How to Use Unexpected Action to End Procrastination and Inferiority Before They Become Permanent

Mark Sanford, Ph.D.
4 min readJun 26, 2022

The power of caprice when all else fails

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

If you are someone who has suffered from putting off essential tasks or who has refused to reach out to others to make new friends out of shyness, read on. The regret for not following resolves can be acute.

This regret is more challenging to manage when those blocks are rooted in guilt for failed attempts to exert control.

The insight about what causes this stuck-ness is from the control mastery theory. This theory, developed by Joseph Weiss, assumes that a person’s problems are rooted in constricting beliefs derived from early childhood trauma.

The Perils of Early Criticism

I suffered in this way in my early years. Parental put-downs and contemptuous criticism undermined my confidence and sense of self-respect. I developed a limiting belief that my talents were inferior and that, as my mother used to claim, I would not amount to a “row of pins.”

Have you too had this experience of unrelenting messages of disrespect that you have been fighting a lifetime to correct and overcome?

Control Mastery Theory

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Mark Sanford, Ph.D.
Mark Sanford, Ph.D.

Written by Mark Sanford, Ph.D.

Ph.D. sociology. I help those working on personal development to attain self-respect and self-affirmation.https://medium.com/@sanfmark/membership