There are five main reasons that people procrastinate. However, there is really only one primary emotion for it.

The first reason people put off what needs to be done is Anxiety. The anticipation of starting or ending a task causes anxiety because of what lies on the other side. This is very common for college or high school students. After I graduate…now what do I do? Another example for putting off what needs to be done is when dealing with an elderly parent. You put off starting the process because it is really something you don’t want to face.

The second most common reason for procrastinating is the fear of success. Are you delaying success? Or, are you but delaying your expectation of failure? Is it safer and easier to say you didn’t get what you want because you didn’t try? It may sound silly to say you are afraid to succeed. Are you nervous or unsure about the responsibilities you will have if you reach your goal? Knowing that, can take all the pressure off. If your goal could put you in the public eye and you know that having reporters and photographers follow you around and critique your every move is not for you, then accept that and find a new goal. There is nothing wrong with not wanting what goes along with what you said you want. And that would be a great reason to stop talking about that goal and find another one. One that you really want, and everything that goes with it.

Fear of Failure is the next reason people procrastinate. Who wants to admit they failed? Forget admitting it, who wants to fail. There’s no such thing as failure, there’s only results. Being afraid to fail would be a great reason to talk but not try. I believe that it is better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all. Don’t you waste more mental energy thinking about doing something as opposed to just doing it? So if you are complaining or talking about being a procrastinator and you want to change then you need to be honest with yourself as to why you are putting off what needs to be done. It’s ok to have fear. We all have fear about something or another at some point in our lives. If you just admit it and get it over with, then you can deal with the emotion, decide if what you say you want really is what you want, then come up with a course of action to get it.

Another reason for procrastination is more rare but it’s for the Perfectionist. Perfectionists tend to take no action if they can’t do it perfectly. I have seen people who have absolutely disaster-ous home improvement projects either inside or out that haven’t been finished. The inside of their kitchen may be half ripped out and not functioning but they won’t do anything to fix it until they have the plans just perfect, down to every last detail. It doesn’t make any sense to me to live in complete and total chaos and disarray as opposed to making the situation decent and livable. Is being a perfectionist just an excuse to not take action? My guess is there’s some fear about what lies on the other side of that finished project.

The last reason to procrastinate is resistance. This is about thinking a task is un-important or invaluable, therefore you put it off. Perhaps you need to take a test at work for a job you have been doing for 20 years. Or maybe you have to sit through an HR class even though you trained the person instructing the class and clearly know the “rules”. So you put it off. Regardless of how un-important you think it is, it isn’t going to go away until you deal with it. Just do it, get it over with and then you can move on to what you view as more valuable.

In a nutshell, the main reasons for procrastination are anxiety, failure, success, perfectionist, and resistance. The underlying cause is fear. All but resistance are about fear. There is nothing to fear but fear itself. Pushing something off is only going to make matters worse. If there are consequences to something those consequences are still going to be there when you finally get around to facing them and they will likely get worse the longer you put them off. Ask yourself “What am I afraid of?” then deal with it. Just be honest and admit the fear, deal with it, get past it and step up and live your life NOW!!!

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