John Assaraf breaks down why we procrastinate: some people work better under deadline pressure, others fear failure or embarrassment, and some are trapped by perfectionism. He recommends identifying which one applies to you, then taking small actions to interrupt the pattern and build an identity as someone who acts.
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Create some, what I call our pain frames. If I continue to procrastinate, if I continue to be perfect or try to be, if I continue to have these fears, I'm going to become more of what I don't want to become. That's a negative reinforcement pattern. Today I want to chat with you about procrastination. I've just been in the studios creating our new winning the game of procrastination program. And something that a lot of people don't understand about procrastination is it really has nothing to do for the most part with being lazy. If you think about the word procrastinate, right, is to put off until tomorrow, basically is the Latin root or derivative of procrastinate. And a lot of people think you procrastinate because you're lazy. And the answer is no, you don't. There are really three main reasons why you may procrastinate. Number one, there are some people, a few people that procrastinate because it's an arousal mechanism and they know they need to get something done, but they just don't feel like doing it right now. And they wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And actually the energy builds up and if there's a deadline, something called Parkinson's law kicks in which says that you will get done with what you need to get done in the time allotted to get it done in. And so Parkinson's law basically says, you know, if you wait right until that last minute for some people, it creates this arousal and it brings out the best in them. Is that you? I don't know. Number two is fear. When somebody has something that needs to get done, if there is any self doubt, if there is, you know, the risk of being embarrassed, ashamed, ridiculed, judged, failing at it, then your subconscious is automatically going to put a block on the motivation and the motor cortex of your brain is going to say, don't do it. Like, you know, just wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Number three, self image, self esteem, self worth. When there is project, something you want to start, something you want to stop, and you don't feel like you're worthy of it, or you feel like it's not going to measure up to what you have imagined it to be, you're going to bump against your self image or self esteem, self worth type of stuff. And this tends to create perfectionists that in their own mind, they think that, well, let me wait till it's perfect. And what they're really saying is, if it's not perfect in my mind, Then that's going to show how imperfect I am and therefore I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy, etc. See how this cycle works? So arousal, fear and self esteem, self worth, which is really tied to fear. And so what do you do? First is become aware, which is causing you to procrastinate. And certainly, by the way, there's another area here of, you know, things like I don't want to make my bed. You know, we've all heard that if we have kids and we've also been that, you know, I don't want to clean X, Y or Z. I don't want to tidy up it. I just don't want to do it because I don't like it or hate it and I just don't want to. Well, that's, guess what, that's, that's a valid reason not to. But let's go deal with the other three. So awareness of which reason is causing you to procrastinate, that's step one. And then step two is to say, okay, if I don't take action, what pattern am I reinforcing? Am I reinforcing the fear? Am I reinforcing the, the self worth and self esteem that may be in question here? And is that what I really want? Because if I keep reinforcing a disempowering or negative or destructive pattern, I become more of the pattern that I actually need to let go of if I want to succeed more in my life, right? So create some, what I call our pain frames. If I continue to procrastinate, if I continue to be perfect or try to be, if I continue to have these fears, I'm going to become more of what I don't want to become. That's a negative reinforcement pattern. Now let's shift the frame to saying now what if I just take a little bit of action? What if I take one or two little micro easy to follow through on steps so that I could A, interrupt the disempowering pattern and B, reinforce the pattern that I'm an action taker, I have some confidence, I can create some certainty, I can move forward and I can become the person that I want to become. One pattern keeps you stuck. One pattern creates freedom. Guess what I want for you. I want freedom for you. Mental freedom, emotional freedom and behavioral freedom so that you take inspired action and do the things that you know you should be and could be doing to achieve your success. Have an awesome day. Hey, this is John and if you like that video, watch the next video. Because it is packed with things that you can do right now to achieve success way faster than ever before.
