Do You Procrastinate?

Have you ever noticed that you never procrastinate on the things that you love.

You never put off scrolling social media, or watching television.

When things feel easy.

Your mind feels like it can go all day.

Competence breathes confidence.

That confidence can quickly fall away though.

What happens when you need to complete an unfamiliar task?

You become uncertain

Uncertainty breathes delay and procrastination.

Procrastination can lead to avoidance.

Avoidance of important things leads to bad things happening down the line.

You can only avoid the gym or your health for so long before it comes back to bite you.

Why You Procrastinate

If you find yourself procrastinating on tasks like going to the gym.

The culprit could be what you least expect.

That culprit could be fear.

Whenever you lack the knowledge and  skills in a certain area, your mind will create resistance.

Your resistance to not take action is an immediate roadblock to your fitness.

If you haven’t developed the habit or routine of going to the gym then the reasons to not go can be plenty.

You might be unsure of how exactly to use the equipment, or even where to park.

Or you might be afraid of how hard the workout will be.  

These fears will manifest themselves in strange behaviour.

You might keep telling yourself you have plenty of time and you’ll go later.

Or you might take a little longer with all your other tasks for the day.

Or you might rationalize why it’s not a good time to go to the gym.

“Your food wasn’t great or it’s too dark, or the traffic will be mental, or you’re too tired.”

Recognize these are just methods of avoidance, as a way to avoid the fear associated with learning something new and unknown.

But unless you actually take the action then your goals will always be for the future.

One tip to Stop putting of the Gym: Planning

Remember competence breathes confidence.

When things feel easy, there’s never delay.

The way to reduce procrastination and resistance to challenging tasks is planning.

Planning reduces uncertainty.

To break down resistance for going to the gym, you need to know exactly what to do before hand.

Here’s where your planning comes in.

How To Plan

You plan by breaking the action down into steps.

There can be as little as three steps.

Here could be your plan for going to the gym.

1. Wear your black outfit you received for Christmas

2. leave as soon as you drop the kids to school.

3. Park to the closest entrance spot

4. Go to the nearest bike or treadmill that you can use

5. Press on and start pedaling.

6. Go for at least 10 minutes.

From these steps, you know what you need to do.

When Unsure: Plan

When you are unsure of yourself, you revert back to comfort. In the gym this is reverting back to the machines you can safely use or avoiding it altogether.

But to stop the immediate impulse to delay or avoid challenging tasks. Break the task into steps so you exactly what to do next.

Pick something you are confident you can do. If you repeat often enough then going to the gym will feel as automatic as scrolling through your facebook feed.

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