Are you steadily moving toward your goals, or do you find yourself stuck, avoiding further forward motion like the plague? Even though all of the pieces may be in place, self-sabotage can prevent us from taking that final step toward realizing our dreams.

Writing down your goals can really help zero in on what is important to you, and it really is the first action step you must take. The simple act of writing creates new neural pathways in your brain by getting your body involved in making your thoughts become tangible reality. It’s the first step to commitment.

Thinking about what you want to create in your life is a good starting point, and visualizing the end products of your intention and hard work is terrific – I encourage you to do it daily. However, writing the visualizations down prompts you to connect your intuition with your intention and brings your emotions and necessary actions to light. Writing leaves evidence that visualization does not. Writing is physical, emotional, and mental therapy wrapped up into one.

Writing to Stop Procrastination:

Start with a fresh notebook. Any will do, but you may want to treat your inner self to a beautiful notebook in your favourite colour. Use one that inspires you.

The purpose of this exercise is to open your eyes to your own excellence. You have everything you need within you right now to create anything you desire to be, do, create, or have! Start by acknowledging the power within.

Write down everything you love about yourself. Focus on anything and everything that is going well in your life. Compliment yourself. Smile. Be proud of all that you are and all that you have done. Realize your awesomeness.

When you have finished writing, start listing the things that you want to do, be, create, and have. Get specific and don’t hold back. You don’t have to know how you want to create these things. A burning desire to create these things is good enough. Write down how it feels to reach these goals. What experiences will you have when you realize these feats? How will your relationships blossom? How will you be doing financially, spiritually, emotionally, and physically?

This journal is dedicated to taking your power back. It focuses on love, strengths, solutions, and optimal outcomes. But in order to keep the focus on these wonderful things, it is necessary to visit the alternative for a moment and create some leverage over that part of us that relishes in the immediate gratification of procrastination.

Next, write about what will happen if you keep up this current level of procrastination. What will happen if you keep wasting your time and none of these dreams come true? How will you feel? What will your relationships be like? What will happen to you financially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually if you don’t follow the dreams you have written about?

What are the stories you tell yourself that keep you small? What is holding you back? What are your excuses? What will happen if you keep making these excuses? Staying small isn’t doing you any favours. It imprisons your inner being. It’s time to change your limiting thoughts and behaviours. Set your inner being free and see the magic happen!

I’ll bet you have had enough right now and that you’re ready to continue in the direction of your dreams! Start brainstorming about the next logical steps you can take toward making your dreams a reality. Rewrite your excuses into empowering action steps. Change your negative stories of lack into positive stories of abundance.

What must you do to keep moving forward? Do you need to network more? Put down your phone and play with your children? Give your lover a hug and tell them you love them? Be more active on social media to get your name out there? Be less active on social media and focus on your work or family? Go to the gym? Eat healthier?

Write down everything you can think of. You may have thought about taking these actions before, but seeing them on paper brings them into your awareness. In order to breathe life into your dreams, something that was once a should/could has become a MUST.

You know you’re on the right path when you are really excited about what you are creating. It doesn’t mean that there will be no fear. There will be fear any time you step out of your comfort zone and into the unknown, but the more authentic you are with yourself and the more you feed your inner spirit, the more your excitement will drown out the cries of your fears. New possibilities will enter your experience due to this change in energy!

Keep the focus on your goals. Any time your fears start to creep in and say “Yeah, but…” stop them right there in their tracks and focus on any good feeling thought you can grasp in the direction of your dreams. Change the way you talk about yourself and you will change. Think in terms of having already achieved your goal, that coveted position at work, getting a few new clients, or becoming that artist you’ve always wanted to be.

Act as if your dreams are a reality. Walk the walk. Talk the talk. It doesn’t help your cause when you are pining away at your dream from a scarcity viewpoint. Own every single aspect of your dream that you can right now. If you are an aspiring artist, don’t tell your friends that you hope to be an artist some day, tell them “I am an artist!” If you want to be the creative director of your office, tell your friends “I am a creative director!” Don’t stop with your friends – tell anyone who will listen to you! Be the person you want to be, and do what the person you want to be would do. There is no need to wait when you can start right now!

Take these action steps into your visualizations and see yourself executing them.  See yourself in the role you wish to play. Feel your inner being light up as you finally step into your power – as you step into your authentic self. Feel the excitement as it rises up from your heart and into your entire being. Feel how whole and complete you feel in this moment. Feel the inspiration and the knowingness that you can do this. You are doing this. This is the real you. Now take action!