A Neuro-Li ngui st i c Progr ammi ng

Over vi ew of The Phenomena of

Procr ast i nat i on - or - How t o Change
t he Ment al I mager y t hat Causes You
t o Feel Bad Whi l e Del ayi ng Act i on
by Mi chael J. Emery, M. A. , C. Ht. , M. NLP
Ver si on 1. 0 June 27, 2010
About Michael J. Emery
Michael J. Emery has a Master of Arts from the Institute of
Transpersonal Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in
Marketing and Advertising Management from Portland
State University. Additionally, Michael is certied as a
hypnotherapist and a trainer of neuro-linguistic
programming (NLP).
In 2001, Michael began to study communication and
human behavior, eventually leading him to various
communication models including Ericksonian Hypnosis
and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). These models
demonstrate the unconscious decision-making processes
necessary for Personal Development - by design.
Michael believes that we can change how we interact with
other people by realizing we process information
differently; we have unique maps of the world that we
perceive as our individual realities (and sometimes
mistakenly believe that others have the same
perceptions). The more quickly we realize this, and learn
how to communicate with others through their way of
understanding the world about them, the more quickly we
can resolve many of the challenges currently facing
humanity.
If you have had a positive experience with Michael's
personal development programs then talk about it with the
people you care about and encourage them to also
experience new ways to perceive old challenges.
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Table of contents
.................................... Unconscious Solutions 4
................................... What Would Milton Do? 6
.................................. What is Procrastination? 7
............................ Reasons for Procrastination 8
.................................................................... Fear 9
................................................ Belief Systems 10
............................................................... Values 12
............................................................. Identity 15
....................................................... Perception 17
.................................................. Submodalities 20
....................................... Perceptual Positions 22
........................... Temporal and Spatial Shifts 23
........................................... Perpetual Change 25
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Unconscious Solutions
If procrastination were a conscious-level problem then a
person would be able to logically reason his or her way
out of procrastinating, right?
Rarely does this seem to be the case. Procrastination is a
largely unconscious process and the way to communicate
with the unconscious mind is through symbols and
imagery. Language, when used with precision, is a
powerful way to change the perception of an experience.
There is an expression in the Ericksonian hypnosis eld
that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. The reasoning behind
this is that no one but you is responsible for controlling
and generating the internal representations through which
you are perceiving the world. At best, you can be given
suggestions but even those suggestions will have to be
ltered through your map of the world or paradigm.
The point of this document is to demonstrate how much
control you actually have over your perception of reality
and experience. The moment that you accept full control
over your perceptions, your emotions, your mindset, and
your actions you will have begun to access the resources
you need in order to leave procrastination behind. Keep in
mind that, like most things, this too is a process...
With practice and self-awareness, very soon you will
unsurprisingly nd that the behaviors that used to hold
you back have been replaced with proactive actions and
decisions that propel you forward - toward what you want
by design. Until you reach that point in your life when it is
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effortless - you have the Put Off Procrastination audio
program as a resource to hold a space for you to pay
close attention to the changes that are occurring within...
Remember, the reason why the Put Off Procrastination
audio program has been so successful is because it
creates an environment in which the listeners can slow
down time and space and perceive through various
perspectives the challenges that were holding them back
from what they desire to experience.
Furthermore, it is only useful when applied... If you
haven!t yet, then I encourage you to use the Put Off
Procrastination audio program either in the form of the
mobile phone app that this document was designed to
include or as a stand-alone audio le.
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What Would Milton Do?
I want to begin with an anecdotal story
shared by Dr. Milton Erickson in the
book My Voice Will Go With You.
According to one of the metaphorical
stories that the psychiatrist /
hypnotherapist Dr. Erickson was
famous for, he tells about the
Tarahumara Indians of southwestern
Chihuahua who are the ones who can
run 100 miles without their blood pressure going up or a
signicant change in their heartbeat.
Upon learning this, an entrepreneur brought some of the
hundred-mile runners to the 1928 Olympics in
Amsterdam. Those runners didn!t even place in the event,
because according to the Tarahumara Indians they
thought 25 miles was when they were just getting warmed
up.
No one had thought to explain to them that their run was
only a total of 25 miles...
Dr. Erickson recounts that ...I sometimes think about that
story when I!m having difculty getting into a task, when
I!m writing, repairing something on the house, frustrated
by difculties, or literally breathless from jogging. The
phrase will come into my head -- "I am just warming up
now.! I usually nd more energy available after this.
1
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1 Rosen, Sidney, My Voice Will Go With You, (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1982), 112-113
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What is Procrastination?
The word procrastinate comes from the Latin word
procrastinatus: pro- (forward) and crastinus (of
tomorrow).
2
Essentially, the perpetual forwarding of
tomorrow, which could potentially last indenitely unless a
catalyst pushes an individual into action.
Procrastination is the counterproductive, continual
postponing of actions or decisions to a later time. Some
psychologists have thought that procrastination is a
behavior mechanism for coping with anxiety associated
with decision-making. According to the research done by
Schraw, Wadkins, and Olafson, procrastination is dened
by these three components: a behavior that is
counterproductive, needless, and delaying.
3
Often, procrastination results in stress and guilt.
Additionally, procrastinating also reduces an individual!s
productivity both personally and professionally. Further
ramications of procrastination may include social
exclusion or labeling as an individual who does not fulll
responsibilities or commitments.
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2 Procrastination. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989)
3 Schraw, G., Wadkins, T., & Olafson, L. (2007). Doing the things we do: A grounded theory of academic
procrastination [Electronic version]. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 99(1), 12-25.
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Reasons for
Procrastination
I believe that there are an innite number of reasons why
