Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.
What in the world is "Acting As If?"
Hello everyone! I am brand new to PA. I really want to learn all I can about ways to deal with my procrastination. I ran across this thing called "Acting As If" and I have NO idea what it means. Could someone please explain? Thanks!
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Described Perfectly!
No Falcon, you described it perfectly! I have a great understanding now of what it means to "Act as if" thanks to you and a few other helpful people on this site.
I want to thankyou for the great description. It is really helping me!
Have a wonderful, blessed day!
Acting as if
Hi trinitygrace,
I don't know what the context was where you read the concept, so I don't know for sure, but. . .
Sometimes when people want to change something in their lives, it can be helpful to imagine how they would behave if the change was already made, and begin behaving that way. . . "acting as if" they were already where they want to be.
Let's say that I have a co-worker who annoys me. I want to be more compassionate toward this person, but I don't feel compassionate, just annoyed.
I could wait until I have compassionate feelings before changing my behavior (a good way to procrastinate!) Or I could think, "if I were more compassionate, how would I behave? Well, I would listen to this person more without interrupting, I would ask how his day is going, etc." Then I can go ahead and start doing those things, acting "as if" I feel compassionate, whether I do or not.
The interesting thing is that often the feelings follow the behavior. . . if I start behaving compassionately, I may just find myself starting to feel more compassion.
For procrastinators, it's often easy for many of us to put something off until we think the conditions are just right. For example "I can't make that phone call yet, because I don't feel confident about it." Sometimes it can help to "act as if," ex. "I will act as if I were confident by picking up the phone, speaking assertively, etc. . . even though I don't feel like it." Again, acting that way can lead to feeling more confident. And if not, at least the phone call gets made!
Anyway, that's one way of looking at it (or the source you were reading might mean something else & I could be totally misinterpreting!)
Hope I didn't make things more confusing!
Falcon