Make Your Urges Work For You

We all have urges. The urge to procrastinate, the urge to do something self satisfying in some way. Today, we're going to talk about how to make those urges work in your favor instead of fighting them.

The Urge

You have urges and desires that come up from time to time. They might come when you're tired, or when you know you need to do something difficult but necessary. Everyone has these. I know that when it's a heavy squat day, I find myself looking for little things that need to get done, or things I want to do first.

This is perfectly normal. Your brain knows you don't want to do this thing, or that you're tired, or that in some way something is coming that some part of you wants to avoid. So your brain decides to "help" you by starting to suggest things you need or at least would rather do. This, again, is perfectly normal and happens to all of us.

Trying to directly fight these urges all the time is like trying to swim up river against the current: You can do it, and doing it can make you stronger. But sometimes you need to use the current to your advantage in order to accomplish things. So you need to make this current, your urges, work for you.

Making It Work For You

So with the knowledge that you can't and won't fight this urge every time, 100% of the time, how can you make it work for you? You direct it toward other things that need to happen.

Find yourself looking for something to do to give yourself more time to wake up before hitting the gym? Great, I'm sure there are plenty of little things at home that actually need doing instead of checking social media on your phone.

Dreading that conversation with your boss and gathering your nerves? It is of course better to just do it and get it over with. But if you must add time, surely there is something you can finish that's actually needed in the mean time.

The great thing about this style of procrastination is inevitably, something beneficial will happen. Either you finish everything else around you that needs to get done, or you will get sick of doing those menial things and actually get to work on what you were avoiding.

Either way, with just a little discipline, you can deflect the current instead of fighting it and still win.

Your Urges

As always, I want to hear from all of you. What are your urges? What are the things you procrastinate on? Were you able to use this strategy to help yourself either stop or get more things done on the side? Tell us below.