Self Confidence, Fear and the Inevitable Procrastination

One of the major reasons why most people avoid the very tasks that can free them from mediocrity is their lack of self confidence. Mediocrity is nothing but failing to live up to your true potential. What you can do is absolutely incredible. What you will do is often disappointing. Most people have been conditioned to only do what they ‘can’ do or to only do what they have been told they ‘can’ do or what they’ve successfully done before.

 

A lack of confidence in yourself will automatically keep you from going for it because you lack that sense of certainty that comes from being confident. Self confidence is nothing but a gut level belief in yourself and in you capabilities – even if you haven’t done it before. Procrastination is not just a device for avoiding mundane tasks but on a much higher level it is avoiding the ‘big’ decisions and the ‘big’ actions that can make the real difference in your life.

 

This is a huge issue because the only way you can get your life to consistently move forward is to consistently take action. When you fail to move forward you fail to grow and without growth there is ‘death’. If not physically, then certainly emotionally and spiritually. To get from where you are to where you ultimately want to be you would have to do things that feel uncomfortable; things that are unfamiliar to you. Without a sense of certainty and confidence in yourself you will most probably never do it. Your doubt will keep you from even attempting it.

 

On the other hand, if you are filled with confidence, you are confident and certain in yourself and in your abilities to produce a specific result – regardless of past performance or whether you’ve done it before. Self confidence is what creates a sense of certainty within you. This sense of certainty is nothing but a feeling that is created by you. When you’ve done it before it is relatively easy to re-create the feeling and thus feel certain. It is not something that you have to confront afresh. As human beings we tend to avoid uncertainty and that which is unfamiliar.  It is because of this that procrastination can steal your future for procrastination will keep you from taking the actions that will create the future you desire. Confident people are people who are action minded. They are people who know that action and confidence goes hand in hand as the one creates the other.

 

With a lack of confidence comes a certain level of fear. Confidence is not an absence of fear, but a presence of courage to face the fear and do it regardless. The doing; the action is what drives the fear away. Failure to take action, not only accommodates fear, but actually creates it and out of a fear of failure you will find a ‘good reason’ to not take action and procrastinate.

 

Taking action is the ultimate cure for a lack of confidence and a wavering sense of certainty can be anchored by using your personal power to take action. When you use your mind and your emotions to engage your nervous system into action, you quite literally drive uncertainty away for uncertainty and a lack of confidence s nothing but a ‘mental condition.’ Whether you think of yourself as confident or not; either way you will be right. Confidence starts and ends with the image you hold of yourself. It’s as simple as that. The image you have of yourself; your self-esteem, will reinforce or take away from your level of confidence. Right now you can decide to start focusing on a different image of yourself. Start to direct your thoughts towards how you want yourself to be, instead of what you fear you might become. As you do this you will start to feel confident. Remember that confidence is nothing but a feeling and as you dwell on these feelings the results will surely follow.

 

So many people today wake up in their midlife only to realize that they haven’t done anything they always wanted to do. They realized that they’ve spent 30 years procrastinating – putting off doing what they should have done. This is a major cause for depression and what is generally referred to as a ‘mid-life-crises’. The ‘cure’ however lies in eliminating procrastination and taking action and to act on your dreams and your desires. It is never too late to have a happy childhood. It is never too late to take action on your dreams and desires. It is your actions that will shape your life more than anything else. What you do and what you fail to do will be the creators of your life and you (and only you) have full control over that.

 

When you take responsibility for your life and realize that it’s all up to you, you empower yourself to make it the way you ‘see’ it. No one else is responsible.  When you assume responsibility, you assume your ability to respond and to take action. The minute you do this you unlock a level of confidence within yourself that can empower you to take action. Confidence comes not from any physical proof, but from an inner knowing that you can. You create a sense of certainty by starting to doubt the doubts you had in yourself previously. Ultimately procrastination can not survive in the mind of a confident and action minded person.

 

 

The Fatiguing Effects of Procrastination

Nothing is so fatiguing
as the eternal hanging on of
an uncompleted task. 

- WILLIAM JAMES 

Procrastination has the tendency to drain you emotionally. When you continuously fail to take action you start to build emotional baggage. As you progress in the days weeks and months to come your baggage becomes heavier until you eventually can’t carry it anymore. 

This emotional fatigue is one of the most devastating effects of procrastination as it effects all parts of your emotional life. Your happiness is nothing but an emotional response and constantly living with an uncompleted task will surely distract you from focusing on what’s most important. The human mind has the tendency to automatically gravitate towards worries and anxiety unless we consciously direct and focus it on what we actually want. 

Think of your focus or your attention as one of your most valuable assets. In a way your attention is your time. Where you spend your time emotionally will determine how you think and how you feel and what you eventually do or fail to do. Uncompleted tasks will occupy your mind to such an extent that it can cause more procrastination and even task avoidance altogether.  

