What would your life be like if it was free of procrastination?
How would you feel if you could meet all of your project deadlines with time to spare? How wonderful would it be to have that term paper done a week before it’s due or walk into exams feeling fresh and confident because you didn’t have to pull an “all-nighter”?
Sound too good to be true? Well, think again because by applying the techniques used in hypnosis and NLP, procrastination can become a thing of the past.
Why do I procrastinate?
First of all let’s be clear: procrastination is not a character flaw. The reason we put things off is because we want to be happy and avoid suffering. It’s just that putting them off doesn’t really make us happy, does it? In fact, it can make us feel much, much worse.
Think about a time you blew off an important task to go to the movies, hang out with friends, or just “relax”. Maybe you thought, “I’ll do this thing later. I just want to have fun now.” How did that work out for you? I wouldn’t be surprised if instead of enjoying yourself, you wound up feeling preoccupied or even guilty the whole time. And to top things off, the task was still there waiting for you when you came back to reality.
There can be other reasons for procrastination, too. Here are just a few:
- Perfectionism
- Fear of the unknown
- Negative past experience
- Not knowing how to do the task
- Feeling intimidated by the size, length of the project
- All or nothing thinking
- Unresolved trauma
- Lack of confidence and low self-esteem
I want to propose here that any reason we have for procrastinating can be boiled down to that first main assertion: We all want to be happy and avoid suffering.
Take a look again at any of the above scenarios. Can you see how all of them meet that definition?
Someone with low self-esteem might put off a task because they’re afraid that if they fail or do a “bad” job they will feel even worse about themselves. A perfectionist can’t bear the thought of making mistakes. Another person is filled with dread at the start of a large and daunting work project. All of them think that by avoiding the task, they will be happier.
How Can Hypnosis Help With Procrastination?
Procrastination is not logical or rational. It’s emotional. Emotions are in the domain of the subconscious mind. That’s why when we go into hypnosis and connect with our subconscious we can make those big changes in our attitudes and behaviors that will bring us more genuine and lasting happiness.
There is a whole toolkit of techniques and approaches we can apply to procrastination. Here are just three of them
- Reframing and Anchoring The first thing we need to realize is that we can’t get rid of procrastination (stay with me here). What we can do is create, increase, and maintain our motivation and enthusiasm. Whether in or out of hypnosis, we can tap into our natural capacities to be motivated and enthused and anchor those positive resource states so they can be accessed whenever we need them.
- Removing Subconscious Blocks Sometimes there are subconscious reasons we avoid things. A chronic procrastinator might feel subconsciously that they aren’t worthy of success and happiness. This may be rooted in early trauma, abuse, or negative messaging they internalized about themselves in childhood. Whatever the case, we can more easily address these root causes while in the safe, secure state of hypnosis.
- Parts Work On the one hand we are all whole and complete human beings. From another point of view we also have many, many different parts that make up our personalities. A part of us likes pizza. Another part of us likes Vietnamese food. A part of us wants to go to New York. The other to Kathmandu. In the same way, there’s a part of us that is deciding to procrastinate. While in hypnosis we can use our creativity and imagination to enter a dialog with the various parts of ourselves. Doing so helps us to understand that the pure motivation of each part of us is (surprise, surprise) to be happy and free of suffering. Oftentimes, when we have a deep and felt experience of this, the problem state automatically resolves itself.
Everyone is different and unique. Some people respond better to some approaches. The important thing is to have a little patience, loving-friendliness, and open minded curiosity for about about yourself. Change is ultimately up to you.
Where Do I Go From Here?
If you are interested in learning more about how hypnosis can help with procrastination or other issue, feel free to visit my main website or schedule a free strategy and planning session.
You can also email me at chris@truenaturehypnotherapy.com.
