the real reason you’re procrastinating
Published February 28, 2022
OK, so I know I started with a catchy, gotcha-style title. And, if you’re reading this, it seems that on some level it worked.
But I actually want to invite you, gently, to simply notice a process at work in your artist-warrior life.
The process goes something like this:
First, you have an impulse or a desire. For the purposes of our discussion today, let’s say that the impulse is to create something.
Next, you either act on that desire or you delay acting on that desire.
If you delay acting, I invite you to take note of what you do instead of acting in the moment.
Without adding shame or blame or guilt, I invite you to note whether the thing you do instead causes you to feel more alive or less.
Please don’t beat yourself up for the choice. See if you can find a relaxed place in yourself that can simply observe the choice you are making.
If anything, I invite you to celebrate the fact that you’re noticing this dynamic at all. Say to yourself, “Great job at noticing. I am grateful to the flow of life that has brought me to this precise moment.”
Now, let’s return to our decision tree for a moment and suppose that we are at that precise moment when you decide to act on your impulse to create, either after a delay or not.
At that moment, if you are immediately in the flow of creativity, naturally, I support you to stay with it – follow where it takes you.
And if some kind of resistance shows up, you might choose to stay close to yourself and your experience and notice what uncomfortable thoughts and feelings arise in you. Write down in your journal or songwriting notebook whatever you’re noticing.
This is the real reason you may have been delaying action.
You might notice fearful thoughts of inadequacy, or anger you didn’t want to acknowledge even to yourself, or a deeper level of honesty with yourself on a topic you thought you understood.
In all my years of experience with my own creativity and coaching others with theirs, I do believe that we very often cannot truly know why we are procrastinating until we actually start to do the thing we’ve been avoiding.
So it’s simple really.
Start to do the thing you’ve been avoiding and pay attention as you do so.
You will not only learn why you’ve been procrastinating, but you will most likely find that you have exactly what you need to move forward and through and beyond.
Consider it a kind of dare.
Let me know how it goes.
Your friend,
Gary
for golden lotus studio
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