From Avoidance to Alchemy: How to Transmute Your Procrastination Habit into Forward Momentum

“You can’t shame yourself into change, but you can love yourself into growth.”

Brené Brown

We all know the feeling: staring at the to-do list, feeling heavy, and avoiding the very tasks that would make us feel better once they’re done. Procrastination isn’t just laziness—it’s often a signal. A signal that something feels overwhelming, unclear, or misaligned.

The good news? You can alchemize this stuck energy into forward momentum with a few intentional shifts.

Procrastination is a spell, a signal cast by your inner perfectionist, trying to protect you. Pause. Listen without judgement. Realign.

"Avoidance is passive suffering. Responsibility is active creation. Avoidance compounds, responsibilty liberates. The weight of avoidance is far heavier than the weight of responsibility."

Arno Schurmans

The Invisible Burden

Every time we avoid a difficult conversation, put off a hard decision, or ignore a looming task, we aren't just avoiding discomfort, we're also contributing to an energetic weight within us and around us. It's a weight made heavy by anxiety, shame, self-doubt, guilt that will only grow over time.

It's a silent killer that eats away at our self-esteem, our balance, our wholeness over time. We become fragmented souls- living out of alignment and integrity.

We have to take responsibility, ownership over our choices and be willing to say, "This is mine to hold."

What you resist, persists. What you face, dissolves.

Understand the Roots of Procrastination

That thing you call being “lazy” "unmotivated" or "lack of discipline" is not that at all. It’s actually your brain trying to protect you from the impossible standards you, or society, has set.

When perfection feels like the only acceptable outcome, not starting can seem safer than risking failure. Your brain isn’t broken—it’s doing its best to shield you from your own harsh inner critic.

Here’s what’s really happening: When you care deeply about something, your brain calculates the emotional cost of “failing” at it. If your inner critic is loud, that cost feels enormous. So your brain chooses the “safer” option of procrastination over the perceived threat of imperfection.

This is the freeze response in action. That’s why you can scrub your whole house (low stakes) but struggle to begin the project that actually matters (high stakes). It’s not that you don’t care—it’s that you care so much the pressure becomes paralyzing.

Procrastination is how you preserve the fantasy of your potential. In other words, it’s safer to dream about what you could be than to test it in reality and risk disappointment.

There’s another layer, too: procrastination can serve as a defense mechanism. As long as you delay, the possibility of success remains alive. If you never fully try, you never fully risk failing. This allows you to preserve the fantasy version of yourself—the one who could do amazing things, if only you got around to it.

For many with undiagnosed ADHD (myself included), procrastination is due to your sensory sensitivity, burnout, overwhelm, overstimulation. It's because our inner child craves autonomy, freedom, compassion - not pressure, force, or judgement.

Instead of trying to fix procrastination, THANK it. Procrastination is Protection, in disguise. It's not the problem, it's the permission. It's not laziness, it's loyalty.

Strategies for Success

It's so important to build trust with yourself. Each time we lean into discomfort and do the hard thing, we prove to ourselves that we're capable.

1. Get Curious Instead of Critical

Procrastination thrives in shame. Instead of beating yourself up, pause and ask:

• Why am I resisting this task?

• What part of me is afraid to begin?

• Am I unclear about the next step?

• Am I afraid of failure (or success)?

• Am I avoiding this because I don’t care, or because I actually care too much?

• Who am I becoming as I do this (or don't do this)?

This moment of self-awareness is like striking a match in the dark. It sheds light on the real cause and gives you a choice.

You’re not lazy. You’re human—navigating impossible standards with a nervous system that’s just trying to keep you safe.

2. Break It Down to Micro-Steps

Big, vague tasks feel heavy. Break them down into micro-movements: the smallest possible next step. Instead of “write a blog,” try:

• Open a blank Google Doc

• Write the title

• Draft the first sentence

Each micro-step creates a tiny win, and those wins snowball into energy and momentum.

Unpopular opinion: Laziness is lie. It's a made-up social constuct, a label from toxic capitalists to shame and oppress us into overworking. In reality low productivity or inconsistent performance is because there’s something complex and deeper going on inside the body or brain.

3. Harness the 5-Minute Rule

Commit to working on the task for just 5 minutes. Once you start, you’ll likely go longer, but even if you don’t, you’ve moved the needle. Action dissolves the mental resistance that fuels procrastination.

