There is a fantastic article in this month’s issue of Psychology Today Psychology Today: Current Issue about procrastination. It’s called Getting Out From Under by Hara Estroff Marano. Yes, I said the “P” word. I can’t copy the article, but I’d like to showcase a couple of paragraphs that slapped me upside the head. Here, in a nutshell, is one of my worst flaws. Sharing can be good, yes?
“For Peter as for many others, procrastination was an almost natural growth of perfectionism; procrastinators would rather that others say they lacked effort than that they lacked ability. The desire to preserve a sense of self-worth that hinges on the expectations of others can led to such contortions of delay that the stress and guilt of perpetual postponement are themselves incapacitating.”
Whoa. It goes on to say it is not and I repeat not a form of laziness. That’s good to know. I used to believe that was my problem, but if I were lazy, my house would be constantly trashed, I wouldn’t have so many activities with my kids, wouldn’t make wine or keep up with the never-ending advertising of online marketing…
No, I keep up with all the other aspects of my life… okay, maybe laundry is an issue, but we won’t go there… I would say we should all go around naked so there aren’t so many clothes to wash… but I really do suffer from that perfectionist thing.
But only in myself. With myself, I’m a hard ass. A harsh one.
Anyway, the article also goes on to say, “At bottom is always the same problem — a low tolerance for frustration. You perceive negativity or unpleasantness in some aspect of the task and you dodge the discomfort through diversion.”
They say a procrastinator needs to learn frustration-tolerance skills and acknowledge the unpleasantness. To put the brakes on negative self-talk. There’s more but I just wanted to share a little. You might want to pick up a copy because it gives helpful solutions, etc. I enjoy this magazine and never fail to find interesting character ideas as well as helpful personal study.
I did have nice images to display– spent good procrastination time looking them up, but I’m unable to load them or double space but I certainly don’t want to spend good procrastination time griping about that. Again.