“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?” Epictetus
We are all procrastinators. In one form or another we are all delaying, postponing, or holding out on something that we want to achieve in life. Many things we want to achieve in life that never see the light of day.
All of us, every single one of us, me included. Procrastinators. It sucks and sucks the time out of the life we have.
We know what we need to do but we delay and don’t make it happen.
“I’ll start tomorrow”, “I’ll get that done next month”, “in the new year”, “I need to start.....” but it never happens. Not always never, but more often than not it’s never.
I’ve been caught in this many times over the years, I still do every single day. You do too. Great ideas, ambition, well thought-out plans, and attainable goals that go to waste for one reason or another. Vanished as if they never existed.
They don’t always vanish though. The need to be healthier, exercise more, be a better husband, a better parent, read more, learn more, be more organized. Many of these do not vanish. They linger with us, constantly reminded of how we’re failing in these important areas and how we are stuck in a rut with no escape.
Procrastination breeds a burning of time as life passes by. It ticks away the clock and doesn’t allow us to really live life. A pushing down of your life’s greatest accomplishments for the thought of never-ending time. We don’t grasp the things we love for fear of failure, public ridicule, or our own negative self-talk.
We could be doing much more with life, but we put it off until tomorrow, next week, some other time. Maybe we’re waiting on the perfect moment, external factors to line up, or a special kind of push or lightbulb to go off. What if that never comes? There are no perfect moments and you’re never fully ready for anything worthwhile in life.
If nothing changes than nothing changes. In order to really make a dent in this procrastination, you need to alter how you approach the things you want to do in life. Jot it down, sign up, tell someone, make someone join you.... whichever way makes it different than before. What you did before isn’t working, you need to change your approach.
My approach to goals, that works for me but not necessarily you, is to sign up for something. If I say I want to do something it may not happen, it’s a 50/50 shot. If I tell someone, same 50% chance it’ll happen as I tell people a lot of great ideas that go nowhere. If I jot it down, I’m a little better off but not guaranteed it’ll happen.
If I sign up for something I’ve then committed, told someone, and find others doing the same ‘crazy’ stuff so I don’t feel alone. This holds me the most accountable to it. Add fundraising into that goal and you have others counting on you to actually make it happen. Want to get in better shape? Don’t sign up for a gym membership, sign up for something that will require you to be physically fit. It’s the play on your mind that makes it all work out.
See, we love to procrastinate. Actually we don’t but we love to let it happen. We become ok with delaying, ok with life how it is, ok with the excuses, and ok with standing amongst the crowd. We become entirely unaware that we are even doing this to ourselves, it becomes a natural way of life.
What are you procrastinating about? Make a list of things. Call it a bucket list, call it a procrastination list, call it a list of things to do before you die. Call it whatever you like, but get to work on making it happen.
My goal in 2019: stop procrastinating so much. Really recognize what I am procrastinating about and get out of my own self-loathing of what I can and can’t accomplish in life. I’ve done some great things in my life but also held back on many other incredible things along the way. I’m likely not done holding myself back by procrastinating, but I am going to ensure I limit the amount of procrastination in my life.
DadBud
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