Day One
Forgive Yourself For Procrastinating In The Past
Are you a procrastinator?
Many of us have the tendency to put things off and no matter how often we beat ourselves up over waiting to the last minute to pack for a vacation, book a flight, or file our taxes and struggle to get it all done in time, we keep doing it again and again. If you’re ready to finally beat procrastination, increase your productivity,and get ahead of the game, you’re in the right place.
Over the course of seven blog posts, I’m going to share my best tips and strategies for overcoming procrastination with you and we start today with – Forgiveness.
I know it seems like a strange place to start, but it’s an important first step. Here is why forgiving yourself for procrastination should always be the first step.
Here’s the thing. There’s nothing you can do about the past except learn from it. Too many have been taught that MISTAKES are monumental negatives.
Beating yourself up about not following the plan you made for reaching a goal does you no good. Quite the opposite actually. If you stress yourself out and engage in negative self-talk, you make it worse. Those feelings of anxiety will enforce your habit to procrastinate again the next time.
The next time you find yourself procrastinating, tell yourself that it’s okay. It’s not the end of the world. Say it out loud and then promise yourself YOU ARE DOING better. Some people use words such as ‘trying’, and ‘hoping’ to do better but experience has proved to me that AFFIRMING here and now has a greater impact on results. You’re NOW working on mastering a new skill and changing a habit. That takes practice, time, and of course failing again and again. It’s part of the learning process.
You may feel frustrated at times about your lack of progress. It’s normal. If you can, tap into that frustration and use it to motivate you. Vow to apply action again and do better. Look at your mistakes. What caused you to procrastinate this time? Learn from it and you will start to do better.
Maybe there’s a big task and you started strong, chipping away at it a little at a time. It is like eating that Elephant “One Bite at a Time“. Then you missed a day and another. That’s okay. Not great, but okay. You did well for a while. It’s good practice and maybe this particular experience taught you that you can’t allow yourself to skip more than one day on an ongoing project.
There’s always something new to learn whenever we fail at something or slip back into a bad habit. Remember it has been proved Changing Habits it a 21 Day+ Challenge. Maybe you do better with three or fewer to-dos per day. Personally I have not assigned myself more than three new tasks a day for the past 5 decades.
I have observed those who overload the list seem to fall into Procrastination more easily.
Forgive yourself for procrastinating so you can move on and practice some more.
Share your Experiences
This is a fantastic post. We all procrastinate at times then wish we could get those moments back. Forgiving ourselves, letting it go, then beginning a new, is the key.
Learning to prioritize our time is a a good start.
Thank you for sharing.
Nancy
I really appreciate your input, Nancy.
Forgiveness of our own shortcomings is as important as forgiving others.
Hi Chuck, what a lovely and gentle approach. A nice beginning step to forgive ourselves and assure ourselves that we are doing better. Brianna
Thank you, Brianna. I will share a secret. Becoming aware of your paintings and your Book, Intentivity I have started to look at many thing “softer yet vibrant. Does that make sense?
Unique and fantastic post, Chuck! I’ve read much on beating procrastination and your challenge is the first to address forgiveness. Thank you for bringing to light that we must forgive ourselves to start new in working procrastination out of our experiences. We’re not even done yet and I’ve got a fire lit inside of me that is burning procrastination away. I’m deeply appreciative of this challenge and this post. Eager to see whats next:)
Thank you for your enthusiasm. I am still battling the ogres of procrastination and focusing on applying ACTION,
You are an amazing person and I appreciate your Tenacity!