Overcoming Procrastination: To Align with What Matters Most
Reframe Problems into Powerful Feedback to Live a Purpose-Built Life
What if procrastination isn’t the enemy, but your mind’s way of guiding you?
What if there is actually nothing to overcome, but rather feedback to be understood?
Procrastination is psychological feedback signaling that you’re pursuing something misaligned with your true priorities—those you intrinsically value most, beyond the external moral or societal pressures. If it truly mattered to you, you’d already be doing it. The truth is often harsh because it forces us to confront the misalignment in our lives and businesses. Ironically, living in alignment with your top priorities is as challenging as procrastination itself. However, one path offers the rewards of purpose and progress, while the other keeps you stuck, and beating ourselves up and causing missed opportunities. Let’s break through the baggage and better understand procrastination, so we can take the next step toward addressing it.
Procrastination is Feedback
Many believe they're self-sabotaging when, in reality, their hesitation and delay are simply signals that the task at hand isn’t as important as they’ve idealized it to be. Your mind and body are doing exactly what they’re designed to do, guiding you away from what lacks alignment with your values.
Reality reflects what you’re committed to because you act on it. If you ignore or diminish the things you’re actually devoted to, you’ll experience the most feedback. You're wired to procrastinate on anything that isn't in sync with your true values or priorities.
“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”
Why Frustration Isn’t a Glitch in the Matrix
Procrastination is feedback, a symptom of not pursuing what you genuinely value. The frustration that follows isn’t a glitch in the system but a form of resistance caused by misaligned priorities. The hesitation you're feeling highlights what’s most meaningful in your life, right now, given your current stage of awareness.
Your mind is trying to clarify what’s important to you and prompt you to delegate the rest—or get empowered enough to manage it. The wisdom here lies in asking quality questions and interpreting the why behind your actions instead of frustrating yourself. Otherwise, the discontent and anxiety will continue to signal an imbalance between reality and how you think things should be. The mental noise is simply feedback, working to dissolve any delusions or associations that keep you from balance.
Mental Noise or a Beat You Haven’t Danced to?
You can either face the feedback of your mind and dig deeper into why you procrastinate—or you can continue hesitating, accumulating delays and mental clutter. Both paths are challenging. That’s why top CEOs and athletes work with coaches; they turn problems into growth opportunities. Those who solve problems fastest often get rewarded in proportion to their ability to respond to their environment, whether personal or professional.
Comparison and Clarity
If you’re fed up with the frustration and mental toll of procrastination, remember this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Envy is ignorance, and imitation is suicide.”
If you compare yourself to someone else, you’ll stall out. You're designed to not get the life force required to propel yourself. Instead, compare yourself to your mission, vision, and message to your own actions and priorities.
Reflect if you are trying to be like someone else?
Who are you envying or imitating?
Who’s dedicated to what you think you “should” be doing?
Are you fully clear on your own priorities?
Set goals and accomplish tasks that are meaningful to you, work backward from that vision, and align each step with why it’s fulfilling.
Embracing Authenticity and Alignment
Being authentic requires you to procrastinate on low-priority tasks and experiencing a sense of inspiration and enthusiasm from your top priorities. Your mind sends signals—procrastination, self doubt, hesitation, frustration—when your objectives aren’t aligned with what truly matters to you. Not what you think should matter. Embrace these signals and bring order to them by tuning in to what you’re actually dedicated to. You'll bring vitality to your health as well, and feel more energized when you do these sorts of tasks.
Your life naturally reflects your priorities. Take stock of the actions that fill your week, the people and things in your environment, and the thoughts that occupy your mind. These clues help reveal a deeper layer of authenticity aligned with your purpose. Your consciously and unconsciously coordinating you entire life in this manner. That’s why self-reflection is challenging because it demands a level of self-awareness that many rarely tap into. But with an objective mindset, clarity emerges. When you engage your brain’s executive center—the part of the brain that allows you to see the bigger longterm picture—your actions flow more fluently from intention. Acting in alignment with your true priorities, and that becomes one of your greatest competitive advantages, as your neurochemistry naturally supports this way of living.
How do you feel about procrastination when doing meaningful work? Be honest with yourself about what you’re truly committed to, and let that authenticity guide you forward.
Get It Done or Delegate It
When you’re struggling with something, ask “who” can help—not just “how” you’ll do it. Even with tasks you enjoy, consider who could eventually take it over. This trains your brain to think like a business owner, running the “business of you.”
Tune Into What’s Meaningful
Define your zone of genius, core competencies, and top priorities. Personally, mine are coaching, researching, entrepreneurship, and family. I structured my days, weeks, and years around these. And that’s the case with everyone from artists to athletes to entrepreneurs who know their mission and love what they do.
Plan around your true priorities. The friction you’re experiencing is feedback that won’t go away—it’s there to guide you to alignment.
The Hidden Reason Behind Your Hesitation
Hesitation happens for a reason. It’s a signal that what you’re attempting may not be as important or aligned as you think. Maybe it’s not a real priority; maybe you don’t have the know-how, or you’ve underestimated the resources it will take. Each reason is valuable feedback for self-discovery.
I worked with a business owner who struggled for weeks and procrastinated to organize financials for a legal review. They missed deadlines, grew frustrated, and sacrificed personal time for family, health, and social connections on top of not getting things done. This self-criticism led to stress, overeating, burn-out, feeling unmotivated and skipping workouts as well. But once we identified their real priorities and strengths, we delegated the financials to their accountant, someone in alignment with the work. The business owner refocused on their core strengths and priorities, getting updates instead of doing it all. The productivity and fulfillment that arose from that aloud them to get back what’s most meaningful, make more money, and be productive towards the initiatives that personally matter most while moving their business and finances forward.
