Page 23 - End Procrastination Now Get it Done with a Proven Psychological Approach

End Procrastination with a Three-Step Approach xxi

Procrastination is not a black-and-white issue where you either
are a procrastinator or you are not. You can procrastinate in some
areas of your life and still have many admirable qualities and
accomplishments. Instead, procrastination represents a change-
able process. Thus, it is infinitely more reasonable and realistic to
think about changing your actions or habits than to pigeonhole
yourself.
Remember that words have the power to color perspective.
Think of the words loser and winner. Do they create different im-
ages? If you label yourself a loser, how will you feel and what will
you do? Character generalizations like “loser” or “winner” suffer
from the same flaw as the label “procrastinator.”
Labeling yourself a procrastinator is a choice, but one that
you’ll have trouble justifying. Procrastination is relative. No one I
know procrastinates 100 percent of the time, and no one is 100
percent efficient or effective. You might more accurately describe
yourself as a person who procrastinates in specific ways, but who
is timely and effective in other ways.
You may not like your procrastinating behavior. You may
change what you don’t like. But procrastination does not define
you as a whole.
If you call yourself a procrastinator, this may have no more
general meaning than descriptively calling yourself an engineer
or middle-aged. You know you’re a pluralistic person with thou-
sands of attributes who plays dozens of roles in life. But here’s the
problem: most people think categorically and not pluralistically.
Thus, you risk identifying with the label in a way that suggests that
you have no choice but to imitate the label.

Overcome the Fear of Failure
in Order to Curb Procrastination

Procrastination has many causes, such as tension avoidance. If
you don’t like a pressing project, you put it on the back burner.