What Did You Do With Jill?Jill Whalen's healthy lifestyle transformation                                               

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There are so many things that we think about ourselves at any given time in our lives. Much of it is a matter of conditioning and how we grew up. Some if it, especially what we think of as personality traits, seem to be innate and what we’re born with. What’s interesting, however, is that we’re not stuck with any of it–regardless of how long we believe we’ve “been that way.”

Let’s take procrastination, for example.

I always believed that I was a procrastinator, and to prove it, I certainly acted like one! If I had something due, I’d almost certainly wait until the last minute to get it done. I felt that I needed the added pressure of a deadline to force my mind to work properly.

But upon reflection, my so-called procrastination didn’t cause me to do things half-assed. In fact, I generally never waited TOO long before starting something. I seemed to have an innate understanding of just how long I could put something off and still be able to do a good job of it. Plus, during the supposed procrastination time I was often doing a lot of thinking about the project in front of me.

In fact, sometimes things that I procrastinated on, never got done. Yet in the end, everything turned out okay.

So was I really a procrastinator at those times?

What if we turn it on its head and look at it in a different way.

For things I had due, we could say that I didn’t procrastinate, but was mentally preparing myself (all true). And for things that fell by the wayside, perhaps they never really needed to be done in the first place and my inner wisdom knew it. (True, presuming nothing horrible happened or could have happened because I didn’t do it.)

Bottom line for me is that if I do really have to do something I do it. Sure, if it’s something I don’t like I may not do it until the deadline, but so what?

As it turns out being a procrastinator, just like everything else we think we are–is just that–thoughts. We can use negative terms like procrastinator to label ourselves and make ourselves feel bad, or we can look at things a different way. (And no, it’s not putting your head in the sand, it’s simply having new thoughts about who we think we are.)

All that said, for some people procrastination might be a much bigger problem than it was for me. If procrastinating causes you to miss deadlines and not do things that are critical, then there are likely some other underlying opinions of yourself that go well beyond procrastination. Look to the underlying causes such as not feeling good enough.

The good news is that whatever the root cause, it too is only thought. And just like thoughts about being a procrastinator, you can turn your thoughts about not being good enough on their head. Because you know what? You, and I and everyone on the planet is in fact good enough. Better than good enough.

And I’ll bet if you look deep inside yourself, you already know this for real. 🙂

–Jill

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Jill Whalen

CONTACT JILL WHALEN to learn how she may help you be the best you can be.

Jill is the author of Victim of Thought: Seeing Through the Illusion of Anxiety

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For the past 20 years, Jill has consulted with companies big and small, and spoken at conferences all over the world. She is currently a transformational speaker and mentor to businesses, individuals, coaches, leaders, groups and organizations. She helps them uncover their natural well-being and happiness so that they can operate from a clearer state of mind and take their lives and businesses to a higher level.

Jill's blog, What Did You Do With Jill? is a personal account of what she's learned throughout her transformational journey. Jill has many "viral" articles on LinkedIn and is a contributing writer for P.S. I Love You.

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