How Procrastination Affects Your Self-Confidence

Why is it bad to procrastinate? Put simply –it really impacts our motivation and gives us permission to NOT take action. To put this in perspective then, at some point in our life, everyone indulges in procrastination a little bit. I’m guilty of it too once in a while! The difference is that some people have this problem for long periods of time, and for other people, this problem arises due to particular challenges and/or experiences they face in their life. Whatever the stimulus, the effects linked to procrastination are negative and frustrating. They are always associated with poor performance, loss of opportunity, loss of time, and that overall sensation of feeling bad about yourself. When a person procrastinates, what happens is less important tasks become more important tasks, eating space and time that would otherwise be used to perform actions that are important.
Not doing something makes us think that we can’t do it and this will erode any confidence that you have and make it extremely difficult to start to build your confidence in that particular area.

We are creatures of habit and procrastination can be a dangerous habit to fall into so remember that procrastination can eat away at your confidence and self esteem like a disease – or more aptly it can cause us dis – ease and that is something we must actively avoid.

Simply taking some time to think about the many major reasons for procrastination, it becomes easier to see why procrastination is bad for our confidence. Most people don’t lack time, but they lack the motivation and the desire to prioritize. We also get into the habit of lying to ourselves, we are not NOT going to do something, we are just “not doing it right now”, or we are doing it later or we are doing it after. After what? Oftentimes, “after” doesn’t happen. Like starting that new diet on Monday! If you are lying to yourself then this is going to damage your relationship with yourself because you CANNOT lie. You know you are doing it and the excuses we make wear thin and it is this act of deception that is what is causing us to feel bad.

Your excuses only hurt you! Procrastination is a destructive vicious cycle. You can sabotage your life, stop achieving results and goals, and this will erode any motivation and confidence you already have, which can result in feelings of hopelessness, sadness or stress.

How do we avoid procrastination?
It’s easier than you think! Here’s 2 tips you can implement right now:
•    Become aware and accountable to our Inner Critic when you start to go down this route.
•    Be aware of your self-talk! Check yourself when using excuse words like, “I should do…” or when you give yourself permission to fail by telling yourself, “I’ll try…” if you are just going to try then you are sending a huge message that you expect to fail so that starts the cycle of you NOT doing it. Instead change the language you use, instead of “trying”,tell yourself “you will do” and rather than leaving that commitment open ended.

Procrastination is easily defeated, turn NO action into INSPIRED action and you win –and you start to build your absolute confidence immediately! Sounds good, right?

So what are you going to do differently today?
 

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