The takeaway? Just because someone values business doesn’t mean they value every aspect of it, like finances. Recognizing where your true strengths and priorities lie allows you to approach goals objectively so you can bring that energy and purpose, rather than trying to find temporary outside sources of motivation.
Often, the real reason behind our hesitation is hidden in plain sight. We have access to endless information, but without asking ourselves or having others ask us quality questions, we may miss the path to alignment. This leads to procrastination, and it can take years to achieve what we want. Publishing that book, building that body, achieving financial independence, making those calls—these goals become clearer when we uncover the reasons behind our hesitation and work in congruence with what matters most.
The Most Productive People Lean Into Feedback
The most productive people lean into this feedback and refine their priorities. By focusing on what’s truly valuable and meaningful, they develop authenticity and resilience, creating momentum towards achieving long-term goals that once seemed only like a dream
Pursue what’s deeply meaningful to you! This is what I mean by a purpose-built life and business. Eliminate as much else as possible, build your life around what matters, and let it guide you. This is part of your mission and your service to others.
“People aren’t loyal to people—they’re loyal to their priorities.”
Clarify Your Purpose
We’ve all met individuals who are energized by their work, and others who can’t wait for the weekend. It’s the difference between merely existing and living with purpose.
Get crystal clear on what’s important to you in life and business, and do work that matters. Narrow down your focus. Hesitation comes from confusion, so reduce what’s on your plate until it’s clear. For example, you don’t have to manage every detail of a business, industry, or profession. Focus on where you naturally excel and enjoy the work, and then continually refine what matters most. This may take days, weeks or decades, the second you see the end in mind, the journey has begun. Do whatever you can, dedicate your life to refining and making it happen, as nobody will wake up for your dreams but you. So if you don’t invest in yourself, nobody else will.
Dissolves Procrastination by Building a Purpose-Built Life + Business
Steve Jobs didn’t know I needed an iPhone—but he cared enough to create it, pushing people to his standards, and he was compensated accordingly. That’s the intersection of self-worth and net worth. Some called him a narcissist, others an altruist. Reality is he’s both, just like everyone else on the planet. When your work is authentically aligned, your tackling imbalanced perceptions, have a clear strategy and reason procrastination dissolves, because your not buying into the dopamine of the masses, a pleasure without a pain, and infatuating with what others have, rather than seeing what it took to build.
I stay focused on my priorities. I coach, research, consult, and bring polymathic perspectives to business and human behavior. I valued learning and intimate relationships, that’s why my wife, a my business as well and my clients are authentically themselves, and therefore I consider them friends, because we radiate like sunrays towards individuals like that. This is the essence of a purpose-built life + business, grounded in knowing your personal priorities and value, while being dedicated in service to loved ones or our clients.
Understanding the difference between what’s urgent and what’s truly important can transform how you approach your life. Urgent tasks demand attention with immediate consequences, but true priorities are the ones that align with your intrinsic motivations. People are inherently loyal to their core priorities, and this shows up in everyday choices—whether consciously acknowledged or not. Your commitment to fulfilling what you genuinely believe is important will be reflected in your actions, even if urgent demands are also present.
Consider the current financial landscape: as of 2024, about 46% of U.S. adults carry balances on their credit cards, with average amounts between $5,000 and $10,000, often at high interest rates. Despite these financial pressures, people continue to make room in their budgets for things that resonate with their personal values—like a daily coffee, streaming subscriptions, gym memberships, and educational courses. These choices highlight a reality: people are not ultimately loyal to fleeting urgencies but to their deeper personal priorities.
Staying true to what’s most important allows you to channel your energy toward meaningful pursuits. Aligning your life with your top priorities brings vitality and fuels long-term dedication to causes that matter. By focusing on true priorities, you create a more harmonious, not necessarily balanced, purpose-built life + business.
Summary: Create a Purpose-Built Life + Business
“The only way to deal with this life meaningfully is to find one’s passion and work towards it. Life is too short for doing things you don’t care about.”
Procrastination is only a thief of time if you ignore the clear signals it consistently provides about the misalignment in your priorities. Don’t confuse this symptom with a lack of willpower or intelligence.
What if you redefined procrastination as feedback rather than failure? Take a moment to reflect on what you've been avoiding—and why. What does this reveal about your true priorities, or perhaps even the societal or external pressures you've internalized? To be truly yourself, authentic to your own vision and mission in a world constantly trying to change, lobby, market, and sway you—that’s one of the greatest achievements and the hallmark of those who live Purpose-Built Lives.
Amar
PS:
If you know someone who’s struggling to get something done, or who might be subordinating their own path to an external ideal or moral authority, forward this to them. This message is for individuals ready for a breakthrough—whether in their health, wealth, or personal pursuit of maximizing their potential. If they're on the verge of a conscious evolution and seeking greater meaning and fulfillment in their lives, now is the time for them to step into their power and make lasting change. Your forwarding this could contribute to that one idea, at the right time and place, that helps them make that pivotal shift.
If this is you, reach out and let’s talk.
Article I’m working on (Coming soon…)
The Art of Delegation - How Life, Business & Financial Mastery are Impossible Without It