an individual might procrastinate. My perspective on this
subject might be slightly different than others who have
attempted to help procrastinators to change their
behavior.
I view procrastination from two different perspectives:
conscious-level behavior and unconscious-level behavior.
In a few seconds, as you continue reading, you will learn
conscious-level reasons and logical explanations as to
why someone might procrastinate. You may already be
aware of these reasons, or you might nd that many of
them just make sense based upon your personal
observations or experiences. However, understanding the
problem will likely do little to resolve procrastination for
you or give you resources to manage it in the future.
Most problems occur on an unconscious level, and this is
why conscious-level reasoning rarely resolves the
problem. Logical understanding might share insights into
the origin and nature of the problem, but it does not
change learned behavior.
I believe that as you continue to read, you will nd that
emotions such as fear, your belief system / paradigm,
your values, self-identity, and perception all play into your
experiences of procrastination.
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Fear
When it comes to procrastination, fear is rarely involved
because fear is an in-the-moment response to one!s
environment. Instead of the word fear, why not
substitute the term anxiety? Since, anxiety is imagining
negative future outcomes.
Here is where it gets really interesting from a
physiological perspective, a person!s mind/body cannot
distinguish the difference between fear and anxiety,
because both result in varying degrees of the ght or ight
response by your nervous system.
When it comes to fear being an underlying reason for
procrastination, it might be better referred to as anxiety
surrounding the hypothetical thoughts of failure. Although,
counterintuitively, procrastination might also be resulting
from anxiety regarding the thoughts of success. In my
opinion, this ties into an individual!s belief system and
identity.
Additionally, there may even be thoughts of losing
personal autonomy (freedom), being alone, or becoming
overly attached to people or an outcome. Procrastination
can serve as a means to keep people and commitments
distant. It might be an apprehension of the unknown.
There may even be something you can think of that I!ve
not yet mentioned because there are numerous
possibilities... What matters is determining your
perception of the event that is causing procrastination.
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Belief Systems
In the eld of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), an
individual!s belief system or paradigm is often
metaphorically refer to as one!s map of the world.
Neuro- linguistic programming is the study of subjective
experience and how components of a system are
organized to create patterns of activity and/or behavior
resulting from the way language affects the mind.
Think back for a moment... Your entire life you have been
experiencing external events happening in the world
around you. In fact, right now in this room, there is so
much information that your mind has to ignore and lter
the majority because your mind/body is only capable of
focusing upon +/- 7 bits of information (1 bit of information
is every unique object interacting with your nervous
system).
You perceive these through your ve senses, yet this
information is continuously being generalized, distorted,
and deleted through your lters for time, space, language,
memories, decision-making strategies, personality types,
values and beliefs, and your attitude. This is your internal
representation of everything and we will examine this in
further detail in the Perception section.
Your mind is processing every event in the form of internal
imagery, self-talk, kinesthetic feelings, tastes and smells.
These all, to varying degrees, are having an effect upon
your physiology - even right now as you are reading. Your
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internal representation affects your physiology which
affects your emotion state and mindset, in turn affecting
your behavior. This is what determines your actions.
When you understand this, you can begin to perceive how
it is is possible to think and react to something which may
not have actually happened the way you thought it
happened...
Belief systems have a tremendous impact upon our
abilities to effectively communicate with other people, and
perhaps more importantly, with ourselves.
For the majority of people, beliefs are unconsciously
borrowed and assumed. A major catalyst in your personal
development is re-evaluating the origin of your belief
system; letting go of limiting beliefs and creating
empowering ones.
According to NLP developer, Robert Dilts,
...beliefs and values form the answer to the question
"Why?! Values are characterized by a felt sense of
meaning or desirability. Beliefs are cognitive structures
which connect values to other aspects of our
experiences.
Beliefs are essentially judgments and evaluations about
ourselves, others and the world around us... Beliefs are
the answers to questions such as, "How, specically,
do you dene the quality or entity you value?!
4
Beliefs connect values to various aspects of our unique
experiences.
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4 Robert Dilts, From Coach to Awakener (Capitola, CA: Meta Publications), 129
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Values
Values are the lters through which
we process our experiences. Often
values are nominalizations - they are
abstractions of a process. For
example, the value courage is a
nominalization of the process of
acting courageously. Likewise, love
is a normalization of the experience of loving, or bored is
the nominalization of the process of boring.
Values are our unconscious blueprints guiding us how to
act and determining what we perceive as meaningful. I
encourage you to try this yourself - think of common value
keywords (e.g., love, honesty, integrity, freedom, etc.) and
use them in a sentence while speaking with someone.
The person!s physiology will shift (body language) when
you say one of their values. This person might smile,
uncross their arms, ush around their cheeks, pupils
dilate, etc.
When you pay attention to what most people overlook you
will enhance your ability to communicate. Keep in mind,
communication is a tool and can be used to inict harm or
positively impact others - how you use it is indicative of
your values.
Values are also synesthesias.
A synesthesia is a crossing or blending of the senses. In
the eld of NLP, a synesthesia differs from the
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psychological or psychiatric use of the term. Academically,
the term has been used in reference to scenarios such as
a person being able to hear the color blue, or distinguish
the note C# from a C. In NLP, a synesthesia is when one
of the ve senses blends into another sense making it
nearly impossible to separate the two senses.
Most of us have the experience of seeing someone who
has an angry look on his face and then feeling a
sensation in your stomach or your chests that you might
refer to as fear. This is a synesthesia. And, here is the
way I could turn the synesthesia into a strategy or a
diagram:
Essentially, this little diagram could represents the
external visual sight of someone, hearing something in
your head (the other person!s voice or your own - like in
the case of attraction Oh, s/he is cute!), and the process
results in a positive kinesthetic feeling in your body. But, it
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happens so quickly that in just nanoseconds the sight of
