Are you always racing the clock? Do you ride the edge of tension with deadlines and social engagements? Do you tell yourself you perform better under pressure? Chances are pretty good your self-sabotage specialty is procrastination.

Don’t feel bad, every single human on the planet struggles with this at some point.

When you feel overtired, stressed, and mentally drained, the last thing you want to do is finish your homework, pack for your trip, or clean the whole house – so you put it off until later.

But eventually, later becomes now, and sometimes, it even becomes too late.

But when you find that later is always finding you with too much left to do, all the time, then it’s time to look to the root of the problem and figure out why you always wait until the 11th hour to get things done.

Because research has shown that people who describe themselves as chronic procrastinators, also reveal higher levels of stress, anxiety, and even depression.

So if you find yourself always giving into the lazy meh feeling of putting off the things you know you’re going to eventually have to do anyways, the time is now – not later – to uncover why you keep leaving things your current self doesn’t want to do, and let them pile up so your later self still has to do them, only with less time.

Because that leads to feelings of failure and inadequacy when you can’t complete the task well, and the results are unhappy and less than ideal.

Leading to you not wanting to do the next task that comes along, because you didn’t do so hot on the last one. See that self-fulfilling cycle ready to repeat itself?

Luckily, there are some ways to retrain yourself from procrastinator to proactivator.

1. Recognize when you’re procrastinating – If you start an important task, only to stop immediately for a coffee break, or put off doing something until you feel motivated to do it, or even pack your schedule with other easier but less important tasks that you’d rather do… then you’re procrastinating.

2. Dig deep to figure out WHY – Dreading something because it’s hard work or not fun isn’t the real reason why you keep putting off the things you need to do. If you’re avoiding a task because you aren’t organized, then it’s time to look at organization strategies.

If you put things off because you’re afraid you won’t finish them perfectly, it’s time to look at the self-sabotaging beliefs behind perfectionism. Remember – Finished is always better than Perfect.

If you’re afraid that completing a job successfully will only come with the reward of more hard work and the expectations that come with success, then you need to look at why that success scares you.

3. Work on Anti-procastination – First, forgive yourself for your previous procrastination patterns and work towards the Get It Done mentality that will help you overcome them.

Commit to your tasks, create accountability by sharing your schedule with others and encourage them to check in on your progress, and set up a reward system for when you’ve completed something in a timely fashion.

Who doesn’t love a decadent treat when they’ve done a Grown-Up job?

Of course, the easiest way to not put things off is to do them as soon as they hit your To-Do list. Turn off all distractions and knuckle down by telling yourself that you choose to do it now, instead of you have to do it eventually. Give yourself power over the task, and crush it – before the deadline.

“A day can slip by when you’re deliberately avoiding what you’re supposed to do.”

— Bill Watterson

Self-Sabotage Counter-Attack!

If you want to stop the self-sabotage and finally get out of your own way, the key is to understand why you’re doing it — what need is it filling?

Then apply a little creativity to identify healthier, happier, and more productive ways to meet those needs.

Here’s a simple guide to help you begin the journey of rewriting your self-sabotaging programming:

The cure is Self-Awareness

1. Inventory – Reflect back and get curious about your own self-sabotage.

• What does your self-sabotage look like?
• How does it typically start?
• Are there any unhealthy patterns?

By taking the time to reflect and notice any repeating patterns, you can more easily recognize when it’s time to take over and kick those traits to the curb. You can then take a moment to pause and get familiar with what’s happening in your mind and body – what’s triggering them, and how it feels physically.

Life often throws us curve balls, and sometimes the crappy ones are the ones that form our deepest beliefs. But sometimes, things come to challenge those hard programmed beliefs and we tell ourselves lies so that we can hold onto our often pessimistic, self-limiting beliefs. Thus, we have the Joys of Cognitive Dissonance.

For example, if someone you trust lies to you early in life, it can be easy to believe that everyone will lie, even though later life experience shows you that there are lots of beautifully trustworthy people out there.

It seems more comfortable for you to believe they will eventually lie to you so that you’ll be ready when you’re disappointed by their eventual and inevitable betrayal.

I don’t think it’s hard to see why this is self-sabotaging.

By constantly believing that others will lie to you, let you down, and betray you, you keep yourself from ever truly trusting anyone, and rob yourself of healthy, meaningful connections.

