Recently, I have made many big changes in my life including moving to a new city, buying a new car, and moving my Acupuncture practice to a new location. All of these changes gave me a good reason to put certain projects in my life on hold. The challenge began when the dust finally settled and I still wasn’t engaging in accomplishing my goals. At that point, the “break” turned into good old fashioned procrastination.
In doing some research on the subject I have discovered that procrastination is not only inconvenient, its also damaging to our health and well being causing elevated levels of stress and anxiety. Needless to say, that was all I needed to read to get off my heinie and implement a plan!
In at article from the Association for Psychological Science, http://bit.ly/1stefbl one of the most effective ways to move past procrastination is to begin with forgiving yourself for whatever it is that you have been putting off. Nine times out of ten, stress and fear are the underlying emotions of procrastination with the fear of “maybe I won’t do it right” usually the leading reason people procrastinate.
I invite all of you to implement a simple reward system for yourselves. In order to get things done, I am now using desktop calendars to help me accomplish goals in different areas of my life. I have a list of things I get a star for, and when I accomplish a goal, I write it on the calendar and put a star sticker next to that accomplishment. I aim for a certain number of stars a week, and if I get them I allow myself a healthy reward of my choosing. If I don’t reach my goal, I forgive myself and move on.
Let me know if you have any questions about this system or if you have a system you use that may help other people, please share!
Stay Healthy!
Christian
How Procrastination is Hurting You and How to Get On With It!
