I don’t believe in procrastination.
So many people label themselves procrastinators, but I think this identification keeps them stuck and further prevents them from getting started on what matters most.
Whenever I’m not taking action on something I’ve said I want to do, I look deeper.
Inevitably, there’s something important under there.
I’ve spent the past two years with a clear desire to write a book proposal, but it wasn’t until the last couple of months that I’ve been making progress that you can see.
Have I been procrastinating?
I don’t see it that way.
But I’ll tell you what’s been going on.
Years ago I started to radically shift my relationship with time because the conventional time management and productivity models didn’t fit who I was.
That’s why I’ve not spent more than maybe a couple of minutes over the past two years beating myself up for procrastinating on this book proposal.
I haven’t been procrastinating.
I’ve been marinating. I’ve been researching. I’ve been playing with my resistance to the expansion that getting this book sold and published will inevitably create in my life. I’ve been courting the muse. I’ve been doing plenty of other meaningful things.
But I haven’t been procrastinating.
I trust the timing of things.
Baby humans take about 40 weeks to gestate.
Baby elephants take about 18 months to gestate.
This book proposal has taken about 2 years to gestate.
Just because I haven’t been able to see her until the last 9 months or so doesn’t mean she wasn’t there developing the whole time.
If you call yourself a procrastinator, try this one on, m’kay?
Who’s voice is this, calling me a procrastinator?
What if things just take as long as they take?
What if you used the energy from feeling bad for procrastinating to ask yourself some deeper questions about what your apparent resistance has to tell you?
What if the project actually has its own Divine timeline and something critical needs to happen in order for it to be completed, something that will be revealed and couldn’t have happened if you’d wrapped it up already?
Here’s the thing:
Beating ourselves up for anything doesn’t help us get anything.
So, if you ever feel guilty about taking longer than you think it “should” take you to do get started on something or to finish it, see where else you could invest your energy other than feeling guilty.
To liberate ourselves from the lie of scarcity, we have to be willing to take a radically different approach to the way we move in the world, specifically around work and time.
(I’m teaching a free class about this, and you’re invited.)
We have to give ourselves more grace and space.
Join me in removing procrastination from your lexicon if it feels good.
And then use the extra energy for the stuff that actually matters and gets you results (visible or invisible.)
Xo,
Kate

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