The Major Cause for Procrastination

Procrastination is the silent killer of human will and ambition. Procrastination is what separates a role model of success from a life of mediocrity. People who succeed, who are fulfilled and who tap into all of their abilities and internal resources are people of action. Much has been written on the concept of personal power. Personal power is nothing but the ability to take action. The habit of using your personal power is the habit of taking action. It is the habit of just doing it. Procrastination on the other hand is the opposite of using your personal power. Procrastination means that you are immobilized and stuck. When you use your personal power and take action you literally move in a desired direction. When you procrastinate you are standing still. You are helpless and hopeless. Using your personal power will start to move you and pretty soon you will start building momentum and become unstoppable in moving towards your goals. Using your personal power allows you to blast through any object of procrastination that might stand in your way. Using your personal power and your ability to take action is the ultimate cure for procrastination. The main cause for procrastination is that at some level we link more pain to taking action than to not taking action. The need to avoid pain is biological and your mind will do almost anything to avoid pain. This pain is not just physical pain, but also, and more so, sensations that we associate pain to. All through our lives we have learned to associate pain or pleasure to certain experience based on the feedback we receive. These associations are recorded in our minds and are "used" to help us take quicker decisions and actions next time a similar situation presents itself. Our associations of what we link pain to are a major cause for procrastination. The challenge with our associations is the fact that they are mostly formed unconsciously and we tend to make inaccurate associations that will control our behaviour in the future. In order to overcome procrastination we need to instead learn how to focus on the long term pain of what will happen if we don't take action. Another very common cause for procrastination is that we postpone tasks. The "do it later syndrome." The only problem is that "later" never comes and we often put off the very things we need to do to make the real difference in our lives. This pattern of putting off taking action is most often supported by our good friend Reason who helps us find good "reasons" for putting things off. He helps us justify why it would be "better" to not use our personal power. Procrastination is a "knowing" what to do and not doing it. It is learned helplessness. Most of us know exactly what we need to do to make the necessary changes in our lives, but we don’t. If you are overweight you know exactly what you need to do to loose weight but you don't. Why? It is because at some level you link more pain to dieting and exercise than to eating unhealthy foods. . Breaking through the walls of procrastination requires us to break through the wall of short term pain in order to experience long term pleasure. It is that delayed gratification that has become almost absolute in our culture of quick fixes. Yet the people who understand this, the people who are able to overcome procrastination by keeping their focus on what they eventually want from their lives, are the few who get to experience the true fulfilment of achievement and success. Remember that we all have the ability to take action and change any and everything in our lives in a moment. The cause for procrastination is not a chain around your ankle. Use your personal power and exercise your will by purposely pushing against the short term pain. The more you use your will the stronger it gets and it will give you an incredible sense of accomplishment and consequently build your self esteem. Take Nike's advice and Just Do It.