What is Procrastination [truly] & How to Stop Procrastinating

Well I guess it’s pretty ironic and only fitting that for my post about procrastination, I would procrastinate on typing it.  I was thinking about this topic a lot when I created the title for it and sat on it, intending to actually write something for at least a month, if not more.

I was procrastinating on a lot that I needed to do, and I was stressing myself out in the process of doing so.  I started thinking about the root of procrastination.  Because sometimes I just feel like I don’t have the energy to do something, and other times I believe that it’s a subconscious presumption of failure that causes me to procrastinate.

So which one is it?  Was I just self-sabotaging myself with subconscious negative thinking or what?  I do believe that sometimes I procrastinate due to a subconscious presumption of failure.

Now, hear me out…

This thinking is not active thinking, at least for me it’s not, it is a subconscious belief.  I did not recognize that this was a belief system that I held until I dove into myself and got real with the truth within me.  Self-work.  You can have a few different types of thought processes, conscious active thinking, unconscious active thinking, unconscious active thinking, and unconscious subconscious thinking.  Conscious being aware of the thinking and unconscious being unaware of the thinking.

I do believe that this type of belief system can be conscious or unconscious, in my case it is conscious subconscious thinking.  It’s like seeing something yellow and knowing it’s yellow automatically without having to look at something yellow and actively think about it in your mind as, “this object is yellow” in order for you to recognize its color.

Your subconscious thoughts and thought process come out in automatic behaviors, which includes speech in any form (written, verbal, non-verbal/body language).  I don’t want to dive too deep into this aspect, as I have written about this sub-topic previously.  The action that the belief system, or thought process, of failure is procrastination.

If you have a subconscious belief system of failure, you will procrastinate.  You may not procrastinate on everything, but it will show up.  The root of procrastination is the thought process of failure.  Some may not even recognize this as such, since the ego mind tends to dismiss the truth about ourselves, giving precedence to this active thought process over a subconscious belief system.

This is what it would look like with an unconscious subconscious belief system of failure:
Let’s say you need to or want to, HEY, create a blog post for example…

-Active Thought: “I really want to create a blog post about procrastination…I will do it tomorrow, I really don’t know exactly what I want to say or how I can explain it yet.” (tomorrow comes and this thought gets repeated over and over again each “tomorrow”)

Notice how the ego mind create an excuse to not do it?  What happens even further is the mind will validate the thought of “I really don’t know exactly what I want to say or how I can explain it yet.”  The mind will find a reason to validate this statement.  The person might not even make an attempt to figure out what they want to say, therefore continuing to validate that excuse.  I am also not going to dive too deep into this aspect, since I have written about it before as well.

I have found affirmations very helpful in transforming old thought processes and belief systems.  However, there is a step that you need to take in order to get to this point.  See my other post about thought processes and belief systems, you might need to take some additional prerequisite steps prior to this before getting to this point.  If you are a procrastinator and have yet to either recognize the root of your procrastination or have yet to take steps towards diving into your true thought processes and belief systems, you will either disagree with this post, deny that you procrastinate (even if you truly do), or you will give yourself a reason, another excuse, to not make an attempt to address your procrastination (i.e. telling yourself that “it won’t help” – either consciously or unconsciously so that you again, can self-sabotage yourself even further and get deeper into the cycle of thought pattern -> validation -> self-sabotage).

Start by recognizing your active thoughts, pay attention to how you talk to yourself in your own mind throughout the day.  Then move onto subconscious thought patterns.  Question yourself.  Ask yourself, if your active thoughts tell you that you are capable of success, then why do you still procrastinate on certain things?  Dive deep and see if there is an unconscious belief system (hint: there is) that is causing this contradictory behavior.  If you believe you will succeed, then why sit on it and procrastinate?  Why is this contradictory behavior there?  (Another hint: there is a subconscious belief system).  Where did this subconscious belief system come from?  Look to your past, there will be something there that you can point to and say this is where this developed.  It may be a pattern of experiences, it may or may not just be one thing.  It could be your upbringing, were the people around you and that raised you mostly positive/optimistic or negative/pessimistic?  Was there a certain traumatic event that you went through?  You must be able to be truthful with yourself during this process (see my post on truth v. honesty).

Once you have identified the root and have become aware of your active thought processes, subconscious thought processes, you can start to change those thought processes up in order to change the behavior, the procrastination, that comes along with those thought processes.  Here are some affirmations:

-I choose to believe that I am capable of success

-If not now, when? (This one is a really simple, easy, and powerful one!)

-I choose to believe that if I do this, I will be okay regardless of how it turns out

-I choose to stay present in all of my choices (this helps to focus on the present moment and not think of outcome)

-I choose to believe that my past does not dictate my present (you can add “and my future” to this one as well)

When it comes to affirmations, keeping it simple is the easiest and most powerful way to change your old thought patterns.  Sure, if you choose to read a list of 50 affirmations every morning it will help, especially in the beginning of changing your old thought patterns, however, I have found it to be much more helpful to choose a couple affirmations, ones that are easiest to remember and ones you feel are best/most powerful for you, and recite them when you are finding yourself in a position in which you are procrastinating.  We can’t always keep a list of 50 affirmations with us for each time we need them, and after a while, we need to start applying the changes we make within ourselves into real-life situations.  Having a few affirmations on hand, right inside of your mind will help in real-life application and help make a new thought pattern stick into your subconscious mind.

Our old thought patterns won’t change over-night, but as long as we take the first steps and continue on our journeys, we will be successful in healing our self-sabotaging behaviors and the thought processes behind them.

Now, what are you waiting for?  Stop procrastinating on stopping your procrastination, and DO!

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