The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play

Procrastination in such situations reflects your resentment at the authority who placed you in this no-win dilemma. You feel like a victim whose life is controlled by others who make the rules. And you affirm your refusal to accept the rules by speaking about the unpleasant task in the victim’s mantra—“I have to.”

you interpret any criticism, rejection, or judgment by others as a threat to your very tenuous grasp on perfection.

Replace “This project is so big and important” with “I can take one small step.”

Both workaholics and chronic procrastinators are either working or feeling guilty about not working.

Ironically, on a psychological level you are often the one who raises the board off the ground by changing a straightforward task into a test of your worth, proof that you are acceptable, or a test of whether you will be successful and happy or a failure and miserable. In most cases you are the one who confuses just doing the job with testing your

“Maybe it’s also been a long time since you were that approving of yourself.

(if in fact you take vacations)?

• feel powerless, with no sense of choice?

a positive self-statement that will give you the ability to recover from any mistake or loss by saying to yourself: “Whatever happens I will survive. I will find a way to carry on. I will not let this be the end of the world for me. I will find a way to lessen the pain in my life and maximize the joy.”