When a perfect performance or the achievement of a specific goal becomes the sole measure of your self-worth, too much is at stake to just start working without some leverage, such as procrastination, to break the equation of self-worth=performance.

One of the reasons we procrastinate is out of fear that once we start working there’ll be no time for play, that work will deprive us of play and the enjoyment of life. Guilt-free play offers you a way around this problem by insisting that you plan recreation in your weekly schedule.

Dr. Theodore Rubin in his book Compassion and Self-Hate

A more common solution for individuals raised on threats is to use their own threatening self-talk in an effort to win approval by mimicking their critical mentors. Rather than helping them to face their fears, such threats will only contribute to the procrastination cycle: threatening self-talk leads to anxiety, then to resistance, resulting in

I’ve always felt that if there wasn’t so much pressure—just a little more time—I could do really well.

The three major fears that block action and create procrastination are the terror of being overwhelmed, the fear of failure, and the fear of not finishing. These three blocks usually interact with each other and escalate any initial fears and stresses. Overcoming any one of the three quickens the destruction of the remaining blocks because you

• have difficulty knowing what you really want for yourself, but are clear about what you should want?

I always felt as if someone was looking over my shoulder, worried about how well I was doing or how smart I was.

Replace “I don’t have time to play” with “I must take time to play.”