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

We can become addicted to the rewards of procrastination, learning to use it in three main ways: 1. as an indirect way of resisting pressure from authorities; 2. as a way of lessening fear of failure by providing an excuse for a disappointing, less-than-perfect performance; 3. and as a defense against fear of success by keeping us from doing our be

keep an impossibly long “to do” list?

communicate to the mind and body a clear picture of: • what you choose to do • when you choose to do it • where you choose to start it • how you choose to do it

And when it is impossible to start now, “When is the next time I can start?” works to preprogram you for a directed and easy start-up in the near future, with a clear picture of when, where, and on what you will be starting.

The reverse calendar starts with the ultimate deadline for your project and then moves back, step by step, to the present where you can focus your energy on starting.

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.

Denis Waitley, the author of The Psychology of Winning and The Joy of Working, who defines

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.”