Stop the habit of procrastination
“I will definitely start going to gym, starting next Saturday”, “I make sure that I pay my rent before the first of the month”, “I stop smoking from tomorrow onwards”, “No more drinking for me, this is the last sip I am taking”, “I pay all my bills on time”, “I will go visit my doctor for physical check-up next week”, “I spend more time with my kids this weekend”, “I call my parents right after work tonight”. We hear people saying like this all the time and we ourselves are guilty of doing it many times.
Have we ever stopped and thought about why so many of us procrastinate ? I think it is avoiding the pain of facing the reality. People who smoke, must know the pain of thinking about not having cigarettes for few hours and few days. It applies to all other scenarios. As a wise person said, “How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'.” It is nothing but the state of mind and thinking about the uncertainties of the future. I know a friend who could not sleep on flat bed and had a thick sponge bed, very much comfortable. Before he turned 25, he had problem with his spinal cord and had to visit doctor. The doctor advised him not to sleep on spongy bed anymore and for the rest of his life, he would have to sleep on hard surface. I know another friend who could not stop drinking and smoking at the same time. At an early age of 32, he had problem with lungs and kidneys. Doctor has given him few years to live. He is a wonderful person with a lot of talent but few bad habits are taking his life at a very young age.
When we face a challenge or life threatening situation, we say, “Why me ?” “Why now ?” Those chronic diseases do not attack overnight. They are accumulated over the days, weeks, months and years. It is a common statement, “He or she died of a sudden heart attack.” It might seem to be sudden now but it took many years of procrastinating habits to get to this point. Life is so valuable and for those who value life, should be careful not to abuse ourselves with some bad habits. We receive our thoughts from many sources; our thoughts create words; words create actions; actions create habits; habits create character and character creates our destiny. It is, hence clear that when we control our thoughts, we control our destiny and achieve what our heart desires.
Steven R. Covey, in his best selling book “The 7 Habits of highly effective people” says, “You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, no apologetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.” Mostly, association creates our habits and without even knowing, we pick up some habits: good or bad. When we were growing up, our parents had always told us not to hang out with such and such because he or she doesn’t have good habits and by associating with them, we would be like them. Once we grow up, we forgot that and without knowing, we pick up many habits.
It’s not too late still to change our thought process so that we can stop procrastinating and do the things that are important and bring long term permanent success. A few simple ways that I have found, useful to be aware of our daily activities would be: to make conscious effort to write down in a piece of paper, our daily goals whatever small they are. Just by writing down on a piece of paper, makes our brain to be conscious about it. Another most powerful method to stop procrastinating would be : Spoken words. As we know that we are always thinking and even though we don’t speak out loud, our mind is saying something all the time. Once we get hold of our thought process and speak what we want to change or accomplish, it might sound silly in the beginning but eventually, autosuggestion works.
Shad Helmstetter, Ph.D., Author, and Self Talk Expert says, “During the first eighteen years of our lives, if we grew up in fairly average, reasonably positive homes, we were told No, or what we could not do, more than 148,000 times!” Just imagine how destructive that gets when our mind is always focusing on “No” most of the time. Just like a dead fish can not swim upward in a stream of water, we have to focus deliberately to bring positive changes, one at a time daily. By making one small change in positive direction, will be like a ripple effect which will attract many more other good habits. Life is so precious and by making a decision to change for better, we can help ourselves and those who depend on us. I always love this quote “To the world, you may be just one person but to one person, you may be the WORLD.” By making a decision to be a better person, it affects so many other people. Procrastinating habits may not go away overnight but just like how they were created, we can do a lot of unwinding, starting from one small habit, e.g.: reading a positive book for 15 minutes before going to bed; not using bad language to our loved ones; staying away from those people or circumstances which would remind us of joining them in whatever destructive habits they are involved in; exercising for 30 minutes daily; focusing on healthy food; taking care of our physical, mental, spiritual, financial, emotional and relational aspect of our lives and the list goes on.
The best selling author of “Rich Dad and Poor Dad”, Robert Kiyosaki says, “If you want to change your life, begin by changing your words. Start speaking the words of your dreams, of who you want to become, not the words of fear and failure.” Have we ever thought how powerful our words are. If not, this is the time to pause for a while, look into our heart and make a decision to choose right words which will eventually change our behavior towards being a better person one day at a time and will eventually eliminate the habit of procrastination from our life. As words are our seeds, we get what we sow daily. When the seed grows to become a huge tree and starts giving fruits, don’t we want to give good fruits to all ? Please take out some quiet time and THINK.
