The Latin root of procrastination implies "to put off until tomorrow," which is a familiar notion. 

However, delving into the Greek origin adds a nuanced perspective. 

In Greek, procrastination means "doing something against our better judgment." 

In essence, procrastination is defined as "putting something off until tomorrow against our better judgment," portraying it as a harmful and irrational behavior.

In this edition of the Unstuck Yourself Newsletter, I’ll unravel the genuine reason behind your tendency to procrastinate on specific tasks. It's not what you might expect, and conventional time-management strategies won't provide a magical solution.

We'll explore the various forms in which procrastination manifests to offer you a comprehensive understanding. Moreover, you'll gain access to a set of prompts I use with myself and my coaching clients to stop procrastination and pave the way to unlocking your potential.

What are you waiting for?

It’s time to dive in!

Procrastination is a Form of Self-Harm

Meet my client EM, the visionary owner of a thriving fitness franchise set to soar past three-quarters of a million dollars in 2023 and eyeing an ambitious leap into seven figures by 2024.

While EM's strategic prowess and detailed plan outline a clear path to achieving his 2024 goal, there's an unexpected hurdle - EM himself.

Procrastination emerges as a formidable opponent for EM. 

He has a clearly laid plan to launch a new, proven core offer, that, if sold effectively, will serve as the primary catalyst to reach his seven-figure goal for 2024.

He’s spent extensive time not only making the necessary preparations to achieve this goal but also beginning to envision the impact this growth will have on him and his life:

• A sense of financial security

• A sense of financial freedom

• A path toward early retirement and owning another home

• Fewer headaches

• Less stress and worry about the business and bills

To say he’s ecstatic about the possibility of making all the above his reality would be an understatement!

Working diligently with his team and mentors, EM recognizes that the best person - the person with the biggest impact on whether the goal is achieved - to lead the sales process for the new core offer is, well, EM.

But here’s the problem: EM recognizes he’s great at sales (his track record speaks for itself). But he despises doing it. He doesn’t find sales sexy.

In our initial couple of sessions together, I was able to extract some deeper-rooted reasoning behind his resistance to sales, which included: 

• Fear of rejection

• Inconsistent emotional regulation (e.g., managing anger, hurt, frustration after not closing a sale so that he could move right on to the next call) 

• Fear of success, specifically, what’s left after he reaches this goal? What now?

Here’s what we know about EM’s situation:

• He desires to earn $1,000,000 next year and has done the work to identify the biggest priorities and a roadmap to get there.

• He recognizes he’s the primary catalyst responsible for massive growth in 2024 and is clear on what his role is.

• Yet, he continues to make and find excuses to avoid making the number of calls he needs to so that he can achieve his goal.

• He desperately wants to feel and experience a sense of financial security and freedom, yet, would much rather take a nap, spend time outdoors, or cope with his emotions away from the office in place of making the calls he should be making.

He literally knows what to do and how to do it to achieve his goal. And, he’s really good at it!

But he continues to find every reason under the sun to avoid consistently doing what he knows will help him achieve his goal.

Can you relate?

I thought so.

It should be clear to you now that procrastination is an act of self-harm. Your decision to put off something despite knowing how necessary and beneficial it is will only hurt you more in the present moment and increase the difficulty in the future.

But let’s unpack this indecision and inaction further: when you deliberately decide not to follow through on what you know needs to be done, you’re increasing the intensity of the emotions that result from such careless inaction. 

For instance, a lack of self-trust, fear of success (or failure), or sensation of guilt may be the catalyst behind your state of inaction. The more time you spend here, the more these feelings intensify; thus, pushing you further away from operating at your best.

Each time you fail to act in the moment - delaying it for some “perfect” moment in the future - you turn up the volume of your emotional brain, which pulls you further away from your ability to think critically and problem-solve effectively.

Logically, you know that putting off something until later is only making things harder for your future self. 

You can see how harmful and irrational procrastination is, right?

How it beats down your self-esteem, shreds your self-confidence, and puts you further from your goals (while also aligning you on a much more difficult path to achieve them).