Likewise, at work, if you see others as incapable of doing their own work, regardless of seeing their own proficiency, you’ll never be able to relax and enjoy the hard work of a team that is qualified and trusted to do a job without constant micromanaging.

And those beliefs are internalized, too.

When you’ve failed even though you tried hard, it can be easy to believe that you will ALWAYS fail, no matter how hard you try, even though repeated success shows you’re capable of not failing. So why bother trying?

When you keep selecting the option of NOT believing what you see in reality, you get to keep our old, comfortable beliefs… but at what cost

Luckily, there are steps you can take to overcome cognitive dissonance.

1. Safety – you have to dig deep and find the courage to believe that it’s SAFE to challenge your own limiting beliefs.

2. Work – you have to work hard to overcome those crappy beliefs when reality shows you that they’re wrong.

Yes, you have to admit that you were wrong.

But the beautiful thing about admitting you were wrong is you can step into the light of truth and accept a better reality.

3. Reconciliation – once you can reconcile the reasons behind your previous limiting beliefs, you can address the uncomfortable insecurities that they were hiding.

Was it lack of trust that stopped you from believing your team wouldn’t let you down?

Was it fear of success that kept you from believing you wouldn’t fail?

In the end, the formula for overcoming cognitive dissonance is:

Baby Steps Courage Deliberate & Uncomfortable Action.

“People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”

— Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Self-Sabotage Counter-Attack!

If you want to stop the self-sabotage and finally get out of your own way, the key is to understand why you’re doing it — what need is it filling?

Then apply a little creativity to identify healthier, happier, and more productive ways to meet those needs.

Here’s a simple guide to help you begin the journey of rewriting your self-sabotaging programming:

The cure is Self-Awareness

1. Inventory – Reflect back and get curious about your own self-sabotage.

• What does your self-sabotage look like?
• How does it typically start?
• Are there any unhealthy patterns?

By taking the time to reflect and notice any repeating patterns, you can more easily recognize when it’s time to take over and kick those traits to the curb. You can then take a moment to pause and get familiar with what’s happening in your mind and body – what’s triggering them, and how it feels physically.

If you constantly take on more work than you can handle, always feel stressed by your To-Do list, and constantly feel like not enough butter scraped over too much toast, chances are you’re self-sabotaging by Doing Too Much.

When you set yourself up for failure by overcommiting in all the areas of your life, you also set yourself up for feelings of guilt, depression, and Burn Out.

Constantly being and doing extra can take a real toll on your mental health.

And when you put too much on your schedule, you can be left feeling like an inadequate failure when you can’t finish everything you start.

The guilt that comes from carrying around too heavy of a commitment load will often find you saying ‘yes’ when someone asks you to add ‘just one more thing’ to your already overladen workload.

It makes it almost impossible to establish and enforce healthy personal boundaries and can eventually lead to Burn-Out.

When you always put yourself last, you make your stress worse. And too much stress = increased cortisol levels = inflammation and weakened immune system.

Yes, you can overwork yourself into sickness.

So how does a chronic people-pleasing overcommitter take back control of their life and set healthy boundaries?

1. Think back. Take stock of all the things that have piled up on your To-Do List, especially the things that ended up on there that really shouldn’t have.

2. Be honest with yourself. Ask yourself why those things ended up there. Was it because you felt guilt if you said no? Was it to please someone else? Did it stem from insecurity? Recognize any unhealthy patterns and forgive yourself.

3. Make a new commitment… to do less. Remove anything from the list that really doesn’t serve you, or costs you too much in peace of mind to accomplish realistically. Create some healthy boundaries around your commitments, like no more volunteer work until you take some time for your own self-care first.

"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."

— Warren Buffet

Self-Sabotage Counter-Attack!

If you want to stop the self-sabotage and finally get out of your own way, the key is to understand why you’re doing it — what need is it filling?

Then apply a little creativity to identify healthier, happier, and more productive ways to meet those needs.

Here’s a simple guide to help you begin the journey of rewriting your self-sabotaging programming:

The cure is Self-Awareness

1. Inventory – Reflect back and get curious about your own self-sabotage.

• What does your self-sabotage look like?
• How does it typically start?
• Are there any unhealthy patterns?

By taking the time to reflect and notice any repeating patterns, you can more easily recognize when it’s time to take over and kick those traits to the curb. You can then take a moment to pause and get familiar with what’s happening in your mind and body – what’s triggering them, and how it feels physically.