Procrastination And Your Success - Facing The Challenge

By Sylviane Nuccio

Procrastination is usually the result of emotional issues. It is an emotional reaction. Most of the times, people suffering from it are NOT aware of it, and if they are, they feel stuck and don’t know what to do about it.

If you feel that you are procrastinating, don’t despair. The reason you might feel stuck with it is just because you do not know the source of the problem. All you can see is the result, and the result is procrastination.

So, how does procrastination show its ugly face? Well, it is very simple. You are NOT taking actions that you know you should be taking to go from point A to point B.

I have been victim myself of procrastination more than I would have wanted to.

They are different reasons why people procrastinate, but it is always an emotional issue. The most common emotional factor for procrastination is: “Fear of Success”. Yes, you read well, fear of success. That was my personal problem as well.

Now, why does anyone in their right mind would fear success? Of course it is not something we do consciously. It’s a subconscious reaction. Subconsciously we are avoiding the way we are going to feel or even the way we THINK we are going to feel once we have completed the task.
The next obvious question would be: who wouldn’t want to feel successful?

Again, consciously, everyone wants to feel and be successful, but subconsciously it is an all different story.

A very important thing we need to understand is that the subconscious mind does not “think” or “react” logically. Our subconscious mind reacts in accordance to what it was taught or better said, to what it has learned.

Our subconscious “blueprint” is shaped early in life through 3 main areas:

1. Verbal programming; what we “heard” 2. Modeling; what we “saw” 3. Specific incidents; what we “experienced”

What was learned subconsciously throughout our youth doesn’t have to be true. True or false, it is true for the subconscious mind.

Let’s take the case of verbal programming for example. If you heard the phrase: “Money is the root of all evil” over and over when you were growing up, chances are that you subconscious mind believes that money is BAD and it will protect you from it. As a result every time you might get closer to financial success, your subconscious will restrain you and you will translate this by procrastination.

Here is a very common illustration that I have been victim of and seen happening many times:
You are starting your home based business and you have all the tools and systems you need to get started and become successful. All you need to do is take action. Here is what happens: You are NOT taking action, you are procrastinating because you subconscious firmly believes that success is BAD for you and it will stop you before you could go much further.

Somehow you will find a way to do the things that will have the less effect on your potential success. Sometimes, you will even fool yourself in doing things that you make yourself believe are important when they really are not, but you are not taking action.

These are the symptoms of procrastination.

Once you know the signs, however, and have accepted the fact that you procrastinate, you can fix it.

A good way to start is to take a small none important task in which you know you procrastinate. Let’s say for example, cleaning your desk. You know your desk is a mess. Every time you look at it you’re thinking: “This desk is a mess, I’ve got to clean it”. However, you don’t. Everyday your desk is the same or even worse than the day before.

Here is something that will help you. Seat at your desk and close your eyes. Take a big breathe and see your desk all cleaned up. Once your desk is all cleaned up in your mind’s eyes, concentrate on what you are feeling. Ask yourself: “How do I feel now that my desk is all cleaned up?

Most likely your feelings will be a sensation of accomplishment and well being. As you are in this state of mind, talk to yourself like this: “Ok, my desk is now clean and I feel good about it. That is my result feeling. Therefore if I clean my desk I will feel good. This simple exercise will help you to clean your desk.

You can apply this exercise to everything. Close your eyes. See the results. Check your feelings about the result. Tell yourself about the result.

Don’t forget; procrastination is an emotional block. Many time it’s fear of what you are going to feel like. All you need to do is prove to yourself, prove to your ego that the result feelings are not that bad after all, until your ego understands that they are even GOOD.

They are some deeper techniques that can relieve this kind of emotional blockage as procrastination, but it will be the subject of another article.

Sylviane Nuccio is a trilingual professional interpreter who is realizing her goals of a better future with her over achieving wellness network marketing company. http://www.freewebs.com/livetraining