I recently asked my entrepreneurial friends about procrastination and what they think is the top cause for procrastination. I got a lot of great feedback, but surprisingly the answers were all really the same thing just worded differently.
I’ve narrowed the list down to the top 20 causes for procrastination:
- Fear
- Avoiding discomfort
- Unfamiliarity
- Lack of self-esteem
- Information overload
- Confusion
- Lack of passion - it isn’t what you truly want to do
- Boredom
- Annoyance
- When a task is emotionally draining
- Regret
- Lack of focus
- Limiting beliefs
- Not having a big enough why
- Environmental distractions
- No clear direction
- Actively seeking pleasure – lack of discipline
- Choosing what’s easier
- Overthinking things
- Netflix’s auto-play
Do you notice a common theme among the majority of these causes for procrastination? It’s you!
Fear and fear-based causes were named more often than any other cause. A fear of the unknown, a fear of discomfort, a fear of regret, a fear of not being good enough… Most fears come from limiting beliefs about ourselves. End result, what we think (believe) is typically the #1 thing that gets in our way.
So how do we overcome the fear and start moving again? Acknowledge that it’s you that’s in your own way and think about where your limiting belief(s) come from. I know mine came from my father who raised my sister and me to be good employees, not an entrepreneur like he was. Acknowledge your fear, take a step back and look at your why, then make yourself a to-do list that breaks down the big steps into manageable chunks and kiss that procrastination good-bye!
