5 Secrets of Happy People

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Procrastination

Fatal Flaw #1: You procrastinate.

Tomorrow is soon enough. Besides, you excel under pressure.

The ugly truth: You're secretly afraid your work won't be perfect and you'll be outed as a fraud. "Procrastinators tend to be very concerned about what other people think of them," says Joseph Ferrari, PhD, a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago. "If you worry that you will never perform as well as you have in the past, fear of failure may be halting your progress." Putting off work provides a ready-made excuse: Instead of admitting failure, you can always blame your busy schedule and overbooked calendar. "That way, you can tell yourself the project would have been successful if only you'd had more time," Ferrari explains.

The fix: Play the worst-case-scenario game. The next time your grasp on deadlines starts to slip -- something even the worst procrastinator can recognize -- take a moment to look inward for the source of your foot dragging. Ask yourself what's the absolute worst that could happen. Then spin the consequences out to their most ludicrous degree: Would your family and friends disown you? Would you end up starving and homeless? Would the cat die? Once you've realized things aren't so awful, you can get past the anxiety and focus on the work, says Ferrari.

Next: Shopping Addiction

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1/13/2012 03:42:31 PM Report Abuse

pandasp1 wrote:

I liked the article,very informative...thank you

8/11/2011 07:02:34 PM Report Abuse

wendi.palmer wrote:

Shouldn't this be titled "Avoid these self-destrucitve habbits"?

8/11/2010 11:05:55 AM Report Abuse

lavannya wrote:

so anyone who can relate to what I said, perhaps you might wana try focusing on being early instead yea?:) send positive tots out, really FEEL in advance what it would feel like to be early for that appointment or be considered a punctual person by others and you Will be that person. :)

6/27/2010 11:47:23 PM Report Abuse

lavannya wrote:

Perhaps its possible habitual late-comers might actually really Want to be early & somehow still end up being late?& that it actually causes a lot of guilt and anxiety yet they can't seem to break out of this pattern?Maybe once or twice they'd be on time but then that would be the exception?I'm actually guilty of this & know how much it sucks!:( Not to make excuses,but I recently watched The Secret and realised that it may be my thoughts focused on NOT being late that may be sabotaging me!:o

6/27/2010 11:40:24 PM Report Abuse