This post is for all you big dreamers who find yourself doing anything BUT working toward that dream. You know that dreaded procrastination.

I hope to share what I’ve learned about my own procrastination, questions I ask myself to begin to shift, and tools that support me.

In my corporate career it was so easy for me to do the work for others on others deadlines, but when I shifted into an entrepreneur who needed to do things for herself my people-pleaser was affronted and procrastination was the norm. I was also living with my mom, helping her purge my childhood home, and she’s whom I learned my avoidance / procrastination from. I easily sank back into the comfort of familiar.

But that wasn’t me. It wasn’t the me I healed and grew to be. It was old me. Now when I’m stuck I’ll go to Matt and frustratingly share that I don’t know where to begin to make my big dream real. He’ll always lovingly asks, what’s the next best step? Instantly my anxiety subsides, and I’m reminded big dreams are built one brick at a time. I suddenly know what to do, and, more importantly, I take action on that knowing.

Recently, procrastination struck me big time. I’ve been spending the last 8 weeks doing deep inner work to get to the root of it and shift. This blog post sharing the tools I’ve used marks that shift. If this reaches just one person and nudges them out of freeze and into movement I’ll be filled with joy. #rippleeffect

Marianne Williamson so eloquently sums up my biggest roadblock.

What is Procrastination

The dictionary says that, procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing something.

The things we delay that we know we need to do, carry a secret energetic heavy weight on our shoulders, making us less agile, syphoning out our self-confidence, diminishing our trust in ourselves.

Procrastination is a nervous system disregulated in freeze state. It is, in the strangest sense, a way we attempt to maintain control. It’s how we stay small and hide. It’s how I know Marianne Williamson’s quote rings so incredibly true.

What would happen if a tree tried to hang onto it’s leaves and didn’t want to let them go?

Proven Steps to Uproot Procrastination for Good

Here awareness and curiosity are your super powers.

Step 1: Cultivate awareness around the ways you avoid. What do you always lean on to do NOT do the thing and then all of a sudden hours go by?

Ways we avoid can be anything from: scrolling on our phone, helping friends, constantly reaching for a snack, mindlessly watching TV, shopping, cleaning, working out, etc.

The seconds we think we’re wasting turn into hours and days over the course of a year.

When you notice yourself reaching for those habitual avoidance tactics…

Step 2: …get curious. What are you avoiding and why?

For example: lately I’ve avoided doing consistent things that serve my business because I was afraid of more visibility and more success.

In the past I avoided dating because I had a tender heart and didn’t want to be hurt. That’s what I know now, not what I would’ve told you then.

Some people push away financial abundance because they don’t want to be judged or have so much responsibility. There are so many examples as each is very personal.

Ok, now you’re noticing where you’re practicing avoidance, you’ve gotten curious with your why.

Step 3: Instead of beating yourself up, reframe it.

Generally in my life, when I beat myself up over not doing something I’m less likely to do the thing… and also, generally in my life, procrastination is actually a cover for something else.

It can be a cover for: rest (ie am I just tired?), my system needing regeneration and integration, a lesson I’m finally ready to learn, better systems need to be put in place, healing is ready to happen (and healing happens best in a peaceful environment over time), I need to delegate more, time to tune better into my intuition and my way of being rather than the worlds, etc.

How can you reframe your procrastination to tune it more into the cycles of your life, of the seasons?

Coaching Prompt

What is something you say you want but don’t yet have? What are your actions (or inaction) saying you want? Why are you avoiding it? What are you most afraid of?

Here are my most powerful, yet likely underrated tools

• Create a morning ritual that tunes into you, reminds you of your dreams for your life, and uplevels your frequency (examples: a short meditation, affirmations, gratitude list, journaling). Make it effortless enough to do daily.
• Journal to enhance self-awareness
• Ask a trusted friend to help you see where your actions don’t match your words
• Heal and heal your nervous system through working with a therapist and / or a coach
• Make a vision board that reminds you daily what you’re building
• Meditate daily asking future you what’s the best step you can take today
• Remind yourself to distill to the best next step, the vision will take care of itself
• When you find yourself procrastinating on a certain thing, create a ritual around it – a safe space and an intention
• Move your body and spend time outdoors (a great nervous system regulator)
• Spend a minute daily visualizing the outcome you seek as already real (you’ll begin to make different choices)
• Ask for help, share what you’re struggling with, make a call