Yet, you do it anyway.

Why?

It’s not for the reasons you may think…

Why We Procrastinate

Let me share a bit of good news with you: 

You’re not prone to procrastination because of a unique character flaw or inability to manage your time (though, the latter is important).

You’re prone to procrastinate due to your inability to regulate your emotions around specific tasks. 

“Procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not a time management problem.”

Procrastination is a coping mechanism to deal with challenging emotions induced by specific tasks. 

For instance, certain actions may invoke a sense of:

• Anxiety

• Insecurity

• Fear (of failure, success, rejection, etc.)

• Doubt and uncertainty

• Frustration

Revisiting EM’s story above, we know he feared rejection and success, which led to him feeling anxiety and uncertainty, which bred inconsistent action.

This became a perpetual cycle of self-harm that only kept him further from his goal.

He knew with the utmost clarity that if he blocked out two hours per day to pick up the phone and make calls he’d be doing everything necessary to give him the best chance of reaching his goal.

Logically, he knew what to do.

But, procrastination is irrational.

And behind this irrational behavior is a deep-rooted fear and collection of powerful emotions. 

At the core, he was trapped in the Fear JAR - fearful of judgment, abandonment, and rejection.

This deep-rooted fear manifested as… 

• Choosing to end most work days by 12:00 PM, despite knowing his ideal sales call time was after 3:00 PM. 

• Choosing to spend time outdoors most afternoons (when he should be making calls).

• Prioritizing low-level, unimportant, and non-urgent emails in tasks…and finding a way to justify his decision as to why he deemed them a priority (in place of making sales calls).

This left him in a cycle of desire, doubt, and inaction, which further exacerbated feelings of frustration and disappointment because even though he knew what he needed to do, he still wasn’t doing it!

It’s worth mentioning, too, that this cycle increases the production of cortisol and keeps you trapped in sympathetic overdrive (think fight or flight). 

This not only further increases the likelihood of continued procrastination, but also has a destructive effect on your mental and physical health, including chronic stress, general psychological distress, low life satisfaction, symptoms of depression and anxiety, poor health behaviors, chronic illness, and even hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

Lastly, I want to mention one rarely considered aspect of why we procrastinate that I deem important for all high-performers to be aware of.

Your future self - the version of you you’re working hard to become - is a stranger. 

Unless you’re spending time with that person every day via meditation, hypnosis, journaling, or another future-pacing practice, you don’t know this person well. As a result, it feels like each time you procrastinate you’re placing the burden on someone else - someone you don’t genuinely know.

This is why it’s critical to get clear on who you want to become - and how that version of you speaks, thinks, believes, and acts - so that you can grow intimately familiar with him or her. 

This helps you better connect to the fact that procrastination is really putting a burden on future you, which is counterproductive to your goals! 

4 Sneaky Types of Procrastination

Procrastination, in its overt simplicity, often whispers, "I'll do this tomorrow." Yet, for high-performers like yourself, its nuances manifest in subtler, more insidious forms. It's crucial to decipher these patterns, label them for what they are - procrastination - and unravel the complexities within.

#1. Over-Planning Without Execution

I’ve struggled with this for years.

I get all jacked up on dopamine as I carefully craft the perfect set of action steps to achieve my goals and bring my ideas to fruition, only to find myself unable to execute the hard tasks necessary to realize my goals.

Can you relate?

This excessive time spent planning is exciting because of the surge in dopamine we experience, but we both know that the only ideas that matter are the ones executed! Even more, spending too much time planning robs you of the energy necessary to take the action you need to take to bring your plan to fruition.

#2. Perfectionism

Perfectionistic tendencies are the hallmark of many high-performers. But those who are able to separate themselves from the pack are the ones who recognize that imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.

Start.

Act.

Today.

Your future self will thank you and you’ll learn a tremendous about as you get the ball rolling. Plus, this will begin to help you see and experience progress, which is a tremendous motivator to keep going. 

