Procrastination is the act of postponing decisions or actions unnecessarily. For example, delaying an assignment until the deadline arrives for no reason, even though they knew that it was necessary to start earlier.
Many of those who procrastinate know that this behaviour is not good for them. However, they will continue with the dangerous habit even though they know that they have to stop. If you are an occasional procrastinator, you may have asked yourself “why do we procrastinate?”. You may have also asked something similar if you are trying to help someone else stop this habit.
The answer to this question is important because in order to fight procrastination, it is necessary to understand it first.
So why do we procrastinate?
There is a mental force that is intimately involved in every decision that we make. This force works against us and its sole purpose is to keep us from achieving our potential. This force is called resistance. This force causes some internal tension whenever we feel like doing something constructive. Resistance injects tension into our minds without us even realising. It is an automatic mental process and it happens every single time.
How does resistance manifest? Well, before we start a project, we find all good reasons why that particular task should not be done. These reasons seem completely practical and justified, but ultimately set you further away from your goal and can even undermine your confidence.
For example, imagine a person who is suffering from an underlying condition like high blood pressure and he/she is aware that their Saturday cardio exercises are crucial for curbing this condition. Resistance will initially come at this person in the form of physical discomfort. The very thought of going to the field or gym will become very unpleasant. They will start to worry about doing something that is uncomfortable. What is actually interesting is that once they are actually at the field or at the gym, the activity becomes really fun and they get a great feeling of satisfaction and confidence in themselves.
After physical discomfort, resistance starts to rationalize itself in form of excuses. This person knows that going to the gym or field is the right thig to do. However, resistance will start manifesting itself by giving this person valid reasons not to encounter physical pain. In this case, this person may tell him/herself that since they walked from work to home on Friday evening then there is no need for the Saturday cardio exercises. A logical excuse, but ultimately keeps them from achieving their goals.
If there was no such thing as resistance, we would all be living our lives according to our ideals. If we knew our goal was to write a book, we would just start writing and there would be nothing to stop us. We would be living in a world full of achievers. Unfortunately, resistance never goes away. It is hard wired into our brains and therefore cannot be removed. The only way to overcome resistance is just to do it anyway. Once we realise that the reasons we give ourselves that make us not do what we are supposed to do is just resistance, we can gain the mental capability to do a lot of things and achieve many of our goals. I actually think resistance is a guide to show us the things that are actually important for our progress.