Procrastination… It’s a tough one. And many people say that they have problems with it. Clients come to work with me lamenting that they procrastinate too much and that’s why they get nothing done. But sometimes I’d argue, we’re just not meant to do that thing being procrastinated on’.
Ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle described procrastination as: Akrasia. Akrasia is the state of acting against your better judgment. It is when you do one thing even though you know you should do something else.
What I find interesting in the definition of Akrasia is the inclusion of “against your better judgment”. Because sometimes, SOMETIMES, what we think of as procrastination is actually just our better judgement telling us to delay something.
I know that this could be demonstrably abused. It’d be very easy to brush off all procrastination as intuition through this lens, but I’ve seen it and experienced it myself enough times to know that that’s not true.
Just recently a participant of the Monthly Goal Setting Hour got in touch to thank me for the space the event had given her to get clear on what it was she needed to do. Having the space to reflect she realised that her ‘procrastination’ was actually trying to indicate to her that she was going about something all wrong. That what she was pushing hard against to get done wasn’t the right thing to be focusing on, and that’s why it wasn’t getting done. “Once I had your session, and got clear, things shifted, and everything changed, I even slept better. I got moving, I just did what I needed to do easily after that.”
Yes, there are times for all of us when procrastination is in full swing. But there are also times when it’s not actually conducive to beat ourselves up because we instead need to listen to the subtle feelings that are trying to be heard. They may be misdiagnosed as procrastination but once given the space to reveal themselves, prove to be something else entirely.
If you’ve been having trouble getting something done for a while now. Reach out, let’s have a chat and see if we can sort it out for you. Thirty minutes with me may just save you hours! If you think you need support around this, feel free to book in for a call with me.
And also share and forward this post if you liked it! It could really help someone.
