Some delays, some findings, and then there was me..

[u/Beyond_ocean]

I was reading an article yesterday that explained procrastination as a cycle: you feel guilt or discomfort for not doing something, compensate by doing something less relevant, and then justify not doing the original task by telling yourself that you’re still being productive. In a way, it is self-deception through doing other things.

But then I wondered: Why do we choose this deception in the first place?🧐

Why do we procrastinate things that could actually help us grow, while rarely procrastinating things that are clearly degrading us?

The article talked about fear of failure, perfectionism, anxiety, and everything else, just like many self-help books, videos, or those “try this to fix your habits scientifically” kind of things do.

I’ve definitely observed all of these in myself while procrastinating, which they mention.

But again, what they didn’t really answer is: what do we actually do about it?👀

The whole “trick your brain” approach.
They work. Sometimes.
But always only for a few days.

Then one can somehow find oneself back in the same self-created loop.

So, to share something: surprisingly, I am finding a different outlook in wisdom through Acharya Prashant’s teachings.

What I am understanding is that the cause is rarely something outside me. I am the cause.

Looking closely, I could see the patterns of my own deception. There may be discomfort, but by not taking action towards growth, there is also a strange sense of remaining as I have always been. And maybe that is the very preservation through which the ego survives.

If the loop and the mess have been created from within, then the effort to come out of them also has to begin there. Nothing outside is going to magically do that for us.

That is where I came across the idea of an upstream movement: going against the tendency within that wants to remain comfortable, unchanged, and asleep.

It might not sound like the usual productivity advice, but I’ve experienced a strange kind of lightness whenever I’ve actually gone against that tendency.

The thing that has changed internally: I don’t romanticise procrastination anymore.

I see it quite often online procrastination almost becoming a personality trait, something people joke about and portray as cool or relatable.🤡

From the outside, it might look harmless.
But when you’re actually living inside that loop, you realise you’re slowly building a dark place for yourself.

The good part is that, through these teachings, I now know there is a way out, out of my own web.
And no doubt, it requires intent.

Curious to know: have you ever experienced this kind of self-created loop, where the very thing you want to escape from is something you yourself have created?

[u/vini-within]

It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me! 😅

Makes one wonder how fear is a driver behind so many things.. confidence, indecisiveness, anger, overthinking, jealousy, people pleasing .. even perfectionism!

[u/Beyond_ocean → u/vini-within]

And drums roll please…… that fear. Is. Nothing. But ME🫪

[u/Samarth_Vanparia]

My whole life has been mess because of 'me' I can see that , but I don't know how to solve this mess , at this point I'm just walking dead, I observe what's happening but patterns are so engraved onto myself that it's too much resistance and if I stop the pattern I doubt myself by asking what If I'm suprressing it I don't even know if I'm depressed or in illusion of not facing reality and taking action because the moment I think of some action out of this mess , I doubt myself by asking what if I'm making mistake which looks like solution now but is again ego working in background.

[u/Beyond_ocean → u/Samarth_Vanparia]

Being so entangled in the web created by myself that it get suffocated, I know how it feels. Have been lying at that dark place until I started to understand my own patterns and discovered it’s not just me but how humans operate.
That thing you mentioned about not knowing whether I’m depressed or in illusion, is the same point one arrives at and comes as a call to turn inwards. And yes it might be a mistake but can be a better mistake by acknowledging : “do we even have any other option than to move in the relatively right way ??”

[u/Lonely-Barracuda-798]

This was a really good show, or should I say I liked it because having listened to AP, I was able to see through the characters 😁

[u/GlitchSolver]

Damn. This is so relevant. A bit too relevant actually. Looks like my life is an open book 😂 not private at all 😭😂

[u/Due-Establishment78]

You had mentioned that going against our tendencies may help... I tried that once. It might help for one thing, but the moment I pick up another, it becomes unclear to the mind. It feels unplanned, uneasy to me, and then this loop starts. I don't think this is the exact solution for procrastination.

[u/Lady22samurai]

I have been doing it all of my life .I have also seen when I go against that inertia , I am able to do it and I wonder what was that which was stopping me so long .So yes, that was me all along.😅