Why do we humans frequently act in ways that we don't actually want to? How often have you made a mistake that you later regretted saying or doing? The reality is that most of your behavior is influenced by your unconscious mind, particularly behaviors that are challenging to intellectually explain. Knowing what to do, being able to do it, and wanting to do it are all signs of procrastination. Although there are numerous obvious reasons why people procrastinate, your unconscious mind is ultimately to blame for this illogical behavior.
Your conscious mind's capacity to handle life is extremely constrained. The majority of what you can consciously influence happens in one thing at a time. This is why trying to change something by using your willpower rarely has lasting results. What you need to do is alter your automatic behavior, which is controlled by your unconscious mind, the area of yourself that manages all of your body's and mind's essential functions.
Willpower can be used to attempt and stop procrastinating, however this usually only has a temporary effect. Not your conscious acts, but rather your unconscious associations, which account for a substantial portion of your behavior, are what induce procrastination.
Your neurological system is built to defend you, and when fear arises, it will "kick in" to "protect you" thanks to the influence of your subconscious. Ironically, we unknowingly program ourselves to fear particular things by associating them with meaningless things.
Nothing in life is meaningful until you give it a purpose
In order to react swiftly and appropriately the next time, you literally build neurological connections with your experiences that are "stored" in your nervous system. Every time anything bad happens to you, you give it a meaning by the way you explain it to yourself.Unconsciously, you are constantly attempting to assign meaning, and at the most fundamental level, you are attempting to determine whether something signifies pleasure or suffering. Your unconscious mind then stores this meaning, which will guide your future behavior (or reactivity).
The difficulty is that you develop beliefs that will significantly affect your behavior and are frequently the root of procrastination when associations are reinforced.
Even though it defies logic, procrastination actually tells a lot about your self-imposed limitations and (in)abilities as well as your unconscious. Concern, more precisely the fear that taking action would result in suffering or some other unpleasant event, is the main driver of procrastination.
Your unconscious mind compiles and searches its "files" on some level to create a "link" that connects the action to a traumatic event. This might be anything from a minor annoyance to something severely unpleasant. Although you may desire to do something consciously, your unconscious will stop you from doing it because it connects the action with pain.
Humans instinctively seek comfort, and we nearly always go toward whatever feels most cozy at the time. This explains why you frequently put off doing things that will bring you more pleasure later even when they don't feel good right now.
The progress that is required for you to truly accomplish outcomes is created when you learn to push against this craving for comfort.
You can start using procrastination and embracing the behavioral insights it offers for you once you begin to perceive it as a benefit in disguise. Procrastination exposes your worries and, quite deliberately, provides you with the resistance you need to develop and improve in your ability to overcome your fears and produce the outcomes you truly desire in life. Your life's quality directly relates to how much "discomfort" you can tolerate without feeling uncomfortable.As your anxiety over postponing on it demonstrates that you care enough to be concerned, procrastination can also reveal some information about the goals you value most.
It's been stated that we form our habits before they shape us. This is also true for mental habits, and procrastination frequently shows up as a mental pattern of habit. Your behaviors are influenced by and result from your thinking. Your actions will "play the same tune" repeatedly, much like an engraved pattern on a record.
Your associations with pleasure and pain influence your habitual behavior in a significant way by influencing whether you will or won't do something. Through repetition, you can develop thought patterns that will make you act or react in predetermined ways when your thought pattern is triggered.
In order to address the underlying reason of procrastination, it is essential to be conscious of your linkages to pain and pleasure. There are various symptomatic treatments available, but they rarely have long-term effects. Your goal is to re-establish your associations with the chores you are avoiding, even if you will initially have to employ willpower.
As long as you can get over your own worries and accomplish something, you can be, do, or have whatever your heart wishes. Although your unconscious mind is the root of procrastination, you are ultimately in charge of your actions through conscious choice.
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