Kill procrastination stone dead!

Procrastination is a killer. It kills your progress. It stops your advances dead in their tracks. It takes your goals and strangles them slowly. It puts your dreams to death, and it does it in a sly, stealthy way, like the silent, mindless killer that it is.

Procrastination is putting things off till tomorrow. And that’s where it gets tricky. We think we can get away with putting things off till tomorrow, but it doesn’t quite work like that. There is no tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. When the next day dawns, it’s NOW again. It’s always NOW. That’s all there ever is. NOW.

The past is dead and gone. And I do mean dead. It has no power. You can achieve nothing whatsoever in the past. You can relive it in your mind, if you care to, and you can imagine all kinds of ways you could have done certain things differently. Oh yes, you can spend a long and fruitless time playing what-if, if you think it will do you any good, but I can promise you it won’t get you anywhere. The past isn’t just gone, it’s DEAD and gone. It can’t be changed. Unless you have access to a time machine, and the ability to use it effectively.

The past is dead and gone and there’s nothing you can do about it. Get used to the idea.

The future is just a dream, for now. You can plan for the future, and you should do, but don’t get hung up on endlessly picking over your plans, hoping to improve and finalise them. That’s another minefield. You think you can keep working on your plans, but it’s just procrastination dressed up as something else. It comes in various disguises, and this is just another of them. You trick yourself into thinking that you’re using your time wisely, but you’re just treading water. Nothing’s really happening. You’re going nowhere. And when it dawns on you, you realise you’ve stepped into another man-trap.

The only time is NOW!

The past is gone, you can’t change it. The future is yet to come, you can only change it by planning … and, oh yeah, by one other thing … taking action! The past and the future both stretch endlessly away from you, in opposite directions, but the only point in time where you actually have any power is this very moment. Right now, today, you can change things. This is literally the only time you have, and the only point in time you can control.

Don’t kid yourself that you can change things ‘in the future’. Can’t be done. Get busy, do it now! You won’t be able to do everything now, obviously, but you can start. And that means a lot. Make a start, and things take off almost magically. It’s like lighting kindling … before you know it, you’ve got a fire on your hands!

Stop living in the past … or the future

So stop living in the past, it’s a mug’s game (and take it from a mug, I’ve done it too many times and for too long, so I know what I’m talking about). And stop living in the future. That’s like living in your dreams. Dreams are great, they can get you all fired up and ready for action, but they’re no place to settle down. You have to live in the one place you can control, and that’s HERE AND NOW. Anywhere else is kidding yourself.

Don’t take yourself for a mug. Get real! You know as well as I do that procrastination is a silent killer, and it’s more deadly than the plague. If you want something, get busy now and DO IT. Anything else is a joke. Even with the best will in the world, and the fanciest plans, without taking action they’re not worth a balloon.

The remedy: TAKE ACTION!

You want to put an end to procrastination? Then make it a habit to TAKE ACTION, every single day, and start working on that habit right now. Doesn’t matter how small that action is, just as long as it’s moving you in the right direction. Whatever it is you want to achieve, break it down into smaller parts, then start on the first one, or, if you’re already on the move, start on the next one. But always TAKE ACTION. That’s literally the only way to make progress. And the only antidote to the deadly and silent killer that we call procrastination. Pity it doesn’t have a nastier name, then it might be easier to really get worked up over it. But still, recognise it for what it is and get yourself very, very angry at it. This killer needs to be stopped in its tracks, and you have the power to do it. All you have to do is TAKE ACTION.

Remember, you don’t have to get it right … you just have to get it going. 😉