By Alexandra Blockton
Do you or someone you know always wait until the last minute to complete a task? Are you feeling down due to self-imposed limitations and negative thoughts hindering your progress toward achieving your life goals? Remember that someone can achieve whatever it is in life they put their mind to, but they must be motivated first and willing to complete the task. This becomes an issue if they are procrastinating to achieve their goals. However, someone who has issues putting themselves down can learn to turn self-criticism into kindness with self-compassion and self-forgiveness.
Initially, some do not realize how valuable they are to themselves when they are constantly thinking negatively about themselves. Someone learning to alleviate those thoughts can be helpful. Author Fushua Sirois says, “One of the best times to practice self-compassion is as a preventative measure when you are struggling with a task, have made a mistake, and are feeling frustrated or stressed and on the brink of procrastinating.”
There is no need for an individual to worry because many people experience procrastination. When a person realizes they need motivation and starts to act on it, changes can happen. This realization can lead to positive things occurring for them.
In addition, it all starts with someone being able to have self-compassion. Showing gentleness, kindness, and a willingness to understand someone’s struggles, along with their own, can be highly beneficial in addressing their personal issues. It can be helpful to erase the negative thoughts because creating negative thoughts about themselves is not helping overall. For instance, when a person is having bad thoughts, they can tend to shut down and procrastinate. “So, if you procrastinate and respond with self-compassion, you will be less likely to continue to procrastinate or engage in ways of thinking that make you feel worse about yourself and thus maintain a procrastination habit,” said Sirois. Someone can take the time to think clearly and nurture themselves when they are not feeling their best self. Instead of putting themselves down, they can value themselves by giving the same acts of kindness they give to others to themselves.
Next, self-criticism can make things worse for people. When comparing themselves to others, over-analyzing their mistakes is not helpful. Instead, they must learn to think positively about themselves and know that everyone is different in their own unique way. Many people make mistakes in life. But it is when someone turns their mistakes into something they can improve, they can create positive thoughts about it. That is what truly matters. For instance, if someone is constantly being negative about mistakes it can become unhealthy self-criticism. Sirois says, “If that is your attitude, then you will be looking for evidence to support these distorted views of yourself you will find it when you are procrastinating.” Those struggling with procrastination and self-criticism can focus on bettering themselves instead of comparing themselves to others
Link to article: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/two_Counterintuitive_ways_to_stop_procrastinating
