WHEN PROCRASTINATION CALLS

I heard the telephone ring. It woke me out of a deep sleep—sleep I badly needed. This wasn’t the first time the telephone had woken me, either. I pulled the covers over my head. I knew who the call was from and what it was about. The caller was from a Mr. PROCRASTINATION. I had made up my mind not to answer that call anymore. I had finished allowing PROCRASTINATION to control my life.

Here's what procrastination has done to me. You see, at one time, I had a list of realistic goals I planned to achieve. I had some great ideas. I just couldn’t get started. Inaction is no action. Nothing got done. It immobilized me. Procrastination caused my ambitions to decline. I lost my motivation. It was embarrassing not to be accomplishing anything. I desired to change the course of my actions. I couldn’t get out of my own way.

?Have any of you experienced this? If you are stuck there, rest assured that all is not lost. Procrastination doesn’t have to hold you down or back. I might add, too, that having a desire to change is useless until you have an action