Understand and Defeat the Underlying Causes of ProcrastinationUnderstanding the underlying causes of procrastination is a necessary first step in defeating it. Procrastination usually involves some specific fears and beliefs that interfere with your ability to act in a timely manner. Fear of failureOne of the strongest causes of procrastination is fear of failure. This is where you are unsure of succeeding in your action, so you put it off in order to avoid the potential failure.If you never actually do it, there's no way to fail, right? But never acting just ensures a failure - you don't accomplish anything. Learn to face your fears. Rather than seeing failure as a negative outcome, re-frame the situation as a learning experience. If things don't turn out as you expect or hoped, you have at least learned what doesn't work, and that knowledge will help you to improve. Every time you fail, you get feedback, which will help you to do better the next time around. This learning can be invaluable; it is impossible to master anything without running into some unforeseen issues or problems, and the more feedback you get, the faster you will move towards mastery. Allowing the fear of failure to hold you back will cause you to miss out on great opportunities for learning. Fear of successHow does a fear of success factor in as one of the causes of procrastination? Well, by succeeding in a project or goal you may feel that you have set a precedent, a standard that you will need to meet or exceed every time in the future.Success can give you a feeling that you are responsible or obligated to continue succeeding in the future. The pressure to continue to succeed may become overwhelming, increasing your feelings of responsibility and stress. Sometimes it just seems easier to put it off, delay acting, and thus avoid the additional burdens you may associate with success. The solution lies in learning to embrace the concept that as you succeed more in life, responsibility may increase, but so does your power and freedom. As you succeed your responsibilities may naturally increase, expectations may also increase, but so does your capacity to act. Don't hold yourself to unreasonable standards, and don't expect perfection every time, but be willing to raise your standards as you gain success. Fear of impacting relationshipsAnother of the causes of procrastination is a fear of how your success will affect relationships with others. If you succeed in making a lot of money, will that strain the relationships with your friends or relatives? Will succeeding too much at work alienate you from your co-workers?It may seem easier to just delay and procrastinate on certain things just to maintain the status quo with those around you. Don't make the mistake of holding yourself back because of how you think people might react. First of all, it is impossible to always predict how people will react. You may be surprised by finding that people are supportive and happy for your success. If they do have issues with you succeeding, you may want to re-evaluate the importance of the relationship- do you really want to maintain the same level of relationship with someone who is a negative influence on your ability to succeed? Focus on finding your own success, don't let other people hold you back. PerfectionismPerfectionism may at first seem odd to be included as one of the causes of procrastination, but it can be a serious detriment to your ability to act. It is related to fear of failure, in that it is the belief that everything you do needs to be perfect, otherwise you have failed. The pressure to be perfect becomes overwhelming, and so you never get around to acting. Perfectionism is like having an impossible standard to meet, so why even bother trying?Rather than experiencing a failure to meet an unreasonable expectation, you may just put off taking any action. To overcome this belief, realize that it is impossible to do everything perfectly, and the mistakes and failures you get along the way provide valuable feedback to help you improve. Accept that you will make mistakes,and those mistakes are what will help you to grow and develop. You can't be perfect all the time, and it is really the mistakes and failures that help you to ultimately succeed. It is the process that is important, not the final outcome, so focus on learning from errors and less than perfect results, and don't let expectations of perfection hold you back. Fear of rejectionA fear of rejection is one of the most common causes of procrastination. It is very hard to know how other people will react to what you do, and putting yourself out in front of other people invites criticism and judgment. I've heard that some people fear public speaking even more than death!The uncertainty of how other people will react to you can stop you from acting. This is especially true if you are trying a new skill or don't have a lot of confidence in your ability to do well. Similar to overcoming the other fears, realize that rejection is merely feedback. It may hurt at first, but the more you experience it, the easier it gets to deal with it. It is the feedback that will help you to improve more than anything else. Don't take rejection personally, learn to evaluate it from a distance and see what you can learn from it to improve yourself or your efforts. By understanding the underlying causes of procrastination and dealing with the core beliefs and fears involved, your motivation efforts become more effective and you will gain valuable feedback to help you improve your overall success in life. Return from Underlying Causes of Procrastination to Overcoming Procrastination Return from Underlying Causes of Procrastination to Self Motivation Strategies
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