Procrastination
/prə(ʊ)ˌkrastɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n/
noun: the action of delaying or postponing something.
Do you ever delay completing tasks that are important?
Do you ever hesitate to accept an opportunity that comes your way – it feels right but you go into your head? Sometimes we may get a gentle nudge inside to make that phone call, finish that project, have that conversation, start on that assignment, or simply say ‘yes’.
What is your relationship with procrastination? Or we could ask what is your relationship with surrender?
Procrastination can be for one minute, one hour, one week, one month, one year, even one decade. Whether it is for one minute or one decade, the act of procrastination does affect our body.
In addressing our unwanted behaviours in relation to procrastination, it is important to consider the reason(s) why we procrastinate.
Is there a part of life that we are avoiding that seems too challenging or too overwhelming to deal with? We may have had a negative experience in relation to the task that we are putting off and so are literally “put off” from doing it!
How does procrastination affect our mental wellbeing and our body?
The act of procrastination can affect our thoughts, our sleep, our relationships, our mood, our muscles, our vitality and our productivity. Have you ever considered the behaviours that we go into to silence our inner voice or dull our awareness of what we are delaying?
How does surrender feel in our body?
When we choose to seek the support we need to take the next step and simply say yes to that inner voice, there is often a feeling of lightness in the body, like a weight has lifted. And we can see how we may have complicated things and made out the challenge much bigger than it actually was. We realise it was more effort to actually hold back and hesitate. The tension is actually felt in holding back and containing what is there ready to unfold.
We can make a lot of excuses to uphold our procrastination, such as “I don’t have time”,“It’s too hard”, “I’m scared”, “I can’t afford it”, “I really dislike doing this”.
The truth is, there are certain things in life we prioritise and when we hold something as very important then we will always make sure it is done, and go the extra mile.
If we acknowledge that everything we say, think, do has an impact on those around us, then can we say we are not affecting anyone when we procrastinate? If we were to be honest we would have to admit that our choice to procrastinate does affect others.
For example, if we put off our budgeting, it is easy to think “Well, it’s my money”. But if we aren’t organised and overspend, then this can impact on those around us and lead to us having to borrow money or delay paying others back. Or if we delay work on a project deadline, it may mean relying on others to help us or have flow-on effects to other stages of rollout with the project.
Completing tasks allows a sense of flow in our lives, it offers a sense of lightness within us and we can then bring this to our relationships, to our work and our home.
Sometimes we actually have the skills to do what is required, but we still put it off. Could this be because we are resisting living our potential? Is there is a part of us that wants to hold back?
True freedom lies in surrendering to life and not trying to control it. Through our body we make the choice to control life or surrender to it and as we choose to surrender, we allow our true potential to be lived.
