Generally, leaving tasks undone sucks up a lot more mental energy than taking care of them promptly. But this time of year, when the days are cold and the nights are long, sometimes a lack of energy feels as if it comes from the season instead. That can lead to excusing procrastination with an internal narrative along the lines of, “I’m too tired to do a good job on that now, but I’ll work on it later when I feel more refreshed.” Too much of that, and the tiredness persists while the more refreshed feeling never comes. Creative projects, in particular, end up getting stalled.

So I’ve decided to give myself an attitude adjustment whenever I catch myself thinking like that, by changing my self-talk to convince myself that I have plenty of creative energy. Even if I don’t feel energetic, I take a few minutes to imagine myself working on the project and zipping easily through it. I tell myself something like, “I have lots of creative energy to put toward this, and it’s going to be so much fun and turn out great! I’m feeling fresh as a field of daisies!”
 

Field of white daisies.

(Creative Commons image via flickr)
 

Of course, there are days when I haven’t gotten enough sleep and honestly can’t focus on a creative project enough to do much with it. I’m certainly not suggesting that we should all force ourselves to check off tasks on the to-do list when we’re half asleep! But even on days when going to bed early is the best choice, we can cultivate creative energy by picturing how things ideally would go, instead of reinforcing a lack of energy with thoughts of feeling tired.

If we’re always telling ourselves that we feel too tired to do anything, sure enough that’s what happens! But when our self-image shifts to having lots of joyful energy, then we’re likely to feel more inspired the next day and get much more accomplished, after catching up on sleep.

6 Comments

  1. Self-talk is the key, isn’t it Meg? It dances a pas de deux with self-definition that can quickly become a cage. You capture the magic of acceptance, here. Beautiful!

  2. Awe great Job!! Yea its true, It takes a lot of effort sometimes to stop procrastinating.

  3. I love your perspective Meg! Yes, the self-talk has everything to do with, well, everything we do 🙂 This reminds me of something I heard Wayne Dyer say at a writing conference a year or so ago. He says that he gave up saying “I’m tired.” He decided that that isn’t the kind of energy he wants to put out there when he has so many creative ideas to pursue in his life. Great minds think alike 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration!

    • Thanks Annie! Of course there’s nothing wrong with tiredness in itself, as it’s just the body’s natural way of signaling a need for rest; but the self-talk is better focused on the energy gained from getting that rest!

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