Nah… I’ll do it later
I think you all know this feeling.
This feeling of… nah, I’ll do it later.
No, not now… later.
I’m not in the mood, I’m not inspired, I’m not… whatever.
And then we procrastinate.
Nah, I’ll do it tomorrow, there’s still time…
Nah, it’s such a nice day, I’d rather go outside…
And at the worst, you open a file you should be working on… and you can’t do it. Instead, you find yourself playing Solitaire, or vacuuming the house, or – that happens to me all the time – you start writing a brand new story without finishing the old one.
And before I started writing this blog post, I quickly checked FB, and sent a good morning greeting to my own little chat room.
As you can see, I’m totally familiar with this…
But what causes procrastination?
I believe it’s not just “laziness”.
Instead I think that when dealing with a task, negative emotions, memories and fears combine to make it almost impossible for us to deal with it, and we skip into different actions to avoid working on the tax declaration, or making an appointment with the dentist, or – this is my current bear – learning how to create covers.
Thing is, if we actually accept this as a working hypothesis, it means that EFT is the perfect tool to deal with procrastination because it’s the fastest way I know to eliminate negative emotions, fears and associated bad memories.
For now, I’m looking at collecting emotions, memories and fears that make it hard for us to complete the tasks we set for ourselves. So if you want to contribute, write a comment below, and I can include this particular problem in the series. (Let’s see how far we can get!)
Of course, part of the problem is that a task can feel unpleasant by itself, or have unpleasant consequences.
Hardly anyone enjoys preparing the taxes, even though it can mean we’ll get money back. I think that – especially with taxes – we’re afraid of making errors, and possibly fear a somewhat unpredictable entity dealing with our declaration. So some of us wait until a reminder raises the pressure to the point where it’s bigger than our fears…
And that dentist? Here in Germany, health insurance pays for regular checkups (and reduces the co-pay on more expensive procedures if you document them). And I still procrastinate on making those appointments, even though I have a nice and gentle dentist. I suppose my old fear is still raising its head here. (Time to tap that one out!)
I’m describing cases in such detail to show you the patterns involved.
We procrastinate because somehow, certain tasks have unpleasant emotions attached to them.
Because there is some kind of fear.
Being aware of those patterns means we can now take a closer look and figure out what exactly is holding us back. Even for those tasks that shouldn’t be unpleasant.
Why do I find it hard to finish a story? What is unpleasant about that?
Why do I find it hard to book a vacation, when I have both the time and the money?
And that’s exactly where we start with the detective work for EFT. We hunt those negative emotions and tap them out. And then life gets easier and more fun.
Tapping phrases
Even though I procrastinate on things, and I don’t even know why, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I’m now open to the possibility that negative emotions, experiences and fears might be the reason for this.
Even though I procrastinate and only do things when the pressure becomes unbearable, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now give myself permission to release all those emotions and fears.
Even though I hate that I procrastinate so much and lose so much time doing nothing, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now choose to take a close look to identify what’s really going on – and to tap all that stuff out.
Asking you:
What do you procrastinate about?
How does that feel?
What happened while you were tapping?
And finally – will you keep writing?
Please share in a comment.
Image Source: F. Moebius
PS: My newsletter contains a full tapping round to go with my blog posts, so it’ll be easier for you to get results. Sign up through the form on the upper right hand corner, and receive an introduction to EFT as a gift, find that specific tapping round plus occasional special offers. If you’re on a mobile and can’t see the sidebar, you can sign up through this link: Newsletter Sign-up.
