Kill procrastination

I'm sat in Copenhagen where I've managed to locate it's one and only Starbucks. 

"Sometimes you wanna go, where everybody knows your naaaaame, and their always glad you caaaame." 

Weird isn't it, it's not the same as the one I visited every day in Temple Quay Bristol. 

It doesn't have the same friendly staff I used to chat to every day who made me feel welcome. 

It does however have the same decor, the same coffee and, most importantly, the same ordering system. 

I know what to do, I'm a pro at Starbucks. 

Pro means certainty, I know what to do, I know what's going to happen. I have prediction and response. 

I have reduced all the happenings within Starbucks to habit and that creates internal safety which in turn frees me up to focus on other things. 

Going to Starbucks in short, requires less energy and that is what our brains are all about, less energy and more safety. 

Procrastination in its simplest form is trying to convince yourself to go to a new coffee shop. 

It might happen when our minds are unoccupied but if we have a lot on and we're alone and stressed, you better believe we're going to Starbucks. 

We love being the best version of ourselves. 

Whether that means our most productive or creative or logical or communicative or funny, our best us is a product of the pre-frontal cortex in our brain. 

The human brain. 

Fortunately this part of our brain has finger prints, it is the part of the brain we might call ourselves. 

It has a way of feeling and operating that just lets us know we are here. 

Procrastination is not a part of this brain, procrastination is a part of the mammalian brain. 

The part of the brain that wants us to be safe. 

To go the same route every day, to drink in the same coffee shops, to not speak a different language, to not create, to not step out of our comfort zone and do something new and important. 

Procrastination is basically our inner animal scared of what this new thing might mean about ME. 

Will I be judged or kicked out of the tribe? 

Will I die? 

Silly right? 

Fortunately these feelings seldom survive verbal description. 

Just saying, 

"I'm procrastinating because I'm doing something new and important to me"

will give that little animal enough certainty to allow you to proceed. 

Here's the thing though, if you aren't regularly encountering those feelings of procrastination, what are you doing? 

You're likely just being busy. 

Not creating something new, 
Not stepping up and stepping out,

Just sitting on the treadmill but certainly not smashing out your best work, the stuff you really want to show the world. 

Procrastination is your friend. 

Look for it, 
Say hello, 

Thank it for pointing you in the right direction.

Then smash it in the face. 

Carry on 

Ed Ley

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