#3 Focusing on Low-Priority Tasks

Email, a tempting refuge during looming deadlines or post-productive sessions, disguises its insignificance for high-performers. Redirecting focus from low-level tasks to monumental challenges preserves vital energy for creative breakthroughs, ensuring every minute contributes to goal-oriented strides.

#4 Lack of Delegation

Acknowledging the importance of relinquishing non-urgent, low-priority tasks is a strength. Ruthlessly editing, automating, and delegating empower you to tackle significant challenges with unbridled cognitive bandwidth. Recognize that seeking assistance isn't a sign of weakness but a strategic move toward optimal productivity.

It's important to recognize that procrastination is a common challenge faced by individuals at various levels of performance. Implementing effective time management strategies, breaking down tasks into smaller steps, and addressing underlying fears or perfectionistic tendencies can help high-performers overcome procrastination and maintain their productivity.

Procrastinate No More

At its core, procrastination is about emotions, not productivity. The solution doesn’t involve downloading a time management app or learning new strategies for self-control. 

It has to do with managing your emotions in a new way.

Take a moment to clarify the one action you know you need to be doing, yet, continue to put off…

Ask yourself honestly with compassionate curiosity: why are you putting it off?

No, seriously - why are you avoiding this task that you know will bring you closer to your goal?

I suggest using this as a journal prompt to give yourself a safe space to identify why it is you’re behaving in a way that’s both harmful and irrational. 

For those subtle tasks that you’re avoiding, it’s worth asking yourself:

• Is this task urgent?

• Is this task important?

• Can somebody else do this task?

But for the bigger tasks that are urgent, important, and can only be done by you, I want you to dig into identifying the core fear and the predominant emotion in the driver’s seat of your behavior. 

When you can identify both, specifically setting what you’re afraid of and labeling the emotion present, you’re able to create a sense of distance between that emotion, which enables you to better understand, reframe, and work with it so that you can redirect this energy in a more productive way aligned with your goals. 

Once you’re clear on that emotion, it’s imperative that you begin taking action to learn how to regulate and manage it. A few powerful strategies that can help bring you the clarity you seek include:

• Breathwork

• Meditation

• Guided hypnosis

• Journaling

• A walk in nature

• Working with a Mindset and Performance Coach

Below, you’ll find a list of prompts to help you organize your self-talk, thoughts, and feelings around the task(s) you’re avoiding so that you can better manipulate each to work for you rather than against you.

• Task I’m Avoiding:

• I’m avoiding this task because:

• My self-talk and thoughts around this task look and sound like:

• When thinking about this task I feel (get specific with 2 - 3 emotions):

• The honest reason I’m avoiding this task is:

• I feel this way because (think of a past moment or experience that may have led to the formation of this belief): 

• When I need to do this task I often choose to do ____ instead (list 2 - 3 common avoidance strategies you take).

• When I think about doing this task, I would rather feel (get specific with 2 - 3 emotions):

• When I do complete this task, I feel (get specific with 2 - 3 emotions):

After you’ve answered each prompt above, take a deep breath.

Well done.

Now, take the time to see how the next few weeks, months, and years of your life play out if you continue to procrastinate on this important task…

Then, take the time to see how the next few weeks, months, and years of your life play out if you do complete this important task…

You should notice a stark contrast.

Truly cultivate the emotional experience with each scenario until you reach a point of laughability noticing how much your continued procrastination is keeping you trapped in living a life of mediocrity!

Your Next Step

Read this again.

Then, go back and complete the set of prompts I shared with you.

You can’t change unless you change.

Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter.

In next Friday’s Unstuck Yourself Newsletter, we’ll turn our attention to the power of solitude and reflection. 

Interested in learning more about how I help high-performers just like you unstuck themselves and unlock their full potential?

Apply to work with me and schedule a coaching discovery call here. 

You may catch up on previous newsletters here. 

If you have a question about anything I discussed in this week’s Unstuck Newsletter, please message me on Twitter (@pauljsalter7) or Instagram (@paulsaltercoaching).

My email inbox is always open, too: [email protected]

If you found this information valuable, click here to share it with a friend.

If you were forwarded this email, click here to receive my Unstuck Newsletter each Friday.