Have you ever procrastinated?
HA! .. is that a stupid question, or what? I’m willing to bet we’ve all procrastinated a MILLION times in our lives on a MILLION different tasks and it’s not doing us any favours. And since I’ve been procrastinating all day long on writing a blog post, I figured what better a topic than how to STOP procrastinating?
If you are flirting with the idea of changing your lifestyle to clear your skin naturally and holistically, but you can’t seem to stop finding excuses and distractions in order to not actually do it, then you should definitely read this post.
I remember when I came down with severe acne, and I was flailing around trying to find a quick fix for my skin so that I could continue procrastinating on changing my lifestyle. The fact was that I knew what I needed to do. I knew I needed to make a permanent change for the better and that was how my skin would be healed. But damn did it ever seem DAUNTING!!
Once I sucked it up and began… yeah, there were tough times, but now it’s paid off beyond my wildest dreams, and it’s simply just a way of life. I feel great and the healthy habits have now been ingrained in me so well that they are second nature.
Let’s begin by looking at why us mortals choose to procrastinate, and how this may relate to beginning your journey to clear skin:
Fear
You are likely afraid that it’s going to be really hard, that it’s going to be expensive, that you’re going to be weird or different than your friends, that it will be inconvenient, and maybe boring, or that you’ll have to give up your favourite foods forever (all of which are not necessarily true). You are also likely afraid that you’re going to put this effort in only to fail miserably. You are afraid that you will find you have no willpower, no motivation, and that you will find yourself a failure. So why start?
Yeah. Fear – it’s potent. Fear is rarely founded in reality and it always holds us back from having the things we want and being happy.
Looking Too Much at the Big Picture
The reason changing your lifestyle seems so daunting is because instead of focusing on the little tasks that make up the process of “living healthfully”, the only thing we can see is this magaloid task that seems somewhat impossible.
Baby steps, my friend, baby steps.
Perfectionism
It’s easy to not start something if you have the need for it to be perfect right off the bat. It’s easier to just procrastinate.
Maybe you’ve collected all sorts of tips from my free ebook, my website, or my new book, and you have a good idea of what your new, healthy life should look like. But knowledge is one thing, and experience is another. There is a learning curve with actually putting this stuff into action – buying and trying new things out, getting used to eating different foods, or just generally playing around and seeing what works for you.
I know you are desperate to clear your skin, but perfection and ease isn’t going to come right away and you need to accept that – and not let it stand in your way!
Telling Yourself You “Have to” or that you “Ought to”
The more you associate the required task with something you have to do or ought to do, the more you don’t want to do it. Plain and simple. You need to get excited about your new lifestyle for other reasons and not just because you hate acne. Get excited because you’ll learn how to do new things, better yourself as a human being, and feel more awesome than you’ve ever felt before!
That being said, you can’t always rework a task into something to be excited about. If you definitely think a task is going to be more work than fun, then remember this little pointer: You actually get a major psychological high when you conquer a task that you didn’t want to do.
Okay, so now that we know why we procrastinate, the logical ways for you to overcome these hurdles are this:
Scared? Do It Anyway.
Yes, changing your lifestyle is scary. It’s never going to be not scary. You just have to do it anyway. No one ever grew as a person or accomplished a major goal by staying stuck in their comfort zone.
Change your “Have Tos” to “Want Tos”.
Instead of telling yourself that you have to do this or that, keep your eye on why you “have to” in the first place. It’s because you want to change your life, feel happier, and have clear skin, right? So just changing your thinking to “I want to do this so that I can achieve ____” can have a big impact.
Stop Seeing “The Forest For the Trees”
Seeing the forest for the trees means that someone who sees the big picture (the forest) and misses the little details (the trees). Well, in this case, we want to see the little details. The forest is just too darn overwhelming. Each tree is a small task – break it into chunks, put enough of them together and you will achieve your goals.
Make it Fun
Try to make your new lifestyle as fun as possible. Get the people close to you involved – get your best friend to join a fun workout class with you, or ask your boyfriend to spend time with you trying out new healthy recipes. Meet new people in your community who are also interested in healthy living and make new connections and friendships. The more fun you make this, the less it seems like a big deal.
Stop Trying to be Perfect
This is a big theme that I try to strive for in my life – so much of our stress comes from this need to be perfect – and that, my friend, is why having acne is such a stressful situation in the first place.
If we could accept ourselves as imperfect human beings than we wouldn’t need to be so ashamed of ourselves and our flaws. We could also use this to foster enough courage to realize that we may not get everything right when we try out our new lifestyle, but that hardly means that you or your experiment is a failure. In fact, if you are big enough to learn from your mistakes, it makes any mistake a success.
Are you procrastinating on starting your new, healthier life and clearing your skin?
8 Responses
i proctrastinated for quite a while. But, my dermatologist told me that minocycline or tetracycline would help me! Then there was the zeno and the famous proactiv kit! I learned after years and years of junk, junk and more junk.
Quitting milk was huge but did not give me 100% clear skin. An all around healthy lifestyle did! It works ladies and gentlemen! Try it! Be patient too! Take baby steps… Tracy says to focus on trees instead of forests. How about branches? 😉
Yep. Go for it folks!!! Change your lives!!
🙂 You guys are awesome!!
I tried doing everything all at once, and it backfired on me. I got even more stressed out and broke up. I gave up and started eating crappy foods again. This time around I’m going to take it reaaaaaalll slow.
Another thing that has made problems for me is classes. I’m a struggling college student, who is going to school full time and STILL looking for a job. (The US economy is so horrible, especially here in Florida). Having time to cook and being to afford food is a challenge.
But, I will find a way to do it!
I have let these obstacles get in the way, they have impacted my thinking negatively. But I know I have to keep trying. 🙂
Hi Lulu!
Yes doing too much at once can be way overwhelming… and there are always obstacles to overcome. I know the US economy is really bad right now and it is very hard on people… plus I know there never seems to be enough time (In that regard, I highly sugget making huge batches of soups and stews and other things that can feed you leftovers for days). But we just have to keep trying until we can manage to fit it into our lives. The truth is that it’s never all that easy in the beginning but we just gotta keep chipping away!
I know you can do it 🙂
broke out*, being able*
heehee, typos!
Hey Tracy! It’s a little scary how much I can relate to you! Especially the perfectionist part… whenever I try to have like the best day ever, like eat the healthiest things, exersice and do all the stuff that needs to get done, if something gets in the way or if I even cheat a little and eat an unhealthy snack or something, it makes me so upset! Almost as if I ruined the day. And the funny thing is, is that I KNOW that it’s the stupidest thing to get upset about, and yet it still upsets me lol.
Just need to laugh it off and stop trying to be a robot, but it really helps reading your blog just knowing I’m not alone when I feel a certain way 🙂 So thank you for that!
– Yuriy
Lulu, a stickler for grammar! English/ journalism major?
Ok I have a stupid question: how, if let’s say my skin clears
up and starts to look ok on a consistent basis, do I prevent getting all smug about it? What if I turn into a jerk? Does anyone else worry about that?
haha hmm. Are you a smug person about other things, or ever have been a smug person? If not, I don’t figure it’s probably going to be an issue! lol