Empowerment Tools To End Procrastination and Self Criticism

Are you a self-critical procrastinator? If so, listen in here to learn two empowerment strategies to end procrastination and self criticism.

Do you use self criticism to motivate yourself?

Does it work?

What I have found as a life, career, and certified money breakthrough coach is that self criticism is the primary fuel for procrastination.

The reason is simple:

No one wants to be under harsh scrutiny all the time.

If your inner self knows you are going to be harshly judged, you will avoid doing things that incite that inner critic.

So the challenge of motivating yourself with self criticism is that it’s not that effective.

Think about it.

How long have you been saying you need to get “that thing” done, but putting it off because you don’t want to be subjected to the abuse of your inner critic?

The way to end procrastination is to throw out the tool of self criticism.

Let’s talk about some more effective empowerment tools you can replace self criticism with.

1. Five Things to Celebrate

When you’re lying in bed and it’s really quiet– just before you have fallen asleep, pause and review your day. Come up with five things that you’ve done over the course of the day that you feel proud of or that you can celebrate.

This is designed to feel like a stretch. Most people can come up with one, two, or even three things pretty easily. Stretch into doing five.

The five things don’t have to be monumental accomplishments. They can be tiny. For instance, maybe you took a moment to appreciate the sunshine on your face, or made the decision to take a deep, nourishing breath instead of having a negative reaction to something. Maybe you did one tiny thing to get you closer to a goal you are trying to achieve.

It’s actually not important what the five things are. What’s important is the practice of identifying five things every day. And if you forget to do it before you fall asleep, or it works better for you, do it when you first wake up in the morning.

This practice will help you start to focus on things you appreciate about yourself so you can move away from the judgment and self criticism that’s keeping you stuck in procrastination.

2. Operate From Your Observer Self

This one goes hand in hand with the first one.

The observer self is the part of you that will notice over the course of the day things that you are proud of or that you can celebrate.

It will also start to notice instances where you tend to self criticize. This is something to celebrate! Because you can’t change negative habits and patterns until you become aware of them.

For instance, your observer self may notice a certain negative thing you are always telling yourself (about yourself). Maybe something like…

• I’m not good enough.
• I don’t deserve good things.
• No one cares about me.
• My needs are not important.
• I’m too… (old, young, inexperienced, poor, unattractive, etc.)

When you notice these things, celebrate observing a negative thought that has been totally automatic and unconscious up until now. Then mentally erase the negative thought and reframe it in a more positive or neutral way.

The goal of these two self empowerment tools is to:

• Notice when you are engaging in self criticism so you can reframe the negative thought.
• Train your mind to recognize and acknowledge the things you are doing that are positive and self empowering.
• Eventually get to a place where you no longer criticize yourself, but focus on your strengths instead.
• End procrastination.
• Feel good about yourself.

Learning to end procrastination and self criticism with these empowerment tools is a process that takes time.

Be patient with yourself.

Stay consistent.

You will get better and better at it.