Are you a novelty seeking procrastinator? Work with it, not against it.

After looking rather extensively into the raw data of my DNA, a very interesting personality trait came up. It said that I was most likely a novelty seeker. I instantly Googled the term to see if it meant what I thought it meant. A novelty seeker is someone who makes impulsive decisions related to novel stimulation and exploration. If one doesn’t seek stimulation in this way, one becomes bored and frustrated.

This fits in with my personality perfectly. I am one of these strange people who likes change and gets bored with things the way they are. I cannot count the number of times I have moved my furniture around or made an impulsive purchase without thinking too much about it. On any given day, I have so many ideas swimming around in my head that I cannot possibly accomplish all of them let alone just pick one to focus on. One week I was certain that it was my destiny to become a yoga teacher and the next I wanted to be a digital nomad. I’ve wanted to work completely alone at times and others I couldn’t see why I didn’t want to be around others. I have also given up on numerous things. I wanted a degree and studied part time, only to spend most of my time procrastinating. Once I became vegan and became obsessed with that, there was no space in my life for study on something I ended up really not wanting to do. I began many projects that I didn’t follow through with. I am writing a book for years on and off but I find it incredibly hard to just sit down and work on it and presume it won’t be done in years still - I have no deadlines to work towards which probably doesn’t help the situation. However, with school and college work I used to leave it until the last minute anyway as I used to procrastinate. Numerous times I have sporadically exercised. I did three weeks of Insanity before injuring my ankle and giving up on exercise completely. I’ve also gone all in on pilates, running, dance workouts, weight lifting and cycling, only to do them for about a month before getting really bored with it and giving up completely. I cannot stick to one Instagram theme and it really irritates me! I also have an obsessive nature. If I don’t make a change or explore something, I obsessively think about it until I do and then it won’t be something I want forever.

I have often wondered why some people are like this and I do believe that it has to do with two aspects - our genes and the way we were brought up. As I said earlier, it is written in my DNA that I am most likely a novelty seeker, although the marker professional procrastinator has not yet been discovered. Although I have suffer on and off from anxiety and depression, I very much like to live in the moment and I am only at my happiest when I do so. I prefer not to think of the future as it just stems into worry about illness and death. I also don’t like to plan too much as I like to experience and do what I feel in any given moment. I believe that these things are just in my nature. As a youth, I wasn’t given chores to do, I was allowed to sleep in until the afternoon during the holidays and I was able to, pretty much, do as I wished. I was a good kid to the most part, apart from arguing with my mother or siblings, and I felt that I had a choice with how to spend my time and often spent it alone or with my sister. After my parents split up, I could pretty much eat all the foods I liked, which wasn’t many, and my Mum stopped trying to force vegetables on me. I was allowed to do my homework when I liked, go outside when I liked, watch whatever I liked and there weren’t any rules. I really enjoyed this freedom as a teenager but now I realise that this all contributed to my lack of self discipline. You see, you can set your children up for success by telling them that you believe that they are going to live an amazing life and the child will most likely take on this belief themselves. However, if you don’t say and act in ways that make your child feel like this then they will grow up thinking that they won’t amount to anything and they will likely have low self esteem. This second part is the part you can work on changing. This is something that I am still working on.

That being said, there are some things that I have kept up with for a number of years. My almost 6 year relationship with my partner, writing my book (however slow that may be), video making, photography, yoga (it helps that I am in a weekly class) and I have been in my current workplace for over five years and recently it paid off with a promotion. As much as my hobbies and interests change a lot, many of them still entertain me today.

What I have learned more recently is that we need to work with our nature instead of against it. I find that when I set strict schedules, such as write for one hour today or workout for 30 minutes today, or even try to reward myself, I never follow through. Or if I do, it’s just a one time occurrence. I find that as I like to change things up a lot, I should. I wanted a morning routine and when I couldn’t stick to it for more than a month, the best thing to do was to change it up. I found that when I was struggling to eat my greens, the best thing to do was to challenge myself to eat spinach in a smoothie everyday for one week and then eat cucumber every day for the next week and so on. The exercise I most enjoyed was Insanity because it was a short term challenge. It’s a shame that I injured myself before but I am almost certain it was because I was eating gluten back then, which can inflame joints, and I have stopped eating this for quite some time now because of how ill it made me. So, I am trying it again. It is tough but I am loving the challenge. It is a great way to feel very fit and strong very quickly. With other exercises, such as pilates and cycling, it takes a lot longer so I lose motivation quicker. Instead of forcing a schedule to upload blog posts, I allow myself to post them whenever I feel like it but without giving up completely. There are so many different topics to talk about so it keeps me interested and I find writing therapeutic. Uploaded a post makes me feel accomplished so I try to finish a post in one sitting. I feel that taking social media breaks helps with this greatly. One way I think we all procrastinate is through scrolling through post after post several times a day. I have given up social media for a week before and it worked wonders so I am doing it for the whole month of April to kickstart my productivity and to stop with the constant judgement of myself based on how many likes I get. I also compare myself a lot to others on Instagram who seem to be perfect, even though I know it isn’t true. Stepping back into the real world and seeing people the way I do rather than the way they want me to has been refreshing.

I also utilise my values. I became a minimalist because I don't like how much we buy and waste. By doing so, I spend less, consider my purchases more mindfully, waste less, have a nicer home with less clutter and don't make as much mess anymore so can tidy less. I'm sure there are other ways I can utilise my values but I just haven't found them yet.

Do you feel that you are a novelty seeking procrastinator? Has anything helped you? I’d love to hear your stories.