Hi friends,
I had to laugh this morning as I went downstairs and saw this for the umpteenth day in a row:
Yes, that’s a dryer sitting in our entryway, and it’s been there since last Saturday.
Procrastination is real, my friends!
And I’m sure many of you struggle with it, like I do.
I find that sometimes my thoughts will build up a relatively simple chore or task into a huge impossible task . . . only to discover that when I finally take care of it, it really wasn’t too bad.
How does that happen?
It’s part of the twisted/distorted thinking that contributes to depression and anxiety.
Today’s story is an example of “Fortune Telling”.
This is where you predict that the future will be very difficult or full of failure:
“Cleaning out that closet is going to take forever.”
“I’ll never make new friends, so why bother trying?”
“My kid is just going to keep screwing up his life.”
“Discussing our disagreement is just going to make things worse.”
and
“It’ll be really hard to move that heavy, awkward dryer AND we’ll have to clean out behind the old one first AND move the piles of dirty clothes that have built up AND figure out a way not to scratch the floor when we move it AND . . .”
You get the picture.
So what’s the solution to getting your motivation back?
Talk back to the thoughts with something more reasonable, true and hopeful. Ex: If the family works together, we can install the dryer much faster. And think of how nice it will be to have soft towels again!
Test it:
- Write down how hard you think a dreaded task will be, how long it will take, and how you’ll feel when it’s done. Use a scale out of 10 or 100.
- Then do the task
- Come back to your predictions and write down what actually happened. You’ll likely find that it went faster and was easier than you predicted. And you probably feel even better than you predicted you would once the chore was done.
- Remind yourself of the test results next time you begin dreading a new task and putting it off.
For more ideas on fighting back depression and anxiety, check out one of my favorite authors on the subject: David Burns
Stay happy and stress-free out there!
All the best,
— Misty 🙂
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Misty’s Writing Update:
We finished and turned in Searching for Resistance, Book #5 in our Aftermath series last weekend! Now there’s just editing and pre-publishing work to do. Woohoo!
This week, we’ve been outlining Searching for Victory, Book #6 – the finale of our series.
I can’t believe we’re getting close to finishing. All told, we will have spent almost 10 months on this project and have really enjoyed working together.
I love writing with Steph. She’s an amazing writer and editor, so when we pass our chapters back and forth every day, we polish and hone the story until it’s better than it could be if either of us tried writing it alone. Co-writing is the way to go!
I hope you enjoy reading our books and please share the link to the series with any of your friends who might have fun reading it!
Share the Aftermath Series Link 🙂
Happy reading out there!
— Misty 🙂
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