ce lf's List: improve

"As a behavioral procrastination antidote, consider whether your vocational calling lies in planning and organizing. You'll experience greater career congruence by emphasizing what you like to do and are good at doing. Think about where the breakdown occurs in this self-efficacy process. Does execution feel fatiguing? Do you wait for a guarantee that your final output will prove perfect? The results of this analysis can point to change opportunities that target causes. Now, imagine getting past the threshold of a mid-stream delay to the benefits and joys of completion."

"The Horse and the Rider

The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud used the metaphor of a horse and rider to show the endless conflict between emotional impulse and reason. The horse is the source of emotional impulses. The rider represents reason. How you resolve a conflict between reason and emotion can determine whether you'll procrastinate or not.

The horse and rider metaphor puts attention onto a never-ending conflict between procrastination and a "do it now" way of getting reasonable things done in a reasonable way within a reasonable time to improve productivity and increase accomplishments.

The horse knows two things: if something doesn't feel good, move away; if something feels pleasurable, go for it. When the horse is in charge, you are likely to take the path of least resistance and go for pleasure and avoid pain.

The rider symbolizes your higher mental processes. The rider (1) reasons, makes connections, plans, and regulates actions; (2) anticipates change, maintains perspective, decides actions, and solves problems. When the horse's instincts depart from the rider's awareness of reality, the rider has the ability to restrain the horse. However, this is easier said than done.

The metaphor points to a conflict that is worth noting. Once aware, you have options you may not have seen quite the same way before, However, metaphors have limitations. For example, the rider is not always realistic. You may unintentionally fog reason with false beliefs, such as thinking that inconvenience is terrible. You can feel anxious about failing. This parasitic anxiety is a form of helplessness thinking that can startle the horse and spur procrastination. However, these are addressable and correctable matters."