Why Do We Procrastinate?

And a lot of times we procrastinate because we don't have the knowledge or the skills. And if we don't have the knowledge or the skills we need, then that triggers the uncertainty, anxiety trigger and circuit in our brain which actually deactivates the motivational center in the brain. We know the reasons why you need some techniques and tools to understand procrastination and eliminate it. What are you procrastinating about? Do you know the cause of procrastination? Can you Guess the number one cause of procrastination? What is the number one cause of procrastinC? The number one reason for procrastination, in my opinion, is fear. Fear. Now there's. Fear is a very, very big, you know, overall broad concept, right? Fear is an emotion that's triggered in our subconscious mind. But what do you think is the cause of fear? Right. Fear is an effect, right? So fear is not what holds you back, right? Fear is an effect based on what's happening in the subconscious mind. Right? So what do you think is causing, you know, let's say it's fear. Let's say fear is causing you to procrastinate. Fear is not the problem, right? What's causing the activation of the fear signal in our brain? We have on the left side of our brain and on the right side of the brain we have this thing called the amygdala. It's like a piece of almond. Looks like an almond. Right? So it's an almond shape piece of mass and it's an emotional response system in the brain. Right. Based on the meanings that we've given things. Right? So if fear holds us back. So think about this. You have a vision or a goal that you want to achieve. Is it possible that you have something that you know you should do or want to do, but you're not doing it, you're procrastinating doing it. Let's dive deeper into why are you procrastinating? And I'll give you a couple techniques on how to eliminate the procrastination. So I want you to start off, okay, anything you're procrastinating. Start off with the reason I'm procrastinating is. And write the answer to that. So I'm procrastinating because. Right. I'm procrastinating because. And see if you can get the answer to why you're really procrastinating. I'm procrastinating because, for example, okay, so I'm procrastinating because. And write down the answer. So tell Me the reason. Okay. That you're procrastinating. I'm procrastinating because, you know, I fear that when people read it, they won't like it. And what does that mean? So if somebody reads it and doesn't like it, if somebody sees it, it doesn't like it. If I fail, then what does that mean? All right, what does that mean? If we go deeper than the surface of procrastination, we're going to find that the meaning that we give something determines the neurochemistry, right? The neurotransmitters that are released in our bloodstream that cause us to feel a certain way. And based on how our brain works. Pay close attention. Right. Based on the way our brain works, we move away from what we don't want more than we move towards what we do want. Let me repeat that. We move away automatically from what we don't want, whether it's we don't want to experience it, hear it, feel it, see it. We move away from what we don't want faster. Then we move towards what we do want. Okay, does that make sense? So if you write down the reason I'm procrastinating is I fear failure, I fear success. I fear disappointing myself. I fear being embarrassed or ashamed or ridiculed or judged. I fear. Fill in the blank, right? Then what you do is, once you understand what the real cause is, then you ask yourself this question. If, let's say I fear being embarrassed or ashamed or ridiculed or judged, doesn't that mean that my self image of who I am is in question? And so if I do this thing, if I follow through and do this thing and somebody embarrasses me or tries to, or I feel ashamed, or somebody ridicules me, or somebody just says, that's a bunch of crap that you just did, doesn't that mean that I am concerned with what other people think of me? And that's what's really holding me back? So why would I want to subject myself to that type of scrutiny? Does that make sense? So the real cause of procrastination, in many cases when we have fear is the meaning that we've given other people's opinion of us. The meaning that we've given, what failure means, the meaning that we've given, okay, whatever may happen as a result of doing the thing, it may not be good enough. It may not be valued enough. It may not be, you know, up to the standards that I see myself having for myself. So if I'm afraid of being rejected Then why would I want to put myself through that feeling of not being good enough, not being smart enough, not being worthy enough? I'm going to move away from that as quickly as possible. And the best way to move away from that is to not follow through, to do the thing that I need to do or want to do in order to actually achieve my goal or dream. Does that make sense? If it makes sense, give me a little like or love, Right? We're talking about the neuroscience of