Overcoming the Tendency to Procrastinate
ISSA's Patrick Gamboa Gets to the Bottom of Procrastination
Question:
"What do you say to someone who always says 'Next month I'll start working out ...next month ...next month' etc.?"
Answer:
Procrastination is a tricky thing. It can be defined as:
- to defer action; delay
- to put off until another day or time
- to defer making a decision, sometimes until the opportunity is lost
Whatever definition you may give it, procrastination can leave us feeling ineffective, or it can be a relief when we are not sure of what we want, whether that is in our family life, job, relationships, friends, nutrition, and/or exercise. How can we master or overcome the tendency to procrastinate? Let’s begin by uncovering some reasons for procrastination.
Sometimes we procrastinate out of fear, especially the fear of not being able to achieve our goal. Fear or an inability to summon our will is at the root of the procrastination.
"When our courage, intention and personal will are all in alignment, we find deep inner support that creates steadfastness. Our decisions come from the depths of our soul. We find ourselves in equipoise with a sense of rightness that supports our actions.” (The Alchemy of the Desert)
At the root of the procrastination is irresolution and infirmity of purpose. It is helpful when all parts of your being – your mind, heart, intention, will, etc. – are lined up behind your desire. Resolution is the key to avoiding procrastination.
Procrastination can assume the form of an unwillingness to make a decision. In this case, procrastination usually results in a limiting of possibilities as the window of opportunity closes. By not deciding, we allow others, or the situation, to make the decision for us. Procrastination can become a habit for those of us who struggle in making decisions. Yet this strategy can leave us feeling like victims of circumstance, rather than conscious co-creators in our lives.
Often at the root of procrastination is confusion about whose desire or intention is the foundation for your action. Are you procrastinating because it is someone else who wants you to take the action but you really do not? It may be necessary to clearly discern which actions spring from your own desire and which ones actually belong to someone else.
Underlying this type of procrastination is the belief that others know better than you what is best for you to do.
Another source of difficulty is when we procrastinate because of an overly perfectionist nature. We may not start a project or an action because we are not positive that our action can match an impossibly high standard of perfection. It is a form of inner sabotage of our creative impulse because we doubt that our finished product will be good enough.
If you procrastinate because you tend to make things seem more complex than they really are, then the root of this kind of procrastination is a need to make things so difficult and so hard that you feel that they are impossible to achieve.
"Often when this essence is indicated we feel as if we do not deserve something after all. We want something but we feel that we won't be able to have it. Our disappointment covers up procrastination. The real problem is in our motivation. We are not really motivated to go all out for what we want because we fear that we don't really deserve it. When we are challenged, we yield too easily to the difficulty of the challenge and give up. It is a convenient way of proving ourselves right; we really don't deserve to have what we want. This is the essence of choice for procrastination." (The Alchemy of the Desert)
The cause of this procrastination is the feeling that you lack something essential.
Now that we know some reasons why we procrastinate… what can we do about it?
Intention and will are key aspects in consciously creating our lives. Intention is defining what we want the outcome or goal to be. It is singling out a specific desirable outcome among all others: the one that is dear to our heart. The word has its roots in intense. It is the intensification of a wish or purpose channeled into a specific and determined direction. It is being "in tension," or having a fixed stare on the end result or goal. Intention is required to activate our mind to be part of a project, action, or idea. We need intention as the foundation to enable us to put an idea into logical segments of possibility.
Will is the power to choose what we want and the determination to follow through with the required actions to achieve our intention. Will is the faculty of conscious and deliberate action. It is the power that marries our feeling nature with our mind in activating and carrying out a desire. Will is also the process or act of asserting our choice.
Our will is directly connected with our feeling nature. Haven't you ever thought about how great it would be to do a particular thing, only to discover that you did not really have the will to put it into action? Simply liking an idea is not enough to put it into action. We must also have the feeling that something is right. If we take action without having the feeling that it is right for us, the action often lacks power, creativity, or effectiveness. When our will is firmly behind an idea, the idea is fully energized and easily magnetizes support.
Patrick Gamboa, BS, MSS has been in the fitness industry for over thirteen years and is an industry leader, educator, writer, consultant, coach and trainer whose educational background includes Bachelors and Associates of Sciences degrees in Exercise Physiology and Biology respectively. He is an ISSA Master of Fitness Sciences, an ISSA Master of Sports Sciences and the Head Master Trainer for the ISSA. Mr. Gamboa currently serves as the Vice President of Education for the ISSA. He is also the Editor in Chief of the Associate Newsletter and the ProTrainer Online magazine. In addition to his responsibilities with the ISSA he is a Distance Education Training Council certified evaluator and a Regional Lead Testing Coordinator for the National Board of Fitness Examiners. |
