Are You A Master Procrastinator?
March 28, 2011 
11 Comments
Do you procrastinate your life? Are you a “tomorrow” person, and if you are a “tomorrow” person, you may be related to a “later” man or a “later” person. Procrastination can be a constant and consistent pattern, not just with things we don’t feel like doing, but especially with things we’re passionate about.
People can get very passionate about something. For instance, you can be passionate about going out and meeting women and having a new partner in your life, or you can be passionate about getting really good at a sport, or losing weight, or completing an important assignment at work. In the beginning of this process, that passion is so powerful that you just want to do it and be the best you can be at it, be so good that everyone is impressed by your performance, and even you impress yourself.
The problem in life is that there’s not much immediate gratification. So what happens is that you don’t see enough change right away, you don’t see the amazing results you’d like to get and you know you’re capable of right away. For instance, let’s say you’ve got to lose 15 pounds. You’re so dedicated in the beginning and you lose five pounds really quickly. But then… the next thing you know, one day you just screw up and you gain three pounds back after a long lazy weekend. All of a sudden, once that happens, you lose that passion, because you feel like you haven’t gotten anywhere. You may even feel like you’ve actually failed at your goal! So basically you’re taking one step forward and then two steps back.
Procrastination is a disease. It’s another manmade disease. Of course we’re not born with procrastination. Even if you’re two or three weeks late, hanging out in your mother’s womb, it’s not that you were procrastinating on being born, it’s just that your mother didn’t go into labor yet. But in reality, procrastination can kill you. It really can. It can hold you back, it can lead toward a slow steady decline instead of constant and consistent growth you know you’re capable of but do nothing about.
So how do you overcome procrastination? It’s really simple. One of the first things to do is realize that everything in life is a marathon, and not a sprint. In order to get good at something, whether it’s getting good at meeting women, whether it’s becoming a more interesting date, or a better boyfriend or better girlfriend, whether it’s losing weight, becoming a master at your job, whether it’s building a brand new business… whatever it is, every single day, you’ve got to do little by little by little. What you’re doing is you’re building a foundation underneath you, and that foundation needs to be strong. When that foundation is strong, then every day when you wake up, you’ll realize you’re just adding another brick to that foundation. You realize you’re just adding one brick every single day. Sure, there’ll be days that it’s raining and the ground may get a little muddy and you may only be able to put a half a brick up, but the bottom line is that in order to get great at something you need to do it every single day.
You need to force yourself to do it every day. You’ve got to make a steady commitment to yourself to each and every brick. So let’s say you’ve made a commitment to yourself to go out and socialize and get better at communicating with people. Let’s say you’ve dedicated yourself to meeting 20 new people this week, but yesterday you didn’t meet anyone. That’s not an excuse for you to sit at home and not to go out and meet people today. Even if it’s just one person that you end up meeting today, who cares? You can’t let that discourage you. It’s one step toward your goal. You’ve got to embrace that one victory.
Whenever I built up any one of my businesses that I’ve been involved in, I have worked hard every day, whether I felt like it or not. I would force myself to work and force myself so I’d be the absolute best at what I do. I’ve used this analogy so many times: can you imagine being an NFL quarterback or MLB baseball player and not going through practice every single day? What do you think practice is? Practice is so you get good and you’re able to react when the game is on. So if you’re a constant procrastinator, you need to start setting goals for yourself every day. Attainable goals. Small goals and small wins will enable you to embrace each win every day, and not the failures. You’ve got to be reasonable in your goals, too. It’s brick by brick, guys. You can’t lose 100 pounds overnight, nor can you go out and get 100 dates overnight, but what you can do is start working on yourself and learning how to be a better communicator so you’re able to get those dates in the future. What you can do is work out for an hour a day so you lose 1/8 of a pound that day.
Marathon friends, life is all about a marathon. Stop thinking sprint.
David,
I really enjoyed reading this blog today.
Procrastination is something that I’ve been struggling with my whole life and never really tried conquering up until last week.
I’m not going to let this disease destroy me!
You are truly an inspiration to me and many others……thank you for doing this! You’ve given me the wisdom I needed to get out of my head and really grow as a person.
again, awesome blog today, just awesome..
-Matt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXziurFkQxM
I was talking to a client today about this very topic!
Not so much procrastination, but the fact that we have to build a foundation before we can see the results that we know we’re capable of. It really is “brick by brick,” but we can’t expect the exact result that’s in our heads. The end result that we have in our minds is never the exact same thing as what we imagined.
But we have to EMBRACE each and every successful brick that we lay to the foundation. If we mess up and lay one brick incorrectly, we can’t let that one little screw-up bring what we’ve already built come crumbling to the ground.
Procrastination can indeed be a crippling habit. I think the important thing to understand when trying to overcome procrastination is that it is a way of dealing with anxiety and that it is rewarding in that sense.
Thus to overcome procrastination trying harder, setting more goals, etc will most often not help in the long run. Instead one needs to find a better way of dealing with that anxiety.
The best book on this issue is ‘The Now Habit’ by Neil Fiore. He suggests using something called the ‘Unschedule’: You schedule free time and play activity for the whole week, then you basically log your productive hours. So instead of constantly running behind some schedule you set yourself you only see the progress you made on the schedule which takes away the fear.
If you have been having issues with procrastination I highly recommend you read his book.
I’ve been a huge procrastinator my whole life, in work,at school,at home, with meeting women. It’s been my downfall. I can get a good for awhile but then I lose motivation,then finding myself having to get back on track. It’s getting annoying going through this cycle of mine.
Thanks for this blog today!!!
When looking back and thinking about what I have acheived lets say in the last one and a half years i can’t belive that its so less. While writing this the word “responsibility” came into my mind. And thats the point. I dont think that procrastination is the problem the problem is that we blame procrastination because its holding us back… So by doing this we remain in our little world and repeat the same cycles day in and out being lead by the unconsciousness.
I really like what you say about seeing life as a marathon. As long I dont find the one thing that i truly want and am passionate about i dont think i will be able to see life as a marathon.
Wow, great post man, this is really helpful, because I’ve had a big issue with this lately with my work in college. I kept on waiting till the last minute to do everything, and I ended up just being enormously stressed out, but now I understand that I gotta do everything little by little each day, and from stumbling upon this blog, it solidified my willingness to be proactive even more. Thanks for sharing your perspective on this issue David, this helps a lot.
Take it easy.
Matt.
nice blog!! so how do i start?
Good pick up! The less you do, the less you want to do and then just end up in a cycle of frustration and nothing achieved. We’re all humans and have off days but the key is to dust yourself off and keep moving forward.
End procrasterbation!!