Procrastination Has Nothing to Do With Laziness

Here's how to end it

Person playing video gamesPhoto byPhoto by Matilda Wormwood

Desires are natural. Desires give us goals. It’s by acting on our goals that we get to experience more of life — that we grow.

Most of us have unfortunately a lot of desires, but not enough goals — and if we do have some — they rarely come to fruition.

We know what to do. We know how to do it. We have many reasons why we can’t do it — but deep inside — we know that we’re just not consistent enough.

Whenever we decide to embark on a new journey, to start something from scratch, and hopefully improve our lives — we’re like heroes, leaving our homes, to explore the world.

Obviously, no exploration can happen without some challenges. And to test us, life sends its greatest ‘monster’— confusion. If we’re not careful enough, this ‘monster’ gets in our head. And if we allow it to, procrastination is born — and it slowly sucks the life force out of our goals until they become relics of the past.

To help you fight this ‘monster’ that is the real source of procrastination therefore, you’ll need to be well prepared, which is exactly what the 3 steps below will help you achieve.

Step 1: Clarity. Know your reasons

Everyone is telling you what you should be doing, how you should be doing it and why. With all this constant stimulation, we quickly lose our initial conviction.

Procrastination is not laziness, it’s confusion. And no one’s lazy, but most are confused.

The first step to end procrastination, which is confusion — is clarity.

When we’re confused about what we want to do, we can’t act. The moment stagnation settles into a plan, the hero just wants to go back home.

The main reason people give up is not because they lack what it takes to succeed, but because they lack clarity — intention. Without clarity, and therefore without intention — there can’t be a direction.

The world is always telling what we should be doing. Maybe some of it would actually benefit us. Maybe some more money, or a better job, or losing a specific amount of weight, and so on — maybe it’d actually make our lives better.

But does it come from us?

Do you really want to achieve any of those things you’re pursuing? If you feel like you’re just going through the motions, pushing too much weight. If you feel resistant about it. If it feels dreadful. Then it may not be what you’re truly wanting to achieve.

Instead of forcing yourself to do anything that doesn’t come from your essence, you should take some time to really investigate why you’re doing what you’re doing. Ask yourself some questions about it.

You want a better job, why? More money, why? The ability to provide for yourself and your family, why? To be happy, why? To feel at peace, why? Because it’s how things are supposed to be? Okay.

The more clarity you gain, the more you’ll know why you’re doing whatever it is you’re doing — and the lighter, and more enjoying it’ll feel.

Step 2: Practicality. Turn your goal it into a daily, doable habit

Whatever goal you want to achieve, you must know two things first:

1. Lower your expectations
2. Focus on each step, one at a time

This shouldn’t be discouraging. Quite the opposite. Understanding this, and keeping it in mind at all times helps us lower our expectations, and be realistic.

Sometimes, especially when we’re pursuing something we’ve never worked on, we have a lot of expectations. It’s good to be enthusiastic, but, it’s best to remain realistic.

Whatever the goal you’re pursuing, turn it into a daily, doable task. The easier you can make it, the quicker you’ll pick the habit until it becomes natural.

What you’re trying to build here is a feedback loop. Your daily task should always start with a specific trigger, then you should fulfill the task, then get some sort of reward out of it.

Our lives are webs of feedback loops. Whatever we do is contained within feedback loops. Some people keep living lives they hate because of feedback loops. Stressful workdays are accepted for a night in front of Netflix with some chips and beers. That’s a feedback loop.

The better the quality of your feedback loops, the better the quality of your life. Whatever your goal is, turn it into pieces, and then work at it daily.

Step 3: Flexibility. Train your ingenuity

You’ll face obstacles, challenges, and blockages. You have goals after all. You want to expand your life, and yourself as a person.

Growth is not comfortable. Challenges are simply an invitation to grow beyond what you’ve been familiar to.

Having a goal means just that, expanding, and to expand you will come closer to your limitations — and by knowing them, you’ll have a greater chance to transcend them.

How do you approach obstacles? What are your reactions in the face of adversity? How do you feel when things don’t go as you expected them to?

Your reactions, all these little “voices” in your head are cues. They show you what needs working. The “obstacles” we face simply create the right environment for healing to occur.

While most people give up whenever something doesn’t go according to the plan, you’ll need to be ingenious. You’ll have to think differently, approach challenges from different, and newer angles.

Whatever you believe to be an insurmountable obstacle is just insurmountable to who you’ve always been. Not to who you can become.

You’ll need to outgrow yourself. Isn’t why you’re having goals in the first place?

The more open and observant you are to yourself — how you think and feel about a situation — the more solutions you’ll be able to create.

As you keep thinking differently and conquering obstacles, the momentum you’ll generate will keep you going.

This is something to keep in mind: whenever the eyes are on the prize, we keep moving vigorously.

The trick is to keep the prize close enough, turning each next step into this valued prize — this makes us move quickly, which builds enough momentum to move mountains. And as a side effect, the process itself will be more rewarding. That’s how you keep going.

Again, it’s natural to have desires and to want to expand.

Expect to face delays along the way; we’re all transformed by our experiences.

But whatever obstacle is on your way, it’s always an invitation to think and act differently.

Your prize will never be denied to you as long as you remain a student of your game.

What we’ve always done can’t give us a different result. We must change our actions at all levels — mentally, emotionally and physically — to invite this change.

Keep working at it. You can do this.

As a final note.

In case you've resonated with the above, and enjoy practical spiritual teachings, you may want to learn more of it. I wrote a book called "Spiritual Transition" which goes much more in-depth regarding the main blocks to spiritual growth, how to overcome them, but also how to heal the wounds from our past. If you're interested, you can learn more about the book here.