Why we procrastinate . .

and how to stop doing it.  That's what the article said it was about and I was immediately hooked.

If you've been reading along, you probably already know that I, myself, am a bit of a procrastinator.  I've always believed that I needed a hard deadline to really motivate myself.  That planning ahead and working in advance was harder, because my time was always at the stretching point, and if I had a few minutes to take a break, relax, do fun stuff or whatever, that life would be more enjoyable.  Ebb and flow instead of always in high gear.

But after reading this article on Greatist today, I might have to give it more thought.

Two psychotherapists (Phil Stutz, Barry Michels) explain that procrastinating is the avoidance of doing something, not because we don't know we need to do it, or even want to do it, but because by actually doing it, we think we will experience something uncomfortable or even painful.  It's retreating to our comfort zone, and making excuses to put those things off.

Hmmm. I'm going to need to observe this in myself for awhile. I did not have an "aha" moment where I instantly recognized this in myself. But I am not shrugging off the idea either and tossing it aside with the belief that it doesn't apply to me. This might actually be the source of some of my procrastinating, and I don't want to miss the opportunity to figure this out and get into action again.

Their solution, which is brilliant also, is to just straight on tackle the painful whatever.  Like run straight into it, because pain shrinks when taken head on. It only becomes the giant monster when we avoid it and dramatize it.

This could be an awesome, liberating thing!  They've written a book "5 Tools to help you find courage, creativity, and willpower - and inspiring you to live life in forward motion."  Need to check this out.

Are you a procrastinator too? Let me know in the comments below if you do this too and what you think about this theory.