Why Are You Dragging Your Feet?

Sometimes you know what you need to do, but you don’t do it. You don’t do it because it’s hard to overcome your patterns and habits. Coincidentally, you know these patterns and habits stand between you and your big goal, whether that goal is mental peace, starting on the book you said you wanted to write, or consistent meal prep so that you can hit your health goals or something else. Which goals are you struggling to meet?

The patterns and habits that trip you up are sometimes the small things that take discipline, but you know work wonders for you. For me, it’s journaling. Seriously, I need to write to think straight. Journaling is my prayer time, where I evaluate my choices and behavior, and ponder tough decisions. When I don’t want to journal, I’m usually trying to avoid holding myself accountable for or experiencing anxiety about a decision I’ve made or risk I’ve taken. What habit do you need in order to anchor yourself?

Here’s something else that you may not realize: this stalling, this “I’m going to start on Monday”, this “I’m going to have one more and I swear I’m going to quit after that”…all of it is procrastination. Procrastination usually shows up for the following reasons: you are afraid of some element of the situation, you doubt your ability to succeed, or you don’t truly value the goal. It may also be that you don’t know exactly what to do and feel stuck (but are you looking for a solution?). Do you know what’s driving your procrastination?

Finally, you might be deceiving yourself about when and how much you’re procrastinating because  procrastination doesn’t necessarily look like laziness. You can be busy, all dressed up and on your way to somewhere great and still be actively dragging your feet.