Are you a procrastinator? 3 Reasons why you should be proud

Many procrastinators tell themselves stuff like: “I’m lazy. I’m undisciplined. I’m a failure. I’m hopeless. I’ve got no self-control. I’ll never succeed at anything.”  This of course is not helpful as they are labelling themselves in a very negative and permanent manner over something which is temporary and transient. Procrastinators who are highly ambitious can be even more abusive to themselves. They berate themselves with abuse such as “I’m a sell-out, unattached, shallow”; all because they believe that they are selling themselves short by not living up to their lofty ambitions. Again, this level of self abuse is very unhealthy and, best avoided.

[thrive_text_block color="light" headline="9 Worst Reasons Why People Procrastinate"]

Discover the 9 Worst Reasons Why People Procrastinate with this FREE Report.

Get Your FREE Copy Here[/thrive_text_block]

On the other hand, we have the procrastinators who lead a double life, pretending that they are in no way a procrastinator. They boast about their big workloads, ability to work under pressure and their talent for regularly pulling all-nighters in order to get the job done. These people can, for a short while at least, appear to be highly effective workers. However, work is about producing results, and eventually, it becomes apparent that they are consistently failing to meet their objectives. These procrastinators become very noticeable at this point; as they scramble to employ their arsenal of excuses of and provide a litany of reasons as to why it is somebody else’s fault that they did not get the important work done. Lodged between these groups of people is the procrastinator who does not actually realise that they are a procrastinator. They have confused busyness with effectiveness and while they do get large quantities of work completed; their inability to prioritise effectively, means that the  work they are doing is of little value as they are failing to complete the work that really matters. These people are often choosing, at a subconscious level, to tackle the small and meaningless tasks in order to delay dealing with the important stuff.

How it feels to be a procrastinator

If you are a procrastinator, you may look back upon the day and struggle to figure out where your time went. You remember some of the mundane things that you did e.g. having a coffee; conversation with some friends, watching some TV, and surfing the net, but those random activities couldn’t possibly have filled the whole day, could they? But, naturally, they did. Procrastination is, “the thief of time”. To a procrastinator, it truly does feel as if his or her time were somehow stolen. You feel like you were busy, as though you completed a lot of work but if you look at a list of your goals, you appear to have made little or no progress whatsoever. If a procrastination issue is severe enough, and lasts long enough, it's often called a “block”, as in “writer’s block”. Anybody may be blocked, and experiencing one of these blocks does not mean that there is something wrong with you as a person. Occasionally, blocks last for weeks or months, or even longer. Unfortunately, of the many things that we are taught to deal with in life, overcoming these blocks is not one of them; despite the significant difference that overcoming a block can make to your life.

Be proud to be a procrastinator

Yes, I did just say that. Procrastination, if you let it control you, is a terrible thing but there’s no need to feel ashamed or desperate!  Obviously, if you are a procrastinator, it is essential that you learn to tackle the problem but, when you discover that you are a procrastinator, you are learning many positive things about yourself. The following are just some of those positive things:

1. You are ambitious

Procrastination is an affliction of ambitious individuals. If you don’t believe me; Google procrastination. With a little research you’ll acquire links to 100s of pages advising you on how not to procrastinate while writing your novel or thesis, following a fitness program, or seeking a new career. The people who follow these pursuits are ambitious people and ought to be admired, even if they do procrastinate.  I have yet to encounter an article entitled ‘How not to procrastinate while being a bum who is devoid of ambition and aspirations’. If you do find such an article, please forward it as I would love to read it.

2. You have not quit

All procrastinators, regardless how baffled, may boast at least one accomplishment: they haven’t quit on their dream. To procrastinate is to put off something which you know needs to be done. If you had given up on your dream, you would not think that the actions required to achieve it, need to be done.

To hang onto a challenging dream despite your fears and lack of achievement, requires courage. You may also be facing the disapproval of others which can be extremely difficult to overcome. Despite all of the adversity and difficulties you face, some of them self-inflicted, you still have the desire to achieve your dream. Undoubtedly, you have some work to do if you want to turn that dream into a reality but you have hung on in there and as long as you are in the game, you have a chance to win. Rather than berate yourself, you need to turn your dream into action and, from there, into reality.

3. It’s human nature

Where I come from, rural Ireland, we have an old saying that you should beware of anybody who is always happy. Nobody is perfect and we all have our difficulties to overcome. You will have good days, bad days, and days that fall somewhere in between.  Everybody does and, that is why everybody procrastinates at some point.

My old trainer, Kieran Dolan, used to tell me that out of 5 days in the gym, if you had 1 great day, 1 bad day and 3 good/decent days, you were doing really well. Life is like that too; there will be days when you may fall a little behind but you make the most of them. Then, when you have the great day, you can really capitalise on it and make some great progress.

For great strategies to overcome procrastination, check out Stop Procrastinating.

You are probably wondering if I am suggesting that you should accept procrastination. That is not what I am saying at all. If you are a procrastinator, there is no value in beating yourself up about it. Also, there is no value in pretending that you are not a procrastinator. One of the most important factors in success is to have an ambitious attitude and the willingness to persevere in the face of adversity; even when that adversity comes from within. When you acknowledge that you are a procrastinator, you recognise that you already have these attitudes. It can be extremely difficult to teach somebody to develop these attitudes. What you need now is to employ some strategies to fix any thinking errors you may have and implement some behavioural strategies to help you develop more productive habits. This is far easier to do and, when you do it, within a short space of time you will cease to be a procrastinator.