION!

Love this post? Did you find it helpful? Share it. Love it. Leave a supportive comment to keep me going. Want to add your own tactics for combating the procrastinator mindset? Go for it!

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