procrastination now, all right? The meaning I give anything determines how I feel. And how I feel will determine whether I take action or I don't. If I feel threatened, if I feel that I might be embarrassed or ashamed or ridiculed or judged, if I feel that I might be rejected, if I feel that, that I might cause myself any mental, emotional, physical, financial or spiritual pain, then I'm not going to take action. Because my biology is wired to move away from anything that might cause me real or imagined pain or discomfort. Do you get any aha's yet? Did you get any aha's? Right. Our brain is wired for what? Survival first, you know, safety second. With safety, emotional, mental, physical, financial, spiritual. Safety second, conservation of energy third. So it does the first two very, very, very fast in billions of seconds. And then we move towards pleasure, okay? Or gain. So let me ask you a question. Is it possible to change the meaning of something so that we diffuse the negative or disempowered one? Is it possible to do that? So can I change the meaning if. Let's say I have something that I'm procrastinating and I haven't been taking action? All right? I haven't been taking action for whatever reason. Is it's a protective mechanism, right? To protect my self image or because of fear. So let's say that there's something I need to be taking action on. Let's say I can uncover the real reason I'm not taking action through the exercise that I gave you. All right? Is there a way to change the meaning of what it means if somebody rejects me? What does it mean if somebody tries to embarrass me? What does it mean if I don't do my best work the first time? What does it mean if. If I fail? What? Can I change the meaning of anything so that I am empowered instead of disempowered? Pay a close attention to the question. Can I change the meaning? Can I deliberately change the meaning of anything so that it lifts me up instead of puts me down? So let Me share a story with you that, that might help you. When I was 19 years old, I got into real estate. I had no experience in real estate, no experience in selling, no experience in marketing, no experience in, in anything. I just was brand new in real estate. But I, I was on commission only so that I had to sell in order to, to, you know, pay for food and for clothing. And I was asked to make 100 phone calls a day. And I was calling people I didn't know, and basically I had to pick up the phone, go, hi, this is John Asraf with Allen Brown Real Estate. Do you want to sell your home? Right. He goes, I was looking for people who want to sell their home. All day long people would hang up on me. You know, all day long people say, what the hell are you calling me for? Don't you know you're cold calling? Click, click, click, click, click. And initially, you know, initially I was like, oh, my God, people are mad at me. Oh, my God, people think I'm an idiot, people think I'm a jerk, people think I'm rude, people think I'm invading their, you know, their, their, their privacy. And in some cases that's true. I was, I wasn't rude. But one of my mentors said, listen, when you are calling somebody and you're interrupting them, maybe you are interrupting them. Maybe, you know, as long as you're kind and nice, how they behave shouldn't affect what you think about yourself. You're a kind young man and you're trying to help people sell their home. You're trying to help people buy their home. So whenever somebody gets mad at you, don't own what they say or how they react. They own what they say and how they react. You reinforce your own self image with, I'm just trying to help people, and I'm doing the very best I can to learn and to grow. And it doesn't matter how many people hang up, I'm going to find one or two people that actually need my services. So that little reframe got me away from feeling fearful that somebody would reject me or try to embarrass me or hang up on me or call me names or swear at me. And then what my mentor also said is, listen, out of 100 people that you call, only one might be interested, but that one could help you make a sale. And so in sales, you know, they're not rejecting you as a person. They're rejecting what you're offering them. They're rejecting, okay, whatever the product or service is. So Is it possible to change the meaning of anything so that you are empowered instead of disempowered? Is it possible that if somebody says something about your work, somebody says something about you, somebody says something about the way you look, somebody says something about what you do or don't do, somebody says something about what you should do or shouldn't do? Could have, couldn't have, could you say their opinion is great and I choose not to accept it because I am learning and growing. I am becoming more each and every day. I am willing to risk failure. I'm willing to risk being embarrassed, ashamed, ridiculed, the judge so that I can learn and grow and become better and upgrade my knowledge and skills so that I am empowered and I achieve all my goals and