How Can I Stop Procrastinating?  WHY do I keep putting things off that I KNOW I need to do now, to be successful and move forward with my life?

 

Here are 7 Great Tips.  Follow these tips to help you Move Forward.

 

“Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.”
Spanish Proverb

 

“How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.”
Martin Luther

 

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
Karen Lamb

 

One of the most common problems in our lives is procrastination. We know what we want to do and what we ‘should’ do. But we still end up spending hours upon hours doing “easier” work or escaping via TV, Computer, Cell phone, listening to Music…the list goes on (escaping work or what really needs to get done).

 

Now, nothing is wrong with a little escape from time to time. We all need a little R & R. But if you procrastinate too much you will not get the most important things done. And you will also send yourself into negative spirals where your self-esteem plummets and you spend your days, or longer, worrying and feeling down, sometimes into panic, anxiety and depression.

 

So what can you do?  There are things you CAN do.

Here are 7 wonderful tips to help you to Stop Procrastinating and start living your life more fully.

And if you want to learn much more about becoming more productive, focused and minimizing stress, you can go to my website for more information on Hypnotherapy to get your subconscious mind and your conscious mind working together.  www.darlenemcdowell.com 

 

 

7 Tips to Stop Procrastinating. To Move Forward.

 

 

1. Stop thinking. Start doing.

“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.”
Eva Young

 

A bit of planning can certainly help you to achieve what you want to achieve. A lot of planning and thinking tends to have the opposite effect.

You think and think and try to come up with “the perfect plan”. A plan where you don’t have to make mistakes, where you will never be rejected, where there will be no pain or difficulties. Such a thing does of course not exist. But as long as you work on that plan you can protect yourself.

 

2. Don’t blow a task out of proportion.

“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.”
Olin Miller

 

”Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.”
George Claude Lorimer

 

By over thinking and putting things off, you are not only trying to protect yourself from pain, but you are also making mountains out of molehills.

 

The quotes above are so true! The more hours and days you put something off the worse it grows in your mind.

And because you are dwelling on it, it expands in your mind. And since you are putting it off, you are probably thinking about it in a negative way. This makes a little thing, a big huge thing, a horrible thing that seems to be growing bigger and threatening to ruin your life.

So Plan a little and then Take Action.

Often you don’t even have to plan, you have been there before and you know what needs to be done. So Stop Thinking so much and just do it, no matter how you feel and what you think, because…. Your thinking changes all the time.

 

3. Just take the first step.

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

When you start to look too far into the future, any task or project can seem close to impossible. And so you shut down because you become overwhelmed and start surfing the internet aimlessly instead. That is one of the reasons why it is good to plan for the future but then to shift your focus back to today and the present moment.

Then you just focus on taking the first step today. That is all you need to focus on, nothing else. By taking the first step you change your mental state from resistant to “Wow, I’m actually doing this! It feels good!”. You put yourself in state where you become more positive and open, a state where you may not be enthusiastic about taking the next step after this first one, but you are at least accepting it. And so you can take the next step. And the next one after that.

The thing is, you can’t see the whole staircase anyway and it will shift and reveal itself along the way. That’s why the best of plans tend to fall apart at least a little, as you start to put it into action. You discover that your map of reality doesn’t look like reality.

 

4. Start with the hardest task of your day.

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie

 

Maybe you have an important call to make that you also fear might be uncomfortable. Maybe you know you have gotten behind on answering your emails. Maybe you have a pile of paperwork that needs to be filed. Maybe you have the last five pages of your school paper to finish. Whatever it may be, get it out of your way. That is the first thing you do.

If you start your day this way you will feel relieved. You will feel relaxed and good about yourself. And the rest of the day – and the rest of your to-do list – will tend to feel a lot lighter and easier to move through. It’s amazing what difference this one action makes.

 

5. Just make a decision. Any decision.

“In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Theodore Roosevelt

 

We feel bad when we sit on our hands and don’t take action because it’s unnatural. The natural thing is to be a decisive person and take action!

When you procrastinate you want to do something, but you don’t take the action that is in alignment with that thought. It will make your mind become conflicted.

What you do, always sends signals back to yourself about Who You Are.

And Yes… saying affirmations to yourself that you are confident can help you, but taking the confident actions you want, is what really builds your self-confidence and a self-image of you being a confident person.

When you procrastinate, you lower your self-esteem and it send signals back to yourself that you are an indecisive person that cannot take action.

 

6. Face your fear.

“Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the “someday I’ll” philosophy.”
Denis Waitley

I think this is so true. It’s easier to live on that “someday…” thought.

It’s harder to allow yourself to take action. Maybe being afraid of the risk of looking like a fool or making mistakes, stumbling, etc. and so you Don’t do Anything…to avoid that pain or to even take responsibility for your own life and life’s choices.

The easier choice can come with a sense of comfort, with a certain level of success, or regret for all the things you never dared to do and a vague sense of being unfulfilled. You wonder about what would have happened if you had taken more action and more chances.

The harder choice will give you…..who knows? But it WILL make your feel more alive with a sense of fulfilment!

 

7. Finish it.

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task”
William James

 

“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.”
David Allen

 

Not taking the first step to start accomplishing something can make you feel bad. But not finishing what you have started can also leave you with a negative feeling. You feel fatigued or stressed and sometimes you don’t even know why. It’s like someone has zapped your inner power and your inner strength.

If that is the case, go over tasks and projects that you are currently involved in.

 Is there something that you know you want to finish but haven’t yet?

Try to get that finished as soon as you can and you will absolutely start to feel a whole lot better.

 

NOTE: 

Just be careful. Don’t think you have to finish everything you started.

 If you are reading a book and you absolutely don’t like it and it doesn’t peak your interest… Read another book that does! 

Don’t let life change your goals. Because achieving your goals can change your life.

You are Never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

Enjoy your life to its fullest every day!

Darlene

  

www.darlenemcdowell.com

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