10 Lies That Make You Procrastinate

SEP 18, 202521 MIN
The Christian Habits Podcast

10 Lies That Make You Procrastinate

SEP 18, 202521 MIN

Description

<p><strong>Do you ever feel like you’ll never get caught up?</strong> I know that feeling because I&#8217;ve struggled with procrastination for most of my life. Here&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve discovered: it&#8217;s a <strong>two-fold process to break free</strong>. First, we need to renew our minds and change the way we think so we actually <em>want</em> to do our dreaded tasks. And second, we need to learn practical strategies and time management tools to help us get caught up. I talk about both in <strong><a href="https://courses.barbraveling.com/products/courses/stop-procrastinating">my new course, <em data-start="1415" data-end="1444">How to Stop Procrastinating</em></a></strong>, but today I want to share something that’s often overlooked—the subtle lies that make you procrastinate. Let’s uncover ten of the biggest ones together. (I share 40 in my new course.)</p> <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25708" src="https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/10-Lies-That-Make-You-Procrastinate.jpg" alt="10 lies that make you procrastinate" width="1200" height="630" srcset="https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/10-Lies-That-Make-You-Procrastinate.jpg 1200w, https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/10-Lies-That-Make-You-Procrastinate-300x158.jpg 300w, https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/10-Lies-That-Make-You-Procrastinate-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/10-Lies-That-Make-You-Procrastinate-150x79.jpg 150w, https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/10-Lies-That-Make-You-Procrastinate-768x403.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h2>10 Lies That Make Us Procrastinate</h2> <p>I go into these in more depth in my podcast episode, so I&#8217;ll just record a simple truth here for each lie.</p> <h3>1. This needs to be perfect.</h3> <p><strong>Truth:</strong> There is nothing perfect in life except God. So if I&#8217;m waiting for perfection, I&#8217;m working on an impossible goal. I subconsciously know it&#8217;s impossible and that makes me want to procrastinate! I will be far more likely to do hard things if I have more of a &#8220;Let&#8217;s just give this a try and see how it goes&#8221; attitude. Besides, God is in the habit of taking people who aren&#8217;t naturally good at what He called them to do (think Moses) and then equipping them for the calling. He can do that with me too!</p> <h3>2. It’s too hard. I can&#8217;t do it.</h3> <p><strong>Truth:</strong> If God wants me to do this, He&#8217;ll help me do it. I can&#8217;t do it perfectly. I can&#8217;t do it without struggle, and I can&#8217;t do it without the possibility of failing, but I <em>can</em> do it! It will be easier if I break it into steps first and start with the smallest step I can take without dreading it. A step I can actually make myself do.</p> <h3>3. I don’t feel like doing this (so I shouldn&#8217;t).</h3> <p><strong>Truth:</strong> Just because I don&#8217;t feel like doing something, that doesn&#8217;t mean I shouldn&#8217;t do it. What if I didn&#8217;t feel like feeding my newborn baby? I would still do it! In the Bible, God often called people to do things they didn&#8217;t feel like doing. Remember Jonah? On the other hand, sometimes we<em> should</em> stop doing things we don&#8217;t feel like doing if there isn&#8217;t a good reason to do them. It&#8217;s good to take time to think about those things and talk to God and others for wisdom.</p> <h3>4. This problem will go away if I ignore it long enough.</h3> <p><strong>Truth:</strong> It will never be easier to tackle than it is right now. The longer I put off problems, the bigger they get. Just think of putting off an uncomfortable conversation in a relationship. The longer you put it off, the more the problem grows, and the harder it is to bring it up. I have a whole lesson on how to solve problems promptly in my <a href="https://courses.barbraveling.com/products/courses/stop-procrastinating">How to Stop Procrastinating</a> course.</p> <h3>5. I work better under pressure so I&#8217;ll wait.</h3> <p><strong>Truth:</strong> Often, I <em>only</em> work under pressure so that&#8217;s why I <em>think</em> I work better under pressure! Sometimes this works but other times I run out of time and end up with a project I&#8217;m not happy with because I didn&#8217;t have enough time to do a good job on it.</p> <h3>6. If I don&#8217;t have a big block of time to work on this, it&#8217;s not worth doing.</h3> <p><strong>Truth: </strong>Often in life, all I have is little blocks of time, so if I want to actually do this, I need to adjust my expectations and do this in little blocks of time. I wrote my first book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Emotional-Eating-Weight-Bible/dp/0980224349/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3AN6AZHLGWZIP&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Cm6u-fppNI7koE34Sz9NQEBoThS8HSm-HTQmNsRMmaVATtqirvSub-FrElkP8yi25X-5cZAMd6LayW49DZiv779TEWmOKG9htoVvBQX4ocdYmHQUKDE00_G6EbnCXROn6d0EkxJjZqmeCJZlzVOLJy4_87g7zuJFL6UGX4P2q3JzYY-XcXXV1ieumsh63k2BFbRTaiOuhdf0hxcFWwjvl6hFTlEJSVY58XOvqD3V0o0.q_yRy5_6v2JmC84tSjSkALDuXEG0cZIWrZikYOP3Apo&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=freedom+from+emotional+eating&amp;qid=1758151614&amp;sprefix=freedom+from+emotional+eatin%2Caps%2C159&amp;sr=8-1"><em>Freedom from Emotional Eating</em></a>, in 15 minute blocks of time because I had a houseful of kids and that&#8217;s all I could make myself do.