A few moments ago, an old Heinz ketchup commercial was playing in my mind.
If you don’t remember it, or weren’t around back then, it went as follows: “Anticipation… an-ti-ci-pay-ya-tion is making me wait.”
As I heard these words in my mind, a new word, procrastination, entered the picture.
I found myself nodding in agreement, saying to myself, “Procrastination… pro-cras-ti-na-aa-tion is making me wait.”
Wait for what?
That is the six-trillion dollar question.
Why on earth do we procrastinate, especially on the things that we know we can get done lickety-split? Why do we avoid doing what we know we could begin doing immediately, and be done with, for the rest of the day?
It’s a bad habit. And yet, this bad habit is nothing more than a mental picture we play in our minds. We see ourselves delaying doing something, instead of focusing on getting what we want done.
One of the keys to eliminating procrastination is taking a minute or two to “clear the mechanism.”
You close your eyes and picture a calculator in your hands with a bunch of digits running across the screen. Then you press “C” to clear the screen. As soon as you do this, the residue from previous activities evaporates, and you feel a sense of calmness and clarity.
Once the calculator screen is clear, you take another minute to picture yourself doing what you’ve been putting off.
You see yourself fully engaged in the activity you’ve been avoiding. You see yourself being finished, then you get out of your own way and “get ‘er done.”
Give this exercise from Psycho-Cybernetics a whirl today and see where it leads you. I’m betting be amazed.
Matt Furey
Psycho-Cybernetics.com
Note: In the Theatre of the Mind 30-Day Challenge, I walk you through exercises such as the one shown above. I answer all your questions and give you the details that help you “get your goals” and create the life you want. The next 30-Day Challenge is quickly approaching. If you want to enroll in the next one, don’t put it off. Get ‘er done. Click here for more.
