Planning For Success

 Procrastination's Beginnings

Why do we, as humans, frequently act in ways we do not want to? How many times have you said or done something that makes you uncomfortable when you think back on it? The truth is that most of your activities, especially those that are hardest to explain intellectually, are controlled by your unconscious mind. When you know what you should do, have the ability and desire to do it, but still don't, you've engaged in procrastination. Although there are various apparent reasons for procrastination, your subconscious mind is the primary source of this unreasonable behaviour.

The capacity of your conscious intellect to deal with life is severely limited. You can usually only control one thing at a time. This is why relying on your willpower to effect lasting change is rarely effective. What you need to do is alter your automatic behaviour, which is stored in your unconscious mind, which is responsible for all of your mind and body's important functions. Willpower can be used to try to overcome procrastination, although this is usually only a temporary solution. Your unconscious connections are to a considerable measure responsible for your procrastination, not your conscious activities.

 When dread arises, your nervous system will “kick in” to “protect you,” thanks to the activity of your subconscious. Ironically, we unknowingly learn ourselves to fear some things by associating erroneous meanings with them. Nothing in life has any significance until you give it that significance. You literally develop neural connections to experiences that are "stored" in your nervous system so that you can react fast and appropriately the following time. When something happens to you, the way you describe the experience to yourself gives it a meaning.Unconsciously, you're continually trying to figure out what anything means, and at the most basic level, you're trying to figure out whether it signifies pain or pleasure. This meaning is then stored in your subconscious mind, where it will later help you act (or re-act) appropriately. The problem is that when associations are reinforced, beliefs are formed that have a significant impact on your behaviour and are frequently the source of procrastination. 

Despite the fact that procrastination defies logi
c, it exposes a lot about your unconscious and self-imposed limitations and (in)abilities. Worry, primarily the fear that taking action would result in pain or a terrible experience of some type, is the leading cause of procrastination. At some level, your unconscious mind mixes and searches its "files" to find a "link" that connects the behaviour to a traumatic experience. This might be anything from a minor annoyance to something that is really severe. Even if you consciously desire to do something, your unconscious mind will stop you because it associates the activity with pain. As humans, we instinctively seek comfort and will nearly always choose whatever feels most comfortable at the time. This is why you delay on chores that don't feel good right now but will provide you a lot of joy in the future.

 Learning to push against this craving for comfort is what leads to all of the essential progress for you to achieve actual success. When you consider procrastination as a gift in disguise, you may begin to exploit it and benefit from the behavioural insights it provides. Procrastination exposes your anxieties and, by design, provides the necessary resistance for you to expand and grow in your ability to push over your concerns and create the life you truly desire.The amount of "discomfort" you can comfortably deal with determines the quality of your existence. Procrastination can also reveal your most important goals, as your concern about postponing on them demonstrates that you care enough to be concerned.

 It is stated that we form our habits first, and then we form our habits. This holds true for mental habits as well, as procrastination is frequently manifested as a thought pattern. Your actions are influenced by your thoughts, which help to shape them. Your behaviour will “play the same tune” every time, just like an engraved pattern on a record. Your connections with pain and pleasure play a significant role in determining what you will or will not do in your regular behaviour. When your habit pattern is triggered, you create habitual thinking patterns that cause you to act or retract in specific ways automatically.

 In order to address the core cause of procrastination, you must be conscious of your connection with pain and pleasure. There are numerous symptomatic remedies that will not provide a long-term answer. Although willpower is required at first, the goal is to re-establish your associations with the chores you are avoiding. If you can overcome your self-imposed anxieties and take action, you can be, do, or have whatever your heart desires. Although the root of procrastination is in your subconscious mind, your conscious actions are ultimately in control.