</p> <h3>7. If it&#8217;s God will, things will go smoothly, I&#8217;ll have the desire to do it, and it will just happen without trying.</h3> <p><strong>Truth:</strong> Sadly, we can see from Scripture that this isn&#8217;t true. Think of Jonah, Moses, Jeremiah, and Elijah. God often calls us to do things that don&#8217;t go smoothly,  that require a lot of effort on our part, and that we don&#8217;t want to do! Plus on a practical level, even if we like our work, there are days we&#8217;re not crazy about it.</p> <h3>8. Other things are more urgent so this can wait.</h3> <p><strong>Truth:</strong> I need to be careful not to let the urgent take over the important. I do that by making priorities (which we&#8217;ll talk more about in my procrastination class).</p> <h3>9. This will only take a minute, so I&#8217;ll just scroll/check email/etc. first.</h3> <p><strong>Truth:</strong> It usually takes far more than a minute, and even if it does only take a minute, that minute destroys my concentration. It can take ten or fifteen minutes to get it back again. I&#8217;m far better off making boundaries with my phone and not jumping on it whenever I feel like it. (Granted, this is easier said than done. I&#8217;m hoping to make a class on how to do this at some point &#8211; as soon as I learn how to do it myself!)</p> <h3>10. I&#8217;m just not the kind of person who follows through.</h3> <p><strong>Truth:</strong> I may not be a person who follows through right now, but God can help me change. Also, I do follow through in some areas of my life, just not all areas. Thankfully, I am a work in progress!</p> <p>If you&#8217;re interested in making progress in overcoming procrastination, check out my new online course below.</p> <p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /><strong> Listen to the full episode on the <a href="https://barbraveling.com/category/christianhabitspodcast/"><em>Christian Habits Podcast</em></a>!</strong></p> <h2>&#8220;How to Stop Procrastinating&#8221; Course</h2> <p>This will be an on-demand video course with 17 lessons, three live Q&amp;As, assignments, and an opportunity to find accountability partners (at the Q&amp;As). Register by September 22, 2025 to take advantage of <strong>early bird pricing</strong>.  <a href="https://courses.barbraveling.com/products/courses/stop-procrastinating"> Click here</a> to find more about the course:</p> <p><a href="https://courses.barbraveling.com/products/courses/stop-procrastinating"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-25615 size-large" src="https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Use-this-Thinkific-How-to-Stop-Procrastinating-2-1024x512.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Use-this-Thinkific-How-to-Stop-Procrastinating-2-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Use-this-Thinkific-How-to-Stop-Procrastinating-2-300x150.jpg 300w, https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Use-this-Thinkific-How-to-Stop-Procrastinating-2-150x75.jpg 150w, https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Use-this-Thinkific-How-to-Stop-Procrastinating-2-768x384.jpg 768w, https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Use-this-Thinkific-How-to-Stop-Procrastinating-2.jpg 1440w" alt="help with procrastination - procrastination course for Christians" width="1024" height="512" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25615" data-jpibfi-post-excerpt="" data-jpibfi-post-url="https://barbraveling.com/end-boredom-mindless-procrastination-eating-with-kim/" data-jpibfi-post-title="End Boredom, Mindless, &amp; Procrastination Eating with Kim" data-jpibfi-src="https://barbraveling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Use-this-Thinkific-How-to-Stop-Procrastinating-2-1024x512.jpg" data-pin-nopin="true" data-jpibfi-indexer="1" /></a></p> <h2>How to Listen to the Podcast (Christian Habits)</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-habits-podcast/id899589208?mt=2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Listen or subscribe on Apple Podcasts</a></li> <li><a href="https://subscribeonandroid.com/barbraveling.com/feed/podcast/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Listen or subscribe on Android</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=51757&amp;refid=stpr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Listen or subscribe on Stitcher</a></li> <li><a href="https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-HUegeqUl__ZcHCIHxdRE6vWfnBvly7I&amp;si=CE2HG0skTVopo5AU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Listen or subscribe on YouTube Music</a></li> <li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4RiCoYxtkWRm5B4FjXx3lT" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Listen or subscribe on Spotify</a></li> <li>Amazon Alexa: To listen on Amazon Alexa, say, “Alexa, play the Christian Habits Podcast.”</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The post <a href="https://barbraveling.com/10-lies-that-make-you-procrastinate/">10 Lies That Make You Procrastinate</a> appeared first on <a href="https://barbraveling.com">Barb Raveling</a>.</p>