Procrastinate
pro- = for + -crastin = tomorrow
In my counseling practice, people have consistently asked me about a cure for procrastination. It always reminds me of that old vaudeville joke, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” “Don’t do that!”
There really is only one cure for procrastination and that’s to stop doing it. The Latin roots mean to put off till the morrow. The thing that interests me most about procrastination is the why of it. Why do we procrastinate?
In most cases, procrastination is one of two things: either a bad habit which can be changed or a form of resistance. I’d say ten percent is habit, and ninety percent is resistance. So, we procrastinate because we are in resistance. In resistance means I don’t wanna.
The only way I know to remove resistance is to figure it out. What are you resisting? Why are you resisting it? Do you still want to resist it? Or, do you want to stop resisting it?
Let’s take these one at a time. If you want to continue your resistance, fine; then you don’t get to judge your behavior as procrastinating. If you want to put down your resistance, what works for you? Barreling through? Making accountability agreements? Taking incremental chunks or the whole enchilada?
Most of the time resistance is a form of fear, and it’s most often solved by attention. Ask: how can I attend to my fear and do what’s mine to do today?
Infinition: Procrastination is an old habit that I both accept and release now. I no longer resist. Instead, I persist and finish what’s mine to do.
From Dr. Susan Corso’s blog God’s Dictionary
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Dr. Susan Corso is a spiritual author, speaker, and counselor. An omnifaith minister and the author of God’s Dictionary (Tarcher/Putnam 2002) and The Peace Diet, she has had a spiritual counseling practice for more than 25 years. She has been an intuitive since childhood.
Susan’s blogosphere writing may be found at Seeds for Sanctuary, Ode Magazine and The Huffington Post, and Beliefnet. Her website is SusanCorso.com
One of her favorite occupations is writing spiritual fiction. She is the author of The Healing Mysteries of Mex Stone under the pseudonym Shulamith Burton. The audiobook of the first in the series, Oklahoma! Hex, came out in September 2008.
Susan is the founder of Sanctuary and ten-year author/publisher of a free e-newsletter, Seeds. As a professor at the accredited College of Divine Metaphysics, she teaches and ordains ministers.
Susan has been published in magazines, online magazines and newsletters including Business Ethics, Beliefnet.com, Ode Magazine, Science of Mind, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, New York House, Q-Spirit, Self, and Winning Ways. She is the author of several tape series. Susan also writes for the theatre: The God Show, I Would Never, Fight or Flight, and PeaceWomen.
For many years, Susan was an organizational consultant and motivational speaker guiding nuclear scientists as well as entrepreneurs into their life purposes. Some of her former clients include Westinghouse Hanford Company, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Gila River Casinos, and the American Nuclear Society, among many others.
Today she functions as Chief Spiritual Officer for corporations. She lives in one-sixth of a Victorian house outside of Boston, with her beloved spouse, director/actress/teacher Sheriden Thomas, and the spirit of her familiar cat, Charles of the Ritz.
Her mission in life is peace.
What a lovely simple reminder. The future, after all, only exists in our heads!
Simple yet Powerful.