Whether it's getting your homework done, calling an old friend, applying to college, or chasing a lifelong dream, you may be struggling to get into action. Procrastination tends to be based on feelings such as fear and low self-esteem, reassuring avoidance, or even strong doubts about one's abilities and self-worth. In order to have the confidence to take action and overcome procrastination, you need a strategy. This is the time to cultivate self-confidence, hone your potential, and try to act.
Step
Method 1 of 3: Changing Your Mindset
Step 1. Limit negative thinking
Negative thinking tends to focus on negative outcomes. You may have such low self-esteem that you underestimate your hidden skills or talents to the point of thwarting your efforts before you even try. It creates a vicious and unpredictable cycle of failure. Concentrate on empowering thoughts. Part of the learning process is realizing why you are thinking negatively, letting go of negative thoughts, and replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. Instead of being afraid to do a task, ask yourself why you are scared. Are you afraid of failure? Are you afraid of losing control? Once you find the source, you can better control your reactions.
Step 2. Don't be afraid to fail
We all fail. Beyond that, we fail every time. The most successful people fail the most because they take the most risks and learn from past failures. You can see Abraham Lincoln who failed as a business owner, went bankrupt twice, and lost the previous 26 elections finally finding his footing in his political career. You can see Thomas Edison who his teachers thought was too stupid to learn anything and was fired from his first two jobs for being unproductive. Achieving big dreams in life involves forgetting our fear of failure. One way to do that is to try new things like yoga, paint, play music, and retrain your brain to embrace failure to overcome it.
Step 3. Eliminate stop words from your vocabulary
Along with accepting mistakes, apply the "never give up" stance to achieve your dreams. Theodore Roosevelt once said that nothing in the world is worth achieving unless it means effort, pain, and hardship. Remember that achieving it is supposed to be difficult and you don't have the right to success easily. Be strong when you struggle or fail.
Step 4. Don't compare yourself to others
There will always be people in this world who are smarter, more accomplished, more successful, and more famous than you. Judging yourself by their standards is pointless and will only demotivate you and make you feel inadequate. Realize that these feelings come from within you. You compare and make yourself feel inadequate, not them. Try to think more logically. You can also plan strategically to stop yourself from comparing. For example, sit in the front if yoga makes you ashamed of your body. Don't look at other people.
Step 5. Don't be afraid of what other people think of you
Successful people dare to take risks regardless of the views of others. You may hold yourself back for fear of not fitting in or fear that your peers will doubt you, look at you suspiciously and tell you that you will fail. They may be right. However, what if they are wrong? One way to manage such thinking is to create a hierarchy. List the names of the people whose opinions mean the most to you, such as your family, parents, and spouse. Then continue the list with people whose opinions are less important. The opinion of your boss and friends should be lower than that of your family, and your coworkers should be even lower. When you reach the acquaintances or strangers on the list, you'll see that their good opinion shouldn't matter to you at all.
Method 2 of 3: Forging Potential
Step 1. Look at your motivations
What do you want to do? Do you want to study? Do you have ambitions to move to a big city or patent an invention? Pay attention to your target. Know what your target is and how to achieve it. Try to write down your thoughts on a piece of paper. Aoa exactly your target? When do you want to get it? How do you want to achieve it? Also create a reasonable timeline. It will make your plans concrete so you can be firmly committed.
Step 2. Think big, but stay realistic
If you set low expectations, the payoff is usually lower than your efforts. Big results come from bigger expectations, more ambitious dreams, and higher risks. You might be content to get into a mediocre high school for example, but why don't you aim higher? Childhood dreams of becoming a president, professional athlete, or famous artist may not come true, but that's because very few people can achieve it.
Step 3. Leave your comfort zone
Inertia may keep you from great things. It's easy to get caught up in routine, the space of the soul where we feel comfortable, safe, and stress-free. However, it can also get in the way of your development. Risk and stress are two things that help us thrive. While staying in your comfort zone keeps your performance stable and consistent, leaving your comfort zone gives you the opportunity to do new and creative things and allows you to achieve new achievements. Try changing your relationship with discomfort. Instead of seeing it as something to be avoided, tell yourself that discomfort is a condition for growth. Your comfort may be a sign of an outdated routine.
Step 4. Take time each day to develop yourself
How much time do you spend studying or developing your mind? Do you realize that is the habit of successful people? Do you realize that knowledge is power? Try to develop new skills and ideas as a way of avoiding complacency. Take time each day to enrich your horizons, even if it's just an hour. Think of it as food for your soul and spirit. Read a good book or newspaper, listen to inspiring recordings, pay attention to various ideas, and develop curiosity about the world.
Step 5. Remember past successes
Remind yourself of past successes instead of past failures. Use a journal to mark and celebrate things that went according to plan, so you have a real record. While you should be living in the present instead of in the past, revisit your success every now and then to stay motivated.
Method 3 of 3: Incentive Yourself
Step 1. Write down your target
Write down your goals and reasons for achieving them on a piece of paper. A biology student may easily feel tired and lazy to study. Considering his motivation to major in biology (because he wanted to develop a life-saving drug or become the teacher that inspired him) is a strong motivation. Glue your target on your office desk, computer, or mirror in your bedroom or bathroom. Put it where you see it often so you can always remember it. It will keep you focused and keep you on the right track.
Step 2. Change the target
Setting specific, large goals can motivate you more than a series of small goals. However, at the same time, your ultimate ambition can sometimes seem too far to reach or too impossible and overwhelming. Don't overwhelm you. This kind of thinking is notorious for shutting down motivation and making people abandon a project. Change your target if you feel that way. If you're writing a novel, for example, set the big picture aside for a while and focus on each chapter you're writing or commit to revising 20 pages per day. Focusing on small, concrete tasks will move you gradually and help you finish the work you've started.
Step 3. Make a deal with yourself
Procrastinators sometimes need more concrete incentives. Set performance standards and reward yourself. The deal can be small or large. Give yourself a break after completing a job. Was your final exam brilliant? That means you need a bigger gift, like a week-long celebration with friends. Try to use an inducement that can motivate you to carry out the plan.
Step 4. Consider the best and worst possibilities
Take some time to think about what's the best thing that could happen if you put your plan into action? What's the worst thing? If you're really committed to your goal, remind yourself what it's worth if the plan works and what it costs if the plan doesn't work. Compare the two. What can you expect from applying for a job in architecture? What's the worst thing that could happen if you weren't accepted? Oftentimes, the worst possibilities stem from fear of failure, rejection, or regret, while the best possibilities promise real gains.
