There was this pause as if he was waiting for me to respond to what he had just said. I looked at him in silence and then responded, “If you don’t mean to procrastinate, then why do you do it?”
There was this look of puzzlement on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He paused and then said, “I know what it does to me and others. I understand how dangerous it is, but it has just become a part of my everyday routine. I am not saying I plan on doing it; it just happens. I really do want to get things done. Having stuff unfinished just sucks the life out of me. It causes me to not know where to start and makes it a problem to finish anything.”
Ralph is no different from so many I have met. They live in a world designed to confuse and frustrate their space and the world they share with others. Procrastination is not something that “just is.” Procrastination is a choice that a person makes. You don’t have to use tomorrow as your starting point; that is a choice! That is a choice YOU make; it is not forced on you.
So, it creates a very interesting question: Why do smart, intelligent people choose to procrastinate? From my years of working with people let me share the most common reasons one chooses to procrastinate.
The first reason one procrastinates deals with the lack of passion for what one is doing. Passion is such an important part of having the right energy to fight through the moments of doubt and uncertainty. Without passion one will lack the inner resolve to continue through the tough terrain.
One will procrastinate when their reasons become stronger than their desire. There are always justifications for not doing what you set out to do. When those reasons are stronger than the desire that started the journey, postponing action becomes okay.
Procrastination becomes okay when others have planned the journey for you. For desire and passion to create personal power, one must be living his/her own dream. When the script is handed to another, it will lack the personal commitment that is a must.
When one is cluttered with other unfinished journeys, procrastination becomes a way of coping with all the incomplete actions. Clutter is a huge time thief and makes one feel it is impossible to get everything done. The result is pushing things to the side with the intention of getting back to them. Too many times the stack becomes so overwhelming, one doesn’t know where to start.
Procrastination is a behavior. For any behavior to be made okay, one must rationalize that behavior. Most of the time the rationalization is a lie one tells self in order to handle the truth of their behavior.
Another reason people procrastinate is a fear of confrontation. It is amazing how many would rather walk away than confront the issues. What they fail to understand is anything that isn’t completed has continuation. That means it doesn’t go away and every time it reappears procrastination becomes an issue all over again.
Sadness with one’s life is another reason people procrastinate. When life is not about happiness, fulfillment and freedom, there is a sense of sadness to it. That means a lull in one’s energy. With that lull comes procrastination.
Most new adventures begin with an inner sense of excitement, but when that inner sense of excitement wears low, so does the feeding of energy that creates the consistency of action. When that happens it becomes okay to stare and not act. The result is procrastination.
Another common reason I have found people procrastinate is the fact they are involved in the wrong journey. On the surface the journey looked good, but once they got into the action of achieving the journey, they realized this was not for them. Too many won’t admit that fact, turn around and find the right path; they will continue to plow forward knowing they are going in the wrong direction. That makes procrastination okay.
Procrastination becomes okay when there is no sense of urgency to completing the action that was started. The lack of urgency gives one permission to spend time doing other things. The thought is I will get around to it. Without a sense of urgency cluttering one’s life with an unfinished events becomes a way of living; after all good intentions are good intentions. They can also be a lie.
Another reason people procrastinate is a tired spirit. With people being pulled in so many different directions today, personal tiredness is at an all time high. When one is tired, it is easy to look, let out a sigh and walk away. It is not they don’t want to do it; they just don’t have the energy at that moment.
When tiredness sets in, it is okay to make tomorrow the staring point. It helps relieve some of the guilt one feels when they know they should, but don’t.
The last of these reasons is the fact the environment they are in doesn’t hold them accountable for their behavior. Without accountability there is the lack of discipline. Most people are not good personal managers; they need an accountability partner. Without that partner it is easy to talk self out of what one knows they should be doing.
Okay; ponder these reasons for procrastinating and see how many you are using to justify your procrastination. I will continue this next month with what you must do to control procrastination. |
