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7 Reasons Why People Procrastinate

Written by: Lorraine Cohen

Article Overview: Learn reasons why procrastination might be a problem for your business and life success.

7 Reasons Why People Procrastinate

Procrastination is a major complaint I hear from clients and friends. Who doesn’t drag their feet sometimes?

I do.

It’s not always a problem.

Positive procrastination: Taking time to gather your thoughts, review or research information to gain clarity so that you can make the best decisions for yourself and take actions that move you towards what you desire is appropriate.

When does it become a problem?

Negative procrastination: Procrastination becomes a problem when people are sabotaging their hopes and dreams. They know what they should do and they don’t do it.

It’s important to get to know yourself well so you can recognize what you’re doing – or not doing
Why do people procrastinate and keep themselves from having the good stuff?

Here are 7 reasons why:

1. Fear – Success/failure.
You might think success is strange to fear. Who wouldn’t want to be successful, right? It’s a big fear for many because being successful is life-changing, full of losses and gains.

2. Their desire isn’t strong enough.
They haven’t really made the decision to have what they want.

3. Goals/dreams don’t inspire them.
Too often people have no idea what they really want and they pursue goals they think they should want or what others want for them. That’s one reason why many successful people feel unhappy - like something is missing. They are living somebody else’s life rather than one that would make them happy.

4. Loss of momentum and motivation.
Without support and accountability, they lose steam and enthusiasm quickly and fall back into old behaviors.

5. Negative self-talk and beliefs.
This is a huge reason why folks procrastinate. All the conversations people have in their heads that scare them and make them feel like crap. They construct stories about inevitable outcomes (worse case scenarios, what happened in the past will surely repeat) that they believe as truth! It’s amazing what we do to ourselves, isn’t it?

6. Overwhelmed with too many options.
They don’t know where to start or what to choose. It’s a double-edged sword. Having choices is important and yet, having too many causes confusion. Often people make a hasty choice to get it over with, defer to someone else to take responsibility, or do nothing.

7. Too many distractions cause them to lose focus.
They become overwhelmed, and confused, and stressed. They lack structure, routines, and boundaries to help them say on track.

Unsure if procrastination is a problem for you?

These are some questions I ask clients to help them gain clarity:

~ Are you where you want to be in your life, personally and professionally?

~ Do you follow through on things you say you’ll do?

~ Do you tend to break promises and agreements with yourself and others?

~ What do you tell yourself that makes that ok?

~ What needs to change?

Copyright © 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Related Articles
  There's No Time To Procrastinate
  How To Stop Procrastination
  8 Ways of Looking at Procrastination and How to Avoid it
  The P Word
  Dealing With Procrastination

Article Tags: accountability, case scenarios, clarity, conversations, decisions, fear, good stuff, hopes and dreams, losses, momentum, motivation, procrastination, steam, success failure, taking time, truth, worse case



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Books that should be written - [quote:1m0dcpd7]"The Idiots Guide To Sticking With One Thing At A Time and Not Doing Something New All The Time" [/quote:1m0dcpd7] I myself am a 'constructive' procrastinator... I don't know if I'm alone in this. I have about six or seven projects I'm working on at any given time. I get one project almost done... then my interest is piqued by another project and I work on that... I get burnt out and move to another...I know I do this so I have it arranged such that once I get bored or burnt out with one project, I can step right back into project 1 - or 2 or 3, and get that a little bit more done before moving on to something else. As long as you're organized and know where all your reference material/idea sheets are when you're ready to get back to work on each project, it should be fine. I also find that by stepping away from a project - I still work on it in the recesses of my mind so that when I go back to it - it's with some good ideas that I wouldn't have had if I'd continued on with it originally. Maybe I should write a book on how to Procrastinate Constructively... I've actually thought about doing that...because most people procrastinate, don't they...and very few are ever able to stop.
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