We are all guilty of procrastinating. Whether it is homework, exercising, getting your reps in, or even restringing your racquet, people seem to make time to do everything besides what they actually need to do. While it may seem as simple as hitting the snooze button one too many times, procrastination can be dangerous and even stunt your growth as a player. Here are five ways your procrastination is holding you back:

 

  1. Fostering Excuses:Putting off important things you need to do in your training such as running, lifting, and practicing your serves creates a breeding ground for excuses. You tell yourself you would be able to train if only you had enough sleep, and it is better for you to sleep than go to that extra practice. Then, after a poor performance, you tell yourself you would have been better if only you had more time to train. Procrastination creates a hotbed of excuses when really all you need is more discipline and better priorities.
  2. Destabilizes Confidence: A huge foundation of your confidence in your ability to perform is knowing that you put in the work to set yourself up to succeed. How can you have confidence if you know you allowed yourself to put off the work in order to do other things?
  3. Prioritizes Unproductive Behaviors: What are you doing when you are procrastinating? Many times, it is some sort of unproductive activity. Through procrastination, things like Youtube, social media, and videogames become prioritized over the things you need to get done to be successful.
  4. Limits Potential:Time is one of your most valuable assets. When you procrastinate, you are opting to use only a small portion of the time that you have to do what really matters. There is no way to reach your full potential with only a limited amount of time and effort.
  5. Allows Others to Close The Gap: What do you think your opponents are doing when you are procrastinating? If they are working while you are doing unproductive activities, then people you could once beat are going to close the gap. The people who you are competitive with are going to leave you behind, and those who were better than you are going to become exponentially better.

 

Procrastination is an ever-present temptation. You have to keep your priorities straight and remain disciplined or it will hinder your performance. Schedule a session with a mindset coach to help set the right goals and start working to accomplish them!

Category: Tennis