The Art of Procrastination

As a recovering perfectionist and people-pleaser, I know the “Art of Procrastination” all too well.

Procrastination has served “me” superficially over the years by protecting my ego and giving me a false sense of security by allowing me to stay in my comfort zone. The act of procrastinating, in all of its insidious manifestations in my life, (i.e. excuses, denial, busywork, edits, revisions, selective attention, Mandela effect, drama magnet, martyr complex, self-sacrifice, etc.), served effectively as my go-to tool, a coping strategy if you will, to avoid disappointing myself or others. However, in the long run, it harmed me more than it helped.

By either delaying taking action, or going to the opposite extreme, perseverating on an activity until “perfection” was achieved, I could not “fail” nor disappoint anyone (including myself) with a sub-par performance. However, I also could not succeed, complete projects, meet deadlines, get recognition for my work, or experience the benefits my efforts may have yielded for myself and others, had I shared or submitted my results.

Over the years, I continued to self-sabotage by allowing my obsessive, albeit impossible, standard of perfection to drive my efforts (along with being motivated by an insatiable desire to please others) while using procrastination as my fool-proof fallback plan.

The resulting self-sabotage is due to the compound effect of the synergistic interaction of these two habits or vices — perfectionism and procrastination. They feed off one…