Good day this is Revvell of Bodacious Living on the WIN!    

    I recently finished the 3rd part in a series on procrastination I was doing as podcasts and articles for The Win Online here. After finishing, I did a few non-essential things, then, went to take a shower.

    As I was showering, I realized how free I felt! Previously, as a procrastinator, I’d often felt weighed down by not even beginning, much lest finishing things I needed to have done because I’d procrastinated on them saying ~ “I’ve got plenty of time; I’ll do it/them, later,” then, doing a (“that’s good enough”) rush job on something OR, not meeting the deadline and rationalizing my own behavior!

    What’s really cool about this is, Sunday night, my husband was going to go out and play back-up for a musician friend. Since I’d finished what I needed to do, I had the option of going with them ~ or not! Now, I’ve always had the option yet, it would come down to... am I going to get my show in by the deadline, i.e. Monday morning, or, go to watch him play? Now, I have the FREEDOM of not going, not because I had a deadline to meet but because I had more freedom of choice!

    That’s one place where freedom comes in! If I’d not finished, options would have been pretty much the same with a couple of additions... Go, or not; stay home and finish  or go, then stay up and do a rush job or, go and not get it done at all ... in other words, procrastinate, and miss the Monday morning deadline. Of course, I still could have gone and then worked much of the night to get it in; yet, I’d rather have the freedom to choose to go or not BECAUSE I got it done and BECAUSE I wanted to have a choice of doing any number of other things if I chose not to go.

Choices!

As discussed in earlier shows, one reason folk tend to procrastinate is fear. It’s interesting because we tend to fear success AND failure.

What if we succeed? Well, people will expect more of us and we’re already in overwhelm. Question is, is this true? WILL people expect more of us or will we expect more of ourselves? Also, are we REALLY in overwhelm? Is that the real reason we procrastinate?

I know with clients, they’ll tell me they’re in overwhelm yet, they seem to have plenty of time to play computer games, read junk novels, watch t.v., etc. yet, when I ask about that, they tell me that they do those things BECAUSE they are in overwhelm.

What I think is going on though is, the overwhelm is actually caused by the procrastination! IF the job is done, then we feel a lightness and joy; like a weight has been taken off. We feel a freedom! As long as we procrastinate, then the weight ~ and yes, the overwhelm ~ remains.

The other point is, fear of failure... What if we don’t do it? What if we don’t get the project in on time? What if we fail? What if it’s not good enough?

I’ve had people tell me that they do the “what if up” game and, to me, unless they learn to handle the “ups” as well, then, they’re no better off than those who play the “what if down” game?

For instance? What if I get this done on time? What if people expect more of me? What if I have more money? What if my relationship is the best I’ve ever had? What if I win the lottery?

No matter which way we go, we have the tendency to have the little voice in our heads counteracting all the good due to its fear. If we didn’t, we’d be exactly where we say we want to be; doing exactly what we say we want to do and having exactly what we say we want to have.

What if we did?

Enough for today...

This is Revvell of Bodacious Living on the WIN!