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Ann was the queen of procrastination. She actually thought it was a good strategy. She let herself believe that if she put things off long enough, either someone else would do them for her, or she would find a way to get them done in a shorter amount of time because she was under the gun. She enjoyed the adrenaline rush she got when a deadline was looming. Never mind the fact that half the time Ann had to ask for an extension. She was happy with her strategy, but her boss was not thrilled at all with her performance.
Ann may have been comfortable with her plan, but it was not a good one. She spent all of her time catching up, and therefore she had no opportunity to get ahead in life. When she was constantly working on yesterday’s tasks, she never had the opportunity to reach forward for success.
If you want to have a successful life, you should be so far ahead of the pack that you are making news rather than reading yesterday’s news. Success comes with responsibility, and you have to be willing to work a little harder to get to the front of the line. Keeping up with yesterday is worthless. To achieve success you have to create the future.
Your assignment today is to stop procrastinating. If there is any part of your life right now where you are behind, take the extra time you need to catch up. Don’t start anything new until you complete old business. You will get a huge amount of satisfaction out of tying up your loose ends and taking responsibility for completing your jobs. Then you can move forward and focus on the future uninhibited.
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Do you think that you’ll change your life after something else happens? You want success, but you envision it happening down the road a ways. The conditions need to be just right. You’ll start that new business after the kids go off to college. You’ll talk to your boss about a raise right after you complete a project. You plan to start dating again . . . after you lose ten pounds.
Stop waiting. This is the moment for change, and you have the power to do it. You control your destiny. Thousands of choices are made every day—by you—that lead you toward success or away from it. It is true that you are completely powerless over other people, places, and things, but you do have the power to alter your own destiny, and there is no point in waiting. Work with or around or over or under the circumstances that you face, but never lose sight of your destiny.
Your job today is to do something. You have no excuse to wait until tomorrow. Take this moment to change your life. Don’t even open your journal today. Your assignment is not to write about your goals and dreams. Your job is to get out there and start working toward them. What can you do to use the power you have within you to change your destiny today? There are a number of actions to take. Pick one and take action. You have done a lot of writing about things you can do to achieve success. Now you have to stop dreaming and start doing.
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Tomorrow I’ll eat better; tomorrow I’ll go to the gym; tomorrow I’ll sign up for that computer class; tomorrow I’ll apologize to my spouse for the way I treated him or her; tomorrow I’ll work more and surf the Internet less. Sound familiar?
Tomorrow never comes.
Today is your reality check. You almost never do all those things you plan to do “tomorrow.” Procrastination is a trickster. It helps you feel comfortable with complacency. It lets you be lazy. Procrastination is a liar, too. It talks you into thinking that you are taking action by planning to take action on a future date. Not true. That date will never come. Planning is not doing. You are no closer to your goals if you say you will do something tomorrow. Your intentions don’t carry any weight at all in the real world. If you have a heart attack today, it doesn’t matter that you intended to get to the gym and eat better “tomorrow” for years.
You have to fight your impulse to procrastinate with everything you’ve got if you want to move forward in life. If you want to stay right where you are, then feel free to put off the actions that might bring you success. It’s your choice. Remember, you have the power and no one else.
Watch yourself today. What are you putting off until tomorrow? What are you actually getting done? Evaluate whether you are moving forward or standing still. Don’t forget that tomorrow never comes.
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