Welcome to September, The month for ‘spring cleaning’ after the autumn and winter months, letting in the sunshine and inviting the new energy of spring, where many new beginnings happen.
So, the topic for September is Procrastination – Maybe it is you who has the problem or maybe it is someone you know?
What is the underlying need to procrastinate and why is it stopping people from welcoming in new beginnings, a new stage, change or a new start?
Did you know it’s because you’re subconsciously afraid of something?
These come from old fears from your past which have not been healed and cleared.
- Maybe you’re afraid to stand out, or afraid to be visible, so holding yourself back protects you from feeling exposed.
- Maybe you’re afraid of standing out and shining if you’re successful, so you procrastinateto protect yourself from people being jealous of your success.
- Maybe the success brings wealth and increased publicity and you feel ‘unsafe’.
- Maybe you’re trying to avoid being “seen” so you don’t get rejected, abandoned, judged, or criticized… your procrastinationprevents you from facing this risk.
- Maybe you’re afraid of people’s criticism if you fail, so you don’t complete your project and your procrastinationthen “protects” you from other people’s reactions.
- Maybe you secretly fear the bullying or abuse from the past is still there and you are still not strong enough to overcome it.
- When you have a fear of being criticized, or being visible, or you’re afraid you might fail, your mind-genie searches for a good reason of why or a solution. And the self-fulfilling prophecy and solution is… procrastination, stalling!
You wouldn’t be procrastinating unless this behaviour was solving a problem for you… in other words, protecting you from an emotion or conflict you want to avoid. The body remembers everything, even though the mind may have forgotten, it is still in your nervous system and knows and remembers what happened in the past. You may be 20 years older but the ‘unresolved fear’ has not left your energy field.
When you identify what you’re afraid of, you’ll find out what you’re trying to avoid, and you can finally find a way to release the original fear.
Imagine being able to:
- Stop the cycle of overwhelm
- Eliminate procrastination and achieve your goals
- Clear your fear of being emotionally clear
- Make decisions with ease – yes or no.
- Know the truth about what’s right for you
Once I learned how to release my fear of being clear, focus on my vision, and find my next yes in small and large decisions, every part of my life changed for the better. It still comes up for me and that is ok, I have learnt how to deal with it now, at the perfect time.
For example; While completing my latest best selling book manuscript HEAL, I had only one part left to do, 95% of the manuscript was complete. I went around in circles, found everything else to do but finish it, wrote ‘waffle’ instead of the facts. I was frustrating myself, let alone anyone being frustrated by me? I gave myself a ‘talking to’ and meditated. Part of me was not ‘feeling safe’ if I did finish it and possibly become successful? I had not opened my ‘comfort zone’ up to that possibility which created the ’procrastination problem’. I realized it, I can tell others but not see it myself? I sent it to my editor and said please make a miracle happen, AND she did. I did get the No.1 Best seller AND I didn’t get hurt.
I wasted so much time and energy, but once I remembered out how to get to the core challenge, fear and change the pattern, the momentum to move forward in my life, personally and professionally was easier. Imagine how much happier you’d feel too. It is all learning and growing on a soul level, these setbacks, speed humps are meant to test us, help us remember what we have learnt and put it into our own practice.
Whether you lose time, income, business opportunities, or damage your self-esteem, procrastination is definitely “expensive” in many ways.
- Think of losing time. When you procrastinate, your to-do list expands and of course, you get more overwhelmed. You waste all that time avoiding doing what you need to do, spinning your wheels, and not moving forward. Very expensive, by the way, what is your time worth?
- Think of the financial cost of procrastination. Have you lost income by not completing projects on time? It’s definitely frustrating as well as expensive when you put off finishing projects, proposals, or phone calls to follow up?
- Now consider the cost to your self-esteem – all that time you’ve spent blaming and criticizing yourself, going around in circles trying to stop procrastinating but not getting anywhere. The negative self-talk hasn’t moved you forward, but wow, is it expensive to your self-esteem and self-worth! Another Self-fulfilling prophecy happening?
So let’s see if we can shift the procrastination and move you into your amazing life, waiting for you on the other side of the procrastination wall!
