Why do I push things off?
What’s the reason I struggle every day to get things done?
Why is it every time I have a choice, I chose that one path that takes me nowhere?
Usually, I do the stuff I’m meant to do immediately before the deadline. As a web designer, I can have a whole week to finish a project, but I only seem to dive into it the day before. And, as you know, deadlines are fixed. You can’t move them. And they usually stack up. Deadline after deadline after deadline.
Here’s a common conversation that happens inside my head:
Me: I’ve got of work to do.
Mind: How much work?
Me: A shit-ton of work.
Mind: …
Me: …
Mind: How about...?
Me: …Watch that new Netflix show and do stuff later?
Mind: Sounds good. There’s so much work I need a break just to process it.
My name is Max. I’m a chronic procrastinator.
Everyone: Hi, Max.
I’ve always been this way, even though I’m what most of you would tell as a productive member of society. Whenever I need to product something, this is what my mind sees:
So, which road do you think I take? Netflix 9 times out of 10. But, if there’s something I’ve learnt about myself is that I’m pretty good at noticing the workings of my mind. I’ve known for a while I enjoy avoiding work.
Hi, my name is Max and I’m an expert at self-sabotage.
Everyone: Hi, Max.
What do you do when you identify a problem? Right, you go to Google.
So, I found MANY people have this problem. I can safely assume everyone encounters self-sabotage at some point in their lives -in my case, every other day.
But, what exactly is self-sabotage?
Self-sabotage is basically a BEHAVIOUR that interferes with your long-time GOALS. Let’s break it down a little.
Everyone has goals. Some are short, other long term. Goals are simply things we want to accomplish. They are visions we have for ourselves that we WORK towards making a reality.
Maybe you want to spend your days travelling the world. You see yourself each week in a different country. To make this happen you need a recurring online income, so building an online business could be your goal.
Maybe you see yourself up in a stage playing guitar in front of thousands. If you’re a beginner, your goal should be to master playing the guitar in the first place. And like these, there are a million other goals you can have.
But how do we take our goals, the visions we have for ourselves, out of our minds and into the real world?
We do this simply by working towards it. By taking ACTION.
If you want to travel the world, you should build an online business and work most days towards growing it. If you want to be a Rockstar, you should practice guitar every day.
Action is the fuel that takes us where we want to be. But, it’s not that simple, is it? A repeated action turns into something called a behavior. As we just saw, behavior is the main roadblock towards manifesting your goals.
So, why are behaviors so difficult to change?
Because they are deeply rooted into our brains. This simply means, every time you choose NOT to work and do something else, the choice of choosing not to work gets stored in your brain as the “right thing to do”. And, the more you chose something, the easier it is to choose it again.
Your brain loves familiarity. It loves experiencing the things you already know. This is why we are scared of the dark. We don’t know what’s out there as we can’t see it. And, as we can’t see it, no one can assure there’s nothing out there to harm us. It’s basic human instinct.
This is why we say practice makes perfect. Well, my procrastination level is near-perfect. Procrastination is the choice I’ve consciously taken 9 times out of 10, so, this makes my brain 90% more inclined to watch Netflix than finish my work. Even when choosing to work is the action that’s going to help me accomplish my goals, not Netflix. But still, it’s easier to choose to watch Netflix than work because Netflix is the path of least resistance. It’s the path with the least number of obstacles. It’s the path we already know and the path we feel most comfortable taking. It’s the easy path, but it’s not the path that will get me to see the world, or get up on that stage.
The brain adapts and changes every day. There’s a false notion that says grown-ups can’t change their brains. Well, we do. We do it every day, every second. The term neuroplasticity speaks about a brain that rewires its neurons whenever we take a specific action.
Every time I take the same action over and over again, that neural network becomes faster.
For example, basketball players have their dunk deeply wired into their brains because they have done it a million times.
I have procrastination deeply wired into my brain as well. So, what can I do about it?
Every time my brain tells me to take a nap or watch Netflix, I have to envision myself achieving my goals. And I need to make those visions as specific as possible (the more details the better). So, if I want to travel the world, I should envision myself smelling a freshly-brewed coffee watching the Eiffel Tower from my hotel balcony in the 6th floor as the silk curtains graze my left shoulder blown by that mid-spring breeze. This vision will give me the energy to choose work over Netflix. Not every time but maybe just a couple.
What matters is that, in order to stop sabotaging yourself into achieving your goals, I need to change my behavior. And, in order to change my behavior, I need to change my actions. Yes, each individual action.
When I make the conscious choice to work instead of to choose Netflix, that choice will create a network of neurons in my brain associated to that choice. So, the more I take it, the stronger it will become. The stronger it becomes, the less resistance there will be to take that choice again, again, and again. In time, the choice of work will have the exact resistance as the choice of Netflix.
Eventually I know they will swap.
Choosing work will be easier than choosing Netflix because my brain will be wired that way. I will stop thinking about the short-term rewards and start focusing on my big goal. It will be easier to choose work over Netflix.
Why?
Work will mean being able to travel the world and having that coffee in that balcony watching the Eiffel tower, while Netflix will mean having to wait for the new season of Stranger Things while living in my mom’s basement at my boring ass hometown.
- So, what do you do to beat procrastination?
- Have you heard of neuroplasticity?
- Did you know you have to power to change your brain at will?