• Set a timer to work in focused sprints (Pomodoro method)

"It's not about a lack of information, but a lack of implementation. You don't need another book, another life hack, another insight. You simply need to PRACTICE what you've learned. It's time to honor your excess of knowledge and utilize it."

Frankie Simmons

4. Reframe the Energy Around the Task

Instead of I have to, shift to I get to. Procrastination often comes from associating a task with pressure, perfectionism, or drudgery. Ask yourself:

• How will this task benefit me or someone else?

• What positive feeling will I create by completing it?

The energetic reframe can turn obligation into opportunity.

“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.”

Benjamin Disraeli

5. Create Rituals for Flow

Sometimes procrastination is simply stagnant energy. Create simple rituals that shift your state and signal to your brain: it’s time to get serious. Work in ceremony by turning th e mundane task into a sacred ritual.

• Clear your own energy, and your workspace, before you start to do anything else. Smudge, salt, shake, breath. This will help create focus and clarity in your aura from a place of soul, not survival.

• Light a candle or diffuse an uplifting essential oil

• Play music that puts you in motion

• Diffuse scents or anything to make your work infused with the magical.

• Ground yourself into the earth. Whisper to the soil what you fear, what you're avoiding, what you're resisting. Let fear compost into focus, passion into presence. You are a portal, an alchemist.

“You’re not avoiding the task. You’re avoiding how the task makes you feel about yourself.”

6. Celebrate Progress (Not Just Completion)

Momentum builds when you acknowledge the steps you’re taking. Instead of waiting until everything is done to feel good, celebrate each step forward. A quick “yes!” or a checkmark on your list rewires your brain to crave progress.

If you're a chronic procrastinator it may be because your nervous system is simply stuck in survival mode. It only knows how to feel safe with peformance under pressure.

7. Align the Task with Your Bigger “Why”

Tasks feel lighter when they’re connected to a deeper purpose. Ask:

• How does this align with my bigger vision?

• Who am I serving by doing this?

When your actions feel meaningful, procrastination loses its power.

WHO you are magnetizes WHAT you want. Your Being and Doing are one and the same and when they're in alignment, your actions flow naturally.

8. Commit to being a Creator

Anchor into your why, your vision, your purpose. Begin as a devotion, without feeling ready. Go when spirit says go, even with trembling hands.

Most likely you’re long past the idea, vision and “just start” phase so now it's about fully committing to what you’re creating.

When you consciously step into your vision and own your role as the Creator/Source, you naturally attract opportunities, abundance, and aligned outcomes.

Make yourself available to your vision by fully embodying the energy of what you want to create rather than waiting for the “how” to appear.

Stop being defined by linear timelines. You’re shifting into an expansive reality where you trust timing and allow magic to unfold.

"The faster you do the hard things that you're avoiding, the sooner you can experience the good things that you're seeking."

9. Work Smarter, Not Harder

If you suffer from 'Pathological Demand Avoidance' there are a few tips and tricks that can help you stay ahead.

• Batch-create your content. Schedule it post and set timers for how long you will practice engagement.

• Meet regularly with accountability partners. Set goals with them and report back.

  
  
  
  

Reminder: The next level is not about hustling harder—it’s about locking in, embodying your vision, and allowing your presence and energy to magnetize what’s meant for you.

10. Honor Your Nature

    
    

We tie our identity to our productivity, but this can be dangerous. Stop confusing your output with your worth. Stop multitasking, overworking. Honor cycles, inconsistency, rhythms, rest. You are not a machine. It's ok to do less.

"You are not the voice in your head. You are what actually listens."

"You are what you do, not what you say you'll do."

Carl Jung

From Resistance to Flow

Procrastination isn’t the enemy—it’s simply energy asking to be redirected. By staying curious, taking micro-steps, and creating an environment that supports focus, you can transform stuckness into forward motion.

So the next time you catch yourself avoiding the thing, pause and remember: you hold the power to alchemize procrastination into productive energy. One small step at a time.

"It’s not skill. It’s not talent. It’s not intention. It’s not resources. It’s not access. It all comes down to follow through. The people who’ve created the type of life you want didn’t feel like 'doing the thing', but they followed through any way. That’s the only difference. Stop giving in to avoidance and distraction."

Light Watkins

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Erin Ratliff is a holistic business coach and consultant specializing in organic growth + visibility for heart-led soul-preneurs and energy-sensitive self-starters in pursuit of personal and planetary healing.

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