Sometimes the smallest of shifts can lead to real and lasting change.
As a mindset coach, I help people who struggle with procrastination and overwhelm work through their mental blocks so they can break the cycle of inaction and start making progress toward their goals.
So many of us fear procrastination because when we don’t do what we want or need to do, we feel at the mercy of our minds instead of the directors of our lives.
If we would just do the thing, our lives would be so much better.
And yet, time after time, we don’t just do the thing:
- we think about doing the thing
- we beat ourselves up when we don’t do the thing
- we question our character and our integrity
- we hyper-fixate on words like consistency, self-discipline, self-respect (or lack thereof) and spiral in neverending thought loops about why we can’t seem to honor our word to ourselves
- we consume lots of self-help content on how to stop procrastinating
OR
- we feel so bad about ourselves that we bury our heads in the sand so we don’t have to feel the uncomfortable feelings from the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves when we procrastinate
The real tragedy of procrastination is that we expend so. much. energy. (and lose so. much. time.) only to still not do the thing and to be in the exact same painful place as before.
Over time, procrastination can feel like a character flaw, an integrity issue, or a moral failing which can lead to deeply-ingrained limiting beliefs about our capabilities and what’s possible for us in life.
But procrastination is not a character flaw or a moral failing: it’s an emotional regulation issue caused by an unmanaged mind.
Why is this distinction so important?
Because when we can train our brain to view procrastination as a byproduct of emotional dysregulation, we can stop trying to solve the problem of whether we’re a good or bad person, or whether we’re worthy and deserving of what we want, and focus our attention and efforts to regulating our emotions and managing and directing our thoughts.
If we strip procrastination down to its truest form, it’s simply a verb — an action, or something we do — and what we repeatedly do becomes a habit.
Habits can be built, and habits can be broken.
My mission is to help you break the habit of resistance and inaction with quick, strategic wins so you can build momentum and start moving forward.
My coaching in this area is highly inspired by the following books:
- Atomic Habits: Tiny Habits, Remarkable Results by James Clear
- The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
- The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success | How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential by Carol Dweck, Ph.D.
- Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristin Neff, Ph.D.
- The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown, Ph.D.
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
- Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown
I highly recommend these books if you want to build good, effective habits or eliminate bad ones, but know you need to radically adjust your current approach.
Not only can good habits transform your life, they can fundamentally change your identity.
It starts with deciding that you want to experience life differently and committing to not giving up on yourself while you do this work.
If you’re tired of procrastinating your life and dreams away and want to get back in the driver’s seat of your life, there’s hope.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.” (attributed to Einstein)
This time, do something different.
Book a call to learn how.