Do you procrastinate because you fear failure – here are three tips to beat procrastination.

You know that you have something to do yet somehow you manage to convince yourself to do it later. Does this sound familiar?

The first step in dealing with procrastination is to understand why you put off doing what you have to do.

Psychologists have come up with a number of reasons for why we procrastinate. One of the main reasons is a fear of failure.

When you think about it, nobody likes to fail. Therefore, it is a natural thing to put of doing those tasks that we fear.

However the hallmark of a successful person is being able to confront your fear of failure. Even the most confident people can procrastinate because they fear failure.

But what do you think will happen if you continue to put off this task that you fear?.....You guessed right...you are more likely to fail.

To overcome your fear of failure, there are three things you can do:

1. Confront your fear. When I say this, what I mean is to work out what you fear and what things will help you to get over it. For example, is your fear due to a lack of confidence, or are you anxious of being judged by others. What things do you need that will help you to get over your fear? Whatever it is that you fear, break it down into more manageable bite-sized chunks.

2. Draw up a pros and cons list for doing the task. The advantage of drawing up a pros and cons list is that it will take the emotion out of the task that you have been avoiding. By looking at the task objectively, you take out the emotional influence that is increasing your stress.
3. Plan your work and work your plan. Lets face it, if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. For example, I feared public speaking but had to lecture at university, so rather than leave it to chance; I wrote an action plan of the things that I could do to become a better speaker. This reduced my fear and gave me confidence.

These three strategies can help to get things done when you fear failure.

Kell works with elite athletes, business professionals, managers and office workers with goal setting, stress and time management. If you would like more strategies to beat procrastination click here.

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