Actions seem to happen recently without much effort at all, and I’m curious about how that has gradually started to happen.
I have struggled for years trying to understand what procrastination is and also with the stress of experiencing procrastination itself.
Well it’s more the stress of what I did to myself when I thought I was procrastinating. The beating oneself up and guilt that arrives when I believe I should be doing something that I’m not doing. Bad, bad.
For years I have been looking for a new way of approaching the inner conflict that happens when what seems to need doing doesn’t get done when my brain thinks it should be done. What if I just don’t do things until I find myself doing them, and let that be okay?
At least accept the outcome as part of a behaviour experiment to find a way of being more at ease in the world with less stress. I don’t mean making no effort ever, just being more choosy about when effort is applied.
A while ago, maybe 6 or 7 years ago I started experimenting with trusting myself much more. The proposal was that things would be done at the right time for them to be done. If they aren’t being done it means that it’s not the right time for them to be done.
I had a bit of fun with the idea that they would be done when ‘The Force’ would give permission for them to be done and I’d simply find the right action being taken at the right time. I was kind of joking but actually not really. I started practicing it. Now it’s a joke with my men that we use The Force to run this business.
What was discovered was that if I sat back and allowed life to unfold the way it wants to, including all the various day to day life and work tasks requiring to be done, that things didn’t actually fall apart. Actually everything that needed to be done got done, and I had a lot less self berating and the stress from that.
Here I am and it’s all still carrying on. I do things when I want to largely, and though some things get done at the last minute, it is all carrying on very nicely and I’m a lot happier and more relaxed for it. It did throw up a lot of fears initially, and those were processed. That still happens sometimes too and I soothe the fear and carry on.
A disclaimer. This approach may very well be appropriate for this 56 year old with an established business who perhaps just needed to relax, trust life and delegate a bit more. It may not be appropriate for younger folks who are pursuing their dreams and get-fabulously-rich ambitions!
Talking of rich, a pic of a client’s house. Nice Art and Crafts one.
Learning to Rest with it All 