Despite its normality, procrastination comes hand in hand with negative connotations, and only in understanding the route of procrastination, how and why we procrastinate and what triggers it, can we learn to successfully manage and overcome it.

In working with high net-worth individuals and in delivering peak performance and success masterclasses, I have found the following points are key to understanding and overcoming procrastination, enabling you to approach challenges head-on and strive for success:

Procrastination and fear of failure

The tasks most important to us, are often those we procrastinate most about. Why? Fear of failure and lack of self-worth.

Think about it. When there is a lot riding on one piece of work, such as a client proposal, procrastination will kick in – pushing you to find the perfect time and place to piece the document together, at ease and without distraction.

Though this may sound like a sensible mental shift, in reality it has lured you into a false sense of security, so you can immediately complete easier tasks to make yourself feel productive and satisfied, whilst ignoring that one piece of work that could make or break your business.

Sound familiar?

Procrastination is deep-rooted in the fear of failure and a lack of self-worth, where looking at it positively, this process is trying to protect us from negative experiences that we believe will undermine our capabilities.

In recognising this, procrastination is no longer the problem, but rather the need to overcome self-doubt through a positive and focused mindset.

Procrastination & implications

Where procrastination may protect you from fear of failure, it ultimately prevents you from achieving success. Successful individuals understand that time is a valuable asset, and in consistently succumbing to procrastination, you inevitably lose time.

With loss of time, comes loss of opportunity and additional setbacks in your journey to achieving success.

In using the client proposal example, where procrastination will try to protect you in prolonging the timeframe between putting pen to paper, in reality you will look unorganised and inefficient to the potential client in hand.

As a result, the chances of you securing the work are not ruined because you don’t have the capability to deliver the brief, but rather because you have let procrastination get in the way of achieving success.

Understand to overcome

When in its grasp, procrastination can be a vicious cycle: You are presented with an opportunity to succeed - you fear failure so procrastinate - you don’t win the opportunity because you didn’t complete the work on time – your lack of self-worth is reaffirmed, fuelling future procrastination.

Therefore, in understanding why we procrastinate and the resulting implications of procrastination, we can implement prevention strategies.

The key to overcoming procrastination is mindset, where in conditioning your mindset for success, you will not only develop strong beliefs in your capability and self-worth, but you will also recognise when you procrastinate and implement strategies to overcome it.

Remember, procrastination is fuelled by our sub-conscious desire to protect us from failure. To be a high-performance individual, you have to push past this feeling on a daily basis and reaffirm positive and determined beliefs, where procrastination has no place to thrive.