dreams instead of allowing somebody else's opinion or while I'm learning and allowing failure to hold me back. Is it possible for you to change the meaning at the conscious and subconscious level so that you take inspired action? Is it possible? I'm just saying I, I don't know any, anything about this stuff. But is it possible that at a subconscious level the meaning you're giving, whatever it is that might be the outcome of your behavior is negative, causing cortisol, epinephrine or norepinephrine to run through your bloodstream and puts the brakes on your behavior so that you don't take action and instead you reinforce low self image, low self esteem, disempowered state fears that may be holding you back. You see, you're either going to reinforce your low self esteem or you're going to reinforce a positive self esteem because you're going to take action. You're either going to reinforce the reasons to become or be fearful. Whether it's fear of success, failure, disappointing yourself or others, embarrassment, shame, ridiculed or judged, or you're going to overcome those fears and you become empowered and you become better at managing emotions. Is it possible that you can learn how to do that? Of course it is. You have a brain. You're not your brain. Your brain is releasing neurotransmitters every second of every day. With every thought, every emotion, every behavior. You're reinforcing patterns. And either those patterns are positive or negative, constructive or destructive, empowering your disempowering. You stop being a victim of your subconscious patterns, start becoming victorious because you're going to upgrade your knowledge and your skill on how to do this for yourself. You have unlimited power and potential. So patterns is what your brain and my brain naturally does all day long, every Day repeats patterns, reinforces patterns to conserve energy. Whether they're good patterns, bad patterns, whether they help you or they don't. Once you become conditioned, you develop a habitual way of thinking and feeling and behaving, and then you reinforce those patterns because that's how your brain works. I didn't, you know, you're our maker, whatever you want to call it is, you know, who created our brains. Listen, I don't know how old you are, but the faster you start to, you know, master your own mindset and manage and master your own emotions, that's what it's going to take to master your behaviors and results. If you don't master your mindset and you don't master your emotions, how could you ever master your behaviors? Like, how could you ever master behaviors without mastering your mindset? I do have a question, right? Do I have a question for you. Do you believe, and this is for everybody. Do you believe and that mindset is what separates the best from the rest? Do you believe that everybody's saying mindset is what separates the rest from the or the best from the rest? So here's my question for you. Do you practice strengthening your mindset every day? Do you practice strengthening your mindset every day? And if you do, how, How? If you do, if you believe that mindset is what separates the best from the rest. And my question then is, how do you strengthen your mindset? How do you strengthen your mindset? I mean, I know if you want to strengthen your muscles and physical organs, you can exercise, right? But how do you strengthen your mindset? What mental or emotional techniques are you using to strengthen your mindset every single day? You're inner sizing, inner size, inner size for your brain, right? So visual. Visualizations. Visualization is simulation, meditation, mindfulness, affirmations, declarations, mental crop, mental contrasting, tapping, emdr. There are a series of mental and emotional inter sizes that you can do every single day, right? Being aware of your emotions and your thoughts. Absolutely. You can flip flop between emotions just like a Hollywood actor or actress does, right? So you can do that. But I want to leave you with this. Don't allow procrastination to hold you back. Okay? Procrastination is an effect. I want you to start thinking of effects versus cause, right? So if you're not taking action, ask yourself why. If you're taking action and stopping, ask yourself why. If you are fearful of what other people say, of being embarrassed, ashamed, ridiculed or judged, change the meaning that you have at the subconscious level of what it means. If somebody embarrasses you or why are you shaming yourself? Right. Because we're going to always come up against limiting beliefs, fears or self image. And a lot of times we procrastinate because we don't have the knowledge or the skills. And if we don't have the knowledge or the skills we need, then that triggers the uncertainty, anxiety trigger and circuit in our brain which actually deactivates the motivational center in the brain. We know the reasons why you need some techniques and tools to understand procrastination and eliminate it. Okay, hey, this is John, and if you liked 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.