that person causes you to feel something. This is a
synesthesia in the eld of NLP.
It happens all the time. People see a boss or an ex-lover
and they feel bad in their bodies. They hear a stern
parent!s voice (real, imagined or remembered) and they
feel bad.
This can even be more complicated like seeing someone,
feeling bad, then thinking to yourself how stupid you were
for being involved with that person, making pictures in
your mind by remember that disastrous vacation, and
then feeling even worse... Yes, we do it to ourselves!
In this case, values are also synesthesias because they
are words that are tied into our internal representations.
And, they are also simultaneously linked to a kinesthetic
sensation. In the context of values, the word love feels
differently than the word hate, doesn!t it? If it doesn!t, then
how do you know the difference between the two...?
Understanding synesthias is an important part of taking
control of procrastination. Now you will know when you
experience a synesthesia, won!t you?
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Identity
Who are you? This is a philosophical
question that has existed since the dawn
of time...
I want to refer to the work of Steve
Andreas, a modeler and developer in the
eld of NLP, specically his insights on
identity as noted in Six Blind Elephants.
Steve makes the point that any statement that a person
makes about themselves is self-referential. Identity
issues:
... are always self-referential, since the speaker is both
the subject and the object of the description, and a
statement about myself is both the categorization of
myself, and also an example of the categorization.
If this kind of self-referential statement is negated, that
creates paradox. "I can never succeed,! "I can!t ever do
anything right,! "I hate everything about myself,! [!I
always procrastinate#] are examples of common
troubling identity statements that are paradoxical.
This kind of statement is often quite unpleasant, not
only because it is so limiting, but also because it is so
universal, " I can never succeed." This kind of statement
creates an apparently inescapable and depressing
categorization of the self. However, when we realize it!s
paradoxical structure, that can be used to escape the
trap.
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For instance, if someone believes that they "can never
succeed,! that statement must apply to itself. Since the
statement is an example of "never succeeding,! it is a
statement that can never succeed, and this changes its
meaning. If it is an unsuccessful statement, it shouldn!t
be taken too seriously, prying open the door of the
trap.
5
In light of the example made by Steve Andreas, if you
have identied as a procrastinator in the past, this is a self
referential statement.
I will do my best to simplify how this might apply to you:
If you!re such a good procrastinator, then why don!t you
procrastinate when it comes to procrastination...?
This said, why don!t you consider the following points and
see if your identity is still congruent with being a
procrastinator.
1. When did you not procrastinate in spite of that belief
that you always do?
2. When have you done something important on time?
(Sometimes, there is that tendency to be overly
difcult - if you can!t think of something you did not
procrastinate about then I!m sure the last time you
used the toilet you made it there in time... sometimes
it helps to oversimplify, especially for the smart
people)
3. How will your life be different when you!ve learned
how to deal with that old procrastination challenge?
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5 Steve Andreas, Six Blind Elephants: Understanding Ourselves and Each Other, Volume II Applications
and Explorations of Scope and Category (Moab, UT: Real People Press), 159
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Perception
Perception is reality.
At least if you perceive it that way...
Perception is a nominalization. Perception is the process
of perceiving. Perceiving implies a ux; continual change
being observed.
In all of the information that I!ve read and researched on
the topic of procrastination, the majority of authors leave
out critical information concerning the process involved in
procrastinating. As if procrastination were experienced the
same by everyone...
The statement I procrastinate involves generalization,
nominalization, distortion, and deletion. Procrastination
means many different things to different people. Even as
you!re reading this now, you have your own internal
representation of what it means to procrastinate.
In fact, what I have found is that most solutions to
procrastination involve addressing the internal
representation of an individual!s experience. However,
few authors delve into the topic of internal representation
-- perhaps this is because they are unaware of the theory
of the internal representation?
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Some common advice on how to stop procrastinating
typically espouses that procrastination is a sign that
you!re not committed... Or, that the activity does not have
enough priority... Or, you don!t know enough to do the
task... Or, the one I like the most, you just don!t want to...!
The traditional, milquetoast advice overlooks the fact that
individuals have a unique perception of the experience
about which they are procrastinating. And, more
importantly how that event is coded into their mind/body
as an internal representation.
Do you remember the map of the world concept? This
directly ties into what is known as the Universal Modeling
Process in NLP. here is a representation of what this
might look like:
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On the universal modeling process image did you notice
the part of the diagram that said internal representation?
Here is where something very interesting is occurring.
An individual!s internal representation system It is based
upon the ve senses (visual, auditory, kinesthetic,
gustatory, and olfactory). The representational system has
the following characteristics
6
:
1. Each representational system can best represent the
aspect of the world that a response to directly (visual -
visually recalled or imagined internal imagery;
kinesthetic - kinesthetically recalled or imagined
feelings)
2. Visual can represent an enormous amount of data
simultaneously and instantaneously
3. Kinesthetic is the primary way that people evaluated
experience
4. Auditory can emphasize and help clarify raw data
Now, consider describing scenario in which you would feel
tempted to procrastinate. Keep in mind the information
above and notice the different components of your
scenario that are visual, kinesthetic, and auditory.
The next important part of deconstructing the way that
you have been procrastinating is becoming aware of the
submodalities involved in your internal representation of
procrastination.
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6 Representational System Characteristics 1987 Wyatt Woodsmall
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Submodalities
As you are learning to
monitor and control your
internal representation, you
will nd it very important to
become aware of the
distinct submodalities of
every internal experience.
A submodality is the
context of the ner details
of an experience, not the content.
For example, you might recall a beautiful sunset. Or, you
might recall a brilliant, ery-red, sinking sun stretching
panoramically across your vision just as your signicant
other lovingly whispers something in your right ear
causing your heart to beat even more quickly... Which
example lends itself more to exploring the context?

