Stop Procrastinating & Get a Life!
Avoid, back out, beg off, bow out, cop out, shy from, weasel out, wimp out, worm out, put off ... So which words are you using to 'avoid' what you simply need to do ... ?
Do you have a sense that you are doing something else rather than doing what is needed to get 'that thing' accomplished? Tim Ferriss says that often we choose to be busy rather than being productive and, we choose to avoid the uncomfortable high priority.
How do you fill your day? Hopping from one thing to another to another, getting little bits of major things done - or even minor things!
Oops! Where as the day gone!
Look at how you fill up your day and how much time is used up in activities such as channel surfing, jumping from link to link on internet or browsing magazines ... and the rest. Doesn't time go by so much more contentedly when you're hopping ... or should that be avoiding. And then ... oh! there's no time now ... oh well, you can do it tomorrow ... and tomorrow. Remember, 'tomorrow never comes' - there is only today, the 'now'.
Stop being a wimp!
Words you know, may repeat to yourself after enjoying a hopping day, words that you wanted to say earlier in the day ... Just do it! Shout it out and drown out those little noisy voices that know all the different avoid words so darn well ... drown them out ... Today, now, I will complete this! Face head on what you are putting off. It can be a work project that seems challenging, cleaning your house or completing the paper for school that is the haunting weight.
One thing to discover is what exactly is the sticking point for you. For instance, the work project may involve you having to call someone to get some information and you may be in a state of dread about that. Very often the uncomfortable part is simply a tiny part of the overall situation and, when you deal with that ... the rest of the process is fine. We get stronger when we do what needs to be done and more importantly, it strengthens you doing what you have been wimping out from doing. Each small step takes you further down the road, and strengthens your 'do it' muscles.
Pop the 'fear' balloon ...
Build up the 'get it done' muscles and a strange thing happens ... the 'fear' wavers, then starts to shrink. Imagine letting the air out of a balloon, steadily deflating.
Each uncomfortable situation we face helps us to see that our resistance was worse than we imagined. For instance, if you are avoiding the report you need to hand in because you feel insecure about your introductory page, go online and study some examples that are similar. You'll get some ideas and then you can write your own version. Getting beyond the paralysis teaches you that you can face it head on and this is such a valuable lesson that can be applied to many contexts of life.
Once it is completed, the enjoyment you'll have in your diversions will be so much more enjoyable, as there will be more a sense of freedom and satisfaction - not nagging guilt. When we do things to avoid something else, we know that in one level of our minds and the body just can't fully relax. This is a great reward plus you've accomplished something even deeper than the specific task: You've chosen to start silencing those 'avoid it' voices in your head.
Vic Carrara
www.empowersu.com
“Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.”
Leonardo da Vinci
If I get to pick what I want to do, then it's play...if someone else tells me that I have to do it, then it's work.”
Patricia Nourot
“The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do.”
Thomas Edison
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
Walt Disney
“If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
Mahatma Gandhi
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