It is when you know you should do something but you keep putting it off. Have you ever had to start a project but kept doing everything else that would delay you starting on the project? You know, you clean your desk, you got to drink your water, and you walked around, and finally said, "Ok, I will do it tomorrow!"



Has there been another time when you felt totally motivated in doing that same project and just sat down and got it done? I bet you sure have. The trouble is that it only happens once in your lifetime, and never when we need to get it done.

But what was the difference? I mean, you were the same person, you had the same resources available to you, but you are just in a different state. You were in the state of procrastination because of the condition of your physiology and internal representation. Your breathing was probably slow and shallow. You Your muscles were droopy. Your eyes were looking down. Your facial muscles were probably lax.

And how do you think you were creating your internal representation when you were procrastinating? You know, what pictures do you think you would see? You know, you would be probably seeing pictures of yourself having a hard time, you saw yourself being overwhelmed, and you saw yourself being frustrated. And, one thing you were saying to yourself, what internal voices were playing? You were probably saying things like, "Why must I do this?" "Can I do it later?" in the most boring tone. The chances are all these pictures and sounds fired off in your mind in a split second.

Did you do it consciously? No, you did not. It was the subconscious pattern that was fired off every time you had to do something challenging, and that is why you never got anything done.

On the other hand, when you were in a motivated state, and just got things down so quickly, how did you create that? It was because you were in a different state. Your physiology was completely different. You know, your body was different and you were sitting differently, you were breathing differently, you were moving differently, and you were probably representing your task very differently in telling your mind, you know, you will be seeing yourself getting results, you will see yourself having fun, and you will see the task being done effortlessly. You know, you probably said to yourself, "Wow!"

Well, what was the difference? I mean you were the same person, you had the same resources available to you, but you were just in a different state. When you were in the state of procrastination, it was because of the condition of your physiology and the way you were internally representing the task.

We hardly manage our states consciously. We never consciously decide to shift our physiology and control our internal representation. Instead, we let our own minds run on autopilot and we allow us to loose control of our states and our results.

So bear this in mind, you create your own states!