Say no to procrastination

Why do you unnecessarily delay taking an action, despite knowing its importance or likely consequences if you do not? What stops you from taking the right action at the right time? Are you just postponing this action or plan because you fear you may not get it right or outrightly fail at it?

You know why? Procrastination! The act of delaying, postponing or avoiding an action.

Postponing the ability to engage your dreams and desires sure has its consequences. You just will never take off! A lot of us avoid taking the necessary steps because of the “fear of the unknown”.

[paywall]

You are afraid to even try. The fear you may fail is enough to hold you back. Remember, “you can never know, unless you know”!

This fear can lead to an outright avoidance of the action itself. Oftentimes, our mindset is such that we assume we will feel better if there is a delay. However, the reality is that we sure feel great once we accomplish the task.

Another reason for this is not believing in self. Having doubts in your own capacity and capability. Doubting you have what it takes to succeed is a no-no on its own.

The fact that you do not even believe in yourself makes it hard for another to trust and/or believe in you. Another culprit of procrastination is the desire to be perfect. You would say, “I would rather not start if it were not “as straight as an arrow”, hitting the bulls eye!

This is dangerous because there are never any perfect scenarios. Remember that in the real world, we have a lot of “misses”, but we must keep pushing. Ups and downs are the order of the day.

In addition, time management is also one of the leading causes of procrastination. This is when you fail at setting out clear priorities of what matters most and the timeframe to accomplish the task. Have you had situations where you have been at work all day and once it is time to shut down, everyone around you starts ‘forming’ busy.

This is very common. The reason is most likely not that additional work came in late but the mere fact that a lot of ample time had been misused in attending to seeming priorities that were not so important. We often do not set priorities of which tasks mattered the most.

Procrastination is the reason why some people are stuck on jobs they have no satisfaction doing. It is responsible for your not having enlisted in schools to further your education. You are yet to enter that business venture because you fear it failing.

Some of us have dreams and great business ideas but are afraid to actualize them because we are not sure of their success. The last I checked, no one has any knowledge of what the future holds. All we do is plan, plan and plan, and adjusting as we go on.

Avoiding this habit may demand you break your tasks and goals into smaller achievable bits. This way, you do not feel overwhelmed. Sometimes, taking-on very large or complex tasks could be an overload and your reaction may be “fight or flight”.

I am a firm believer that the best time to start is always NOW! What starting does for you is removing barriers and resistance. While at it, there is the need to be crystal clear at setting your priorities and attaching a timeframe to it.

For example, instead of saying, “later today”, be more specific and say, “today at 1:30pm”. The question then is, “what is keeping you from “launching” your dreams to reality”? Why are you afraid of starting or engaging at all?

The truth is that a lot of us conceive great ideas and dreams daily but fail at making them come to life for fear of retribution from those we believe would applaud or even an outright failure. Do you have a business idea or dream that you keep putting away for a later date? What is that thing that you would love to see happen for you that you are afraid to start?

Is there a valid reason for you to push the launch date forward? Whatever the reasons, avoid the act of procrastination and launch into it right away. Note that there is no better time to start than now!Remember, the Change you desire and deserve is YOU!Let us create the Change we deserve!

[/paywall]