Here is a list of potential submodalities for each
representational system (5 senses - in the case of
procrastination we will focus upon only 3 senses):
Visual
1. Location (where is image located)
2. Dissociated (see self in picture)
3. Associated (looking through own eyes)
4. Framed
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5. Color
6. Size of Picture
7. Size of Central Objects
8. 3-D or Flat
9. Intensity of Color
10. Focus (All or Parts)
Auditory
1. Location (where is the origin of the sound)
2. Tonality
3. Volume
4. Tempo
5. Pitch
6. Cadence
7. Rhythm
8. Inections
9. Pauses
10. Timbre
11. Uniqueness
12. Direction
13. Duration
14. Internal or External
Kinesthetic
1. Location (where specically do you feel it)
2. Shape
3. Size
4. Temperature
5. Movement
6. Texture
7. Vibration
8. Pressure
9. Duration
10. Steady or Intermittent
11. Intensity
12. Weight
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Perceptual Positions
Dissociated: You see (imagine/remember) yourself in
the experience. This is powerful for making an experience
less intense.
Associated: You see (imagine/remember) the
experience as through your own eyes. This typically
makes an experience more intense.
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Temporal and Spatial
Shifts
I nd it very interesting that linguistically we can use
words that approximate closeness and distance in both
space and time. This is a technique developed by NLP
trainer John Overdurf
7
and I use it in the Put Off
Procrastination audio program.
Do you remember nominalizations? The linguistic
abstractions of a process. I shared the following
examples: the value courage is a nominalization of the
process of acting courageously. Likewise, love is a
normalization of the experience of loving, or bored is the
nominalization of the process of boring.
If there is an experience that is unpleasant and you want
to reduce the way it negatively feels (procrastination?).
Think about it as you read through the following temporal
and spatial shifts in consciousness while substituting the
word procrastination.
Dissociation:

