The Reframe: How to Stop Procrastinating and Get Going Forever
You’re reading this because you hit the snooze button instead of climbing out of bed. It’s not your fault that your fabric encased tempur-pedic of yours is just the right amount of soft, warm, and comfortable. You lounge on the recliner instead of going to the gym and you rationalize that it’s okay to miss class because you can always catch up tomorrow.
As a society, we generally don’t follow through. We dislike this fact about ourselves and yet we feel incapable of changing it. In short, we suck and we know it. We didn’t get those six pack abs or reorganize our rooms because ‘we got lazy’, ‘we procrastinated’, or if we’re feeling fancy, ‘we ineffectively managed our time.’
We know all the labels and yet somewhere inside of us we’re stuck. Trapped inside our poor record of getting things done is the belief that we’re doomed to always be that way. But we only think that way because we miss the obvious. We’re not lazy, the truth is that we are always doing something, always.
Sitting on the couch, mindless flicking through our phones is something. Of course, internet surfing isn’t very productive but this example doesn’t change the fact that human beings aren’t catatonics. We’re living beings. We either breathe, think, and do or we literally cease to exist.
But we do procrastinate, we do put off the things that we should be doing. And there are thousands of books, articles, and lists on how to stop doing that. What many of them admit and yet fail to address is that we procrastinate because we’re addicted to pleasure. We overeat, fail to study, and don’t go after the things we dream of in life because it’s often more pleasurable to get an extra hour’s sleep or to enjoy the sweet bite of that extra slice of cheesecake.
The answer is to procrastination is simple. Reframe the chores you hate by finding something immediate that you enjoy about them. For example, Korean women practice better skincare regimes than American women because culturally American girls are taught that skincare is a chore they’re required to do in order to fight or prevent acne. The result is that girls and women avoid it or rush and do a mediocre job of cleaning their faces. On the other hand, Korean women are taught that skincare is relaxing, soothing, refreshing, and a way to pamper themselves. The result is they take their time, do it twice a day , and do it properly. The big result is Korean women have clearer skin and look younger than their international counterparts.
Don’t focus on the long-term goals of losing weight, or building a business. Don’t focus on the pain of gasping for air as you try to last five more seconds on the that treadmill or how boring it is to study for an hour or clean your room. Focus on how great it feels to put on fuzzy socks before you go to the gym. Focus on how good if feels to stretch when you get out of bed in the morning. Enjoy the sound of classical music as you study or enjoy the smell of the lemon cleaner as you wipe your dresser.
Life is full of little pleasures and finding them will change your life.