Most people never switch off after a long day at work, mostly because of uncompleted tasks. This constant worry and concern about what they haven’t done is a time bomb that actually creates stress. Most uncompleted tasks are not just the result of procrastination but in many ways they are the cause for procrastination as the one reinforces the other. Planning, completing and rewarding the completion of your most important tasks is a habit and an incredibly satisfying one. Not only will you be vastly more productive, but you will free yourself from emotional strain. It’s all in your mind and it’s all in your interpretations and your perceptions. 

Procrastination solutions >>

Overcoming Procrastination

Doing it and Doing It NOW!! by OG MANDINO

Og Mandino is one man that knows all about how powerful it is to just take action. It is in fact the central message in most of his bestselling books like The Greatest Salesman in The World. Og Mandino recognized the importance doing what you need to do and doing it now. Tomorrow never comes. What you fail to do right now will escape you forever for the magic is in this moment; the moment where the inspiration welled up. Taking consistent action is a habit of mind and like all habits you first form and shape it and in return the habit will shape you. You are ultimately the master of your own habits, especially the habits of mind that influence your thinking.  

 

 

I will act now. I will act now. I will act now.  

Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids.  

With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now.  

I will repeat these words again and again and again.I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have.  

Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labour of the lazy.  

I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait.  

If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever.  

This is the time. This is the place. I am the person. 

-OG MANDINO

 

 

Not now. I’ll do it when…

“Conditions are never just right.

People who delay action until all factors

are favourable do nothing.”

 

- WILLIAM FEATHER

 

How often do you put off important tasks because everything’s not quite right “yet”. The truth is that it’s never the actual circumstances, but rather the circumstances that you make up. The stories you tell yourself become your very excuse and most often to the point that you start to believe your own stories. These beliefs then start to control and dictate your behaviour.

 

There lies a lot more truth in Nike’s statement of “just do it!” – when you just do it you take action despite all these silly excuses that you make up. Things will never be perfect and when you take action regardless you get going and that is all you need. Once you’ve got it started you can correct your way as you go along and deal with the roadblocks when you get there. Avoiding the journey because there might be some roadblocks ahead is not very rewarding or very intelligent. Unfortunately this is how most people approach their lives. Out of their fear they never even attempt to do it and they make up stories to justify their own inaction.

 

Here is a very powerful philosophy to live by. It ties in very closely with Nike’s philosophy:

Whenever you approach anything in your life try not to get it right but just try to get it started. When you try to get it right from day one you will never succeed, if you only have to get it going you can succeed at anything.

 

What can you get started today?

 

One of the most powerful ways to overcome procrastination is to just do it regardless of the discomfort that you associate to taking action. Use you will to do something, even if it is very small, but commit to doing it. As you do this the road ahead will unfold. Remember that there is a big difference between living a perfect life and living a great life. A perfect life does not exist for problems, challenges and failures are as much a part of life as anything else. A great life is filled with fullness of experience. The only guarantee that comes with procrastination is the failure to live a full life. Ultimately the choice is with you. Choose wisely.

 

.:. (in)action – How to Overcome Procrastination and Indecision. more…

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Cheap Dreams: The Price You Pay for Procrastination

“Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.” - CHRISTOPHER PARKER  

What’s the true price for procrastination? Can you actually calculate it? Most people go around and live their lives in what feels good in the moment. They do only that which feels comfortable right now and in doing this they keep putting off that which is really important. They keep putting off the very tasks that will eventually give them what they really want which is so much more than just feeling good in the moment. 

You can never really calculate the value of procrastination as a single action can spark a whole series of events and effects, most of which you could never have foreseen when you took action. There truly is magic in action for every action is a cause set in motion that effects and builds on past effects to move you in a definite desired direction. 

In life there are only reasons and results and reasons won’t get you what you want. Only action will. Drop your story and start to focus on the price you will eventually pay for procrastinating. Get some leverage on yourself by focussing on the consequences of procrastinating instead of focussing on what feels comfortable in the moment. Remember that for every action or inaction there is a consequence. When you take action you get to influence the consequences of your life, but with inaction, indecision and procrastination you have no say and no influence. This is when your life feels out of control. Procrastination takes away and steals from you your ultimate power which is to shape and direct your own life. 

Be careful not to fall in the trap of distraction for it has the tendency to become the norm and the norm leads to “normal” meaning that you will be like the majority of people who have no real drive and no ambition to create their lives the way they want them. It’s all a choice, even if it is unconscious, but it does not have to be. You can take charge of your life. After all, it is your life. You get to decide exactly how you want to live it.

(in)action: How To Overcome Procrastination and Indecision

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