TRY MOTIVATING YOURSELF

Procrastination is the fine art of placing high-priority goals last, or even worse, never completing them at all.
 
Right now, how many goals are there on your ‘To Do’ list that have not been fulfilled? Maybe there are goals you set out months or years ago that are uncompleted, not finished or let’s use words that would keep us in denial about this subject ‘tasks in progress’.

If we were to look at the cycle of emotions that accompany procrastination, we get a clearer understanding of ourselves and how we think.

For example, if we wanted to complete a goal such as studying another language. The initial thoughts would have been ‘yes, I’ll learn French so I can liaise with my friends from France. When I visit St Tropez this year, I could order my cappuccino in their mother tongue’.
 
Excited, energised thoughts and high anticipation of the achievement that would be attained at completing a project like this begin to circulate.

And so, the cycle starts: we send off for the course, start modules one and two, and then we hit a hurdle.
 
The verbs all of a sudden seem ‘difficult’, the time needed to complete the course seems ‘forever’ and you can no longer enjoy your daily coffee with friends.
 
The goal that was initially exhilarating has become boring and time consuming.

Off we go back to the old routine of chatting to friends over coffee about mundane stuff and the project slips to the back of the mind.

Yet, our minds never forget what was once a deep yearning!
 
In no time at all, those niggling little thoughts that we thought we had buried suddenly pop up. ‘What about that French course you paid for, that you did not complete?’. ‘There you go again, you never complete anything’. ‘You rarely do anything right’. Negative, self-punishing thoughts that create awful feelings, so any future goals that are attempted will most likely follow the same pattern.

So, as you can see the cycle of procrastination creates mainly painful feelings, as well as low motivation levels and a declining self-confidence. Yet many do not know how to break the pattern. Initially high confidence levels and enthusiasm were there, and this is the key; unless the inner-confidence and enthusiasm levels are maintained, it becomes easy to let goals fall by the wayside.
 
When you hit that first hurdle, when the first doubt appears in your mind such as ‘this is too difficult, I am really not enjoying it’.  This is when you need to catch yourself and immediately talk yourself around.

Opposite self-talk such as ‘come on, I can do this, yes I believe I can achieve this, look at the things in the past I have achieved’. ‘Do I really want to waste my money here, do I really want to feel irritated, low in confidence and a failure?’. ‘Perhaps if I do some research and get some advice, I could actually complete it. I just need to try things a different way’. 

Try to focus on thoughts that are motivational, self- empowering and kinder to yourself. By thinking in this manner and maintaining this through any obstacles you will be on your way to completing the goals you set out to do. 
A good way to look at a hurdle is that it is a barrier positioned by your mind.
 
A hurdle is an excuse, an illusionary thought, a fear, an anxious and negative obstruction created by you that impedes your goal.
 
Another technique, I personally use for ‘mundane’ tasks is to turn the thought within my mind of ‘this is boring’ to ‘I love to do this’.

 The initial mundane and boring task actually becomes enjoyable and pleasurable and your self-confidence increases. The task actually gets completed in no time at all and you’ve flowed through it by being fearless and ‘in the moment’.

The medal of self-achievement is there for the taking. From start to finish you CAN reach your goals, remember to go for gold at every single ‘hurdle’ along the way!