Have we ever stopped and thought about why so many of us procrastinate ? I think it is avoiding the pain of facing the reality. People who smoke, must know the pain of thinking about not having cigarettes for few hours and few days. It applies to all other scenarios. As a wise person said, “How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'.” It is nothing but the state of mind and thinking about the uncertainties of the future. I know a friend who could not sleep on flat bed and had a thick sponge bed, very much comfortable. Before he turned 25, he had problem with his spinal cord and had to visit doctor. The doctor advised him not to sleep on spongy bed anymore and for the rest of his life, he would have to sleep on hard surface. I know another friend who could not stop drinking and smoking at the same time. At an early age of 32, he had problem with lungs and kidneys. Doctor has given him few years to live. He is a wonderful person with a lot of talent but few bad habits are taking his life at a very young age.
When we face a challenge or life threatening situation, we say, “Why me ?” “Why now ?” Those chronic diseases do not attack overnight. They are accumulated over the days, weeks, months and years. It is a common statement, “He or she died of a sudden heart attack.” It might seem to be sudden now but it took many years of procrastinating habits to get to this point. Life is so valuable and for those who value life, should be careful not to abuse ourselves with some bad habits. We receive our thoughts from many sources; our thoughts create words; words create actions; actions create habits; habits create character and character creates our destiny. It is, hence clear that when we control our thoughts, we control our destiny and achieve what our heart desires.
Steven R. Covey, in his best selling book “The 7 Habits of highly effective people” says, “You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, no apologetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.” Mostly, association creates our habits and without even knowing, we pick up some habits: good or bad. When we were growing up, our parents had always told us not to hang out with such and such because he or she doesn’t have good habits and by associating with them, we would be like them. Once we grow up, we forgot that and without knowing, we pick up many habits.
It’s not too late still to change our thought process so that we can stop procrastinating and do the things that are important and bring long term permanent success. A few simple ways that I have found, useful to be aware of our daily activities would be: to make conscious effort to write down in a piece of paper, our daily goals whatever small they are. Just by writing down on a piece of paper, makes our brain to be conscious about it. Another most powerful method to stop procrastinating would be : Spoken words. As we know that we are always thinking and even though we don’t speak out loud, our mind is saying something all the time. Once we get hold of our thought process and speak what we want to change or accomplish, it might sound silly in the beginning but eventually, autosuggestion works.
Shad Helmstetter, Ph.D., Author, and Self Talk Expert says, “During the first eighteen years of our lives, if we grew up in fairly average, reasonably positive homes, we were told No, or what we could not do, more than 148,000 times!” Just imagine how destructive that gets when our mind is always focusing on “No” most of the time. Just like a dead fish can not swim upward in a stream of water, we have to focus deliberately to bring positive changes, one at a time daily. By making one small change in positive direction, will be like a ripple effect which will attract many more other good habits. Life is so precious and by making a decision to change for better, we can help ourselves and those who depend on us. I always love this quote “To the world, you may be just one person but to one person, you may be the WORLD.” By making a decision to be a better person, it affects so many other people. Procrastinating habits may not go away overnight but just like how they were created, we can do a lot of unwinding, starting from one small habit, e.g.: reading a positive book for 15 minutes before going to bed; not using bad language to our loved ones; staying away from those people or circumstances which would remind us of joining them in whatever destructive habits they are involved in; exercising for 30 minutes daily; focusing on healthy food; taking care of our physical, mental, spiritual, financial, emotional and relational aspect of our lives and the list goes on.
The best selling author of “Rich Dad and Poor Dad”, Robert Kiyosaki says, “If you want to change your life, begin by changing your words. Start speaking the words of your dreams, of who you want to become, not the words of fear and failure.” Have we ever thought how powerful our words are. If not, this is the time to pause for a while, look into our heart and make a decision to choose right words which will eventually change our behavior towards being a better person one day at a time and will eventually eliminate the habit of procrastination from our life. As words are our seeds, we get what we sow daily. When the seed grows to become a huge tree and starts giving fruits, don’t we want to give good fruits to all ? Please take out some quiet time and THINK.
posted by Prem Guragain at
3:43 AM
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