Procrastination-Compassion for when you just can’t get yourself to do it.

Written by Iris Barzen

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Dear ambitious you,

I know you have a lot of things you want to do. There are projects at work, projects with your craft and there’s always that inkling that you’d like to exercise more, too.

If someone gave you a free day you’d quickly know what to fill it with – the beautiful things like painting or woodworking or whatever your craft might be.

But when the whirlwind of your life stops for a moment and an hour opens up that time is quickly filled with other things, with the stuff that needs to get done: Doing laundry or making calls or finishing a work project on your laptop. Or maybe you only have the energy left to kick up your feet and watch Netflix.

It’s frustrating.

What might be the most painful about this is how you feel when you think about your unfinished projects.

“If this is what I love, why can’t I just get myself to do it? Why can’t I just make it a priority and work on this thing every day?”

It leaves you feeling like a fraud. Surely you must be the only grown-up struggling with this; this is ridiculous.

Or is it?

Hey, you’ve got a lot on your plate. And doing creative work is scary – most of us would opt for the easy way out and delay it one more day.

I’m not saying that you should give up on your creativity, just merely pointing out that it’s quite normal to procrastinate. There’s nothing wrong with you for doing it.

This is the point where I could jump cut to strategies and rah-rah to help you overcome that procrastination, but this is not that article.

I want this to merely be a reality check that says: Hey, be kind to yourself. You won’t procrastinate forever, and there’s nothing wrong with you. I promise.

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