What's really behind your procrastination?

Aug 26

I've been thinking about the relationship between intent and behaviour.

In life, so many of us have goals - to eat better, to increase our exercise, to be present at home more...

I'm guessing you can relate to the idea of intending to eat well and then making a poor choice of snack. Or, intending to get more sleep, yet, making the decision to check your social media accounts late into the night.

When it comes to your business or career, we also set goals and then find ourselves making poor decisions that don't get us close.....

I always find it interesting to look at our behaviours towards those goals because it tells us what our relationship is to them, and it can reveal something deeper at play....

In order to get anywhere, our intentions and our actions need to match. In other words, we need to 'do what you say you're going to do'.

And, when they don't match, when we struggle with the 'doing' part, generally there's a reason why....

So, think of a project, presentation or target that's coming up.

Take a moment to really look at your recent behaviours around this goal. What are you consistently doing in your business or career that is hindering your progress? What do these behaviours tell you?

I'll give you a recent personal example:

I had goals for building content for upcoming workshops and training sessions. I was getting frustrated with my lack of progress. I wanted the output - which is the content in this case. I was putting some work into it, however, I wasn't making the progress I wanted to see.

When I stopped and really looked at my own behaviours, I found that I was allowing myself to book in other commitments into the times slots I had designated for my content creation. I wasn't honouring the time I set aside. So, then I decided to really look at why I wasn't dedicating and keeping that time.

It turned out I wasn't as settled on my topic as I thought I was. This was a big realization for me. I had put a lot of time and effort into my topic, but I realized I still wasn't satisfied.

So, I could've gotten frustrated with myself and told myself that I'm terrible at creating workshops or that I can't execute on my goals. But, once I realized that going to other appointments was a form of procrastination, it led me to wonder why I was procrastinating.

Now, I'm feeling much better about my topic after revisiting it. I've re-committed and have already made more headway than I have in the last couple of months.

By understanding why I was so willing to dodge my content creation time, I realized that my intuition was telling me that I wasn't ready, that something was off. And, I was able to deal with source reason.

If you're in jeopardy of not hitting your target, what is the underlying reason that you're not taking action?

What do you need to do to resolve this?

Here are some questions to get you thinking, try writing your answers down or journalling them:

Am I committed to this goal? Why or why not?
Why don't I want to take action?
What's preventing me from taking the steps I need?
What will make me feel excited to take action?
Knowing what I need to feel excited, how can I use this to take action today?

The ability to take consistent action and get results is what makes people successful. And, I want YOU to be successful.

I encourage you to reflect on this and figure out how you can get your head back in the game....or maybe you need to alter the rules so you'll play.

You can do it.

NOW is YOUR time,

Ariana

PS: I invite you for a Business Accelerator complimentary consultation. You’ll come away with clarity on 1) what’s broken in your business 2) a picture of what needs to be done, and 3) your most important next step. Connect with me.

Emerging Outcomes Coaching & Development, Business Coach in Canada, Canadian Business Coach, Executive Coach