That [procrastination] you!ve felt

That [procrastination] feeling you!ve had

That [procrastination] you were feeling

That [procrastination] you!ve been feeling

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7 Temporal and Spatial Shifts in Consciousness for Tele-Coaching 2006 John Overdurf
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That [procrastination] you are feeling

That [procrastination] you will have felt

Did you notice a sensation of moving either through time
or space, or both, as you read through those phrases?
Try substituting another nominalization that you do not
want (e.g., fear - process of fearing)?
Now consider an experience that is pleasant and you
want to turn up the pleasant sensations. Think about this
as you read through the following temporal and spatial
shift in consciousness.
Association:

This [motivation] feeling you!ve felt

This [motivation] feeling you!ve had

This [motivation] feeling you had

This [motivation] you are feeling

This [motivation] you!ve been feeling

This [motivation] you are feeling

This [motivation] you!ll be feeling

This [motivation] you will feel

This [motivation] you!ll have been feeling

This [motivation] you will have felt

Did you notice a sensation of moving either through time
or space, or both, as you read through those phrases?
Try substituting another nominalization that you do want
(e.g., love - process of loving)?
Changing the language you use will greatly affect your
perception of that old process of procrastinating as it is
becoming less and less of an issue every day...
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Perpetual Change
In the human body cell tissue is
constantly being renewed. Some
cells last a few days and others
may last years. Research indicates
that possibly all cells - except for a
select few cell types in the brain
and the heart - are recycled. The
perception many people have might be to:
...think of their body as a fairly permanent structure,
most of it is in a state of constant ux as old cells are
discarded and new ones generated in their place. Each
kind of tissue has its own turnover time, depending in
part on the workload endured by its cells. The cells
lining the stomach, as mentioned, last only ve days.
The red blood cells, bruised and battered after traveling
nearly 1,000 miles through the maze of the body's
circulatory system, last only 120 days or so on average
before being dispatched to their graveyard in the
spleen.
8
This is a metaphor on many different levels. You do change...
consistently and on time.
Remember, all you are is change and no matter what
you believe you are - you are always
more than just this...
BE AMAZING
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8 Wade. N. (2005. August 3)Your body is younger than you think. Retrieved June 26. 2010. from Rutland
Herald: http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050803/NEWS/508030317/1028