Overcoming Procrastination Through Inner Work

Many people in the world today have learned to measure success by markers that have been socially determined and affect feelings of worth. Success is measured through numbers— income; (earning $x thousand per year; having x amount of vacation time & benefits; gaining x security goal); achieving reliable credit; and life events such as marriage or parenthood. It's all so abstract. Even more abstract is the factor of timeliness in reaching those goals.

The yardstick of success relies on the time it takes a person to reach their goal. In terms of actual experience, however, the only measure of this is through the feeling of okayness between tasks. In our world, there's always another task to complete.

For some, putting off a task is no big deal. For others, the option of leaving something for later results in feelings of unworthiness and fear.

This is why procrastination hurts, and why the question of how to overcome it is worth asking for inner growth.

Methods that explore the psyche have shown again and again that overcoming procrastination is possible. People are able to continually learn through the changing experience of life. Procrastination can change rather quickly using self-investigation techniques and consciousness work.

Unlike talk therapy, which uses abstract concepts to offer new thinking solutions, using the structure of mind offers change at the root. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a field of techniques that use how we think (not what we think) to change habits. People recognize the change when the same input fails to produce the same result. Because procrastination problems are largely unconsciously motivated— traditional therapy approaches don’t work as quickly or as well.















Procrastination is a fight between expectation and reality. One part of us may crave freedom when external pressures demand attention, and another part may be terrified that leaving something unfinished means being unsafe. This inner battle is procrastination, which has a negative spin and suggests it is something bad. The truth is, all inner dialogue is a unique battle. This doesn't mean the narrative inside or procrastination are bad.

If we take away the negative spin, what is procrastination other than deciding to do one thing instead of another? If this decision is hurting you or others repeatedly, it may be time to work on it. In sessions online with people wanting to resolve procrastination, we begin with the process underlying why procrastination hurts.

In Core Transformation we explore dialogue inside. What happens when you put off a task?
The answer may reveal a nagging sense of guilt. It's common for a voice to come up that reveals a deeper fear. This may sound like "You will always be stuck, and you’ll never earn enough to be happy because you aren't good enough." These fears underlie what looks like procrastination.















In unconscious belief transformations, 'shoulds', or thoughts of guilt are called 'inner-authorities', (or the Inner Critic) and they often dissolve in the course of a few months.

Often when fear and guilt fall away, people find a new energy that gets things done. When the energy that has been spent holding stress in place is released from the nervous system it is free to be used where it is most needed. Deciding to return to a task later can become less loaded and trust in one’s self can be much more clear.

Procrastination is simply a Western term for the play of avoidance and expectation. Both areas of stress can easily be worked with using Core Transformation and Wholeness Work with the tangible result of having more energy to finish tasks and having less shame around not.

With the tools of self investigation I hope that you, too can be relieved- through knowing that procrastination is a temporary stress that is possible to overcome. I believe it is in your power to step onto the path of curiosity about your inner process to finally have some relief.

Author's Epilogue:

I must say that since first writing this post I have discovered some very important books by black women in America describing the ways in which white supremacy and the imperialism of patriarchy have driven current ideals of success—primarily to the dehumanization and exclusion of black women. Coming from a position of ignorant white privilege, I can honestly say these texts have opened my eyes to see that the goals toward which we often strive are the trophies of a racist and sexist economy: a capitalist belief system in which materialism is the religion and 'ownership' is God.

In Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto (2022) Tricia Hersey tells us how to disrupt and push back against predatory capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy.

After reading this alongside bell hooks' Ain't I A Woman, I'm considering the ways I, (identifying as a cis white female), have been taught to perpetuate race/sex hierarchies. I'm learning that most oppressors are victims of patriarchal materialism and a complete lack of meaning. Capitalism relies on rivalry and ennui.

In Hersey's book she urges readers, (especially black women readers,) to reclaim their divine nature, discover the power of rest, and reject 'grind culture'. Realize the concept of "procrastination" is a linguistic device that perpetuates the belief in grind-culture, having us feel it is something we should participate in. In alignment with her message, procrastination is resistance against oppression. Furthermore, In Slavery and Capitalism, Author David McNally highlights how enslaved people used procrastination and slowing down production as a means of rebellion which eventually led to the overthrowing of the institution of slavery.

Competition to maintain status above others is deeply seated in how we tell ourselves to gain more, and as a white woman, I highly recommend white women begin an investigation into the inner authorities that prop up the belief that being recognized by a patriarchal world will lead to success and/or happiness. It is only the system that fuels this belief.

I hope to continue the work in myself of dethroning learned ideals of worth and status. I pray for the courage to remain an emotionally available and vulnerable ally in my community, spending less time participating in materialism and more time making connections. in person with people, with women I don't know, and with all beings of every manufactured distinction.

Following Hersey's lead, I further encourage American women to examine areas of subtle striving- and then promptly see through and discard them. What are they for? Rivalry. What are we for? Peace. There is no happiness or peace in striving. In order to really shed the illusion of separateness between us, we must- we MUST see through the cultural trappings that perpetuate the belief in procrastination- the demand that we do more, more, more and the socialization that taught us that when we rest we are falling behind, losing ground. Wholeness Work deconstructs identification as a body, as a gender, as a race, as a machine- but we cannot forget these identifications span all aspects of life- and deeper, more subtle beliefs are drivers for so much mistaken identity and shame.

Seeing through and doing the work to shatter the status-myth, the caste system of America, and the Idols of Materialism- I believe we can live from a place of oneness, sharing the fundamental truth that we function by, through, and of the same One consciousness. Our shared divinity has been enshrouded by rivalry; how much room for harmony is there when we no longer gauge success by a rung on the materialist ladder?

By investigating the nature of ourselves with the ultimate goal of undoing separateness- our shared goal becomes the liberation of all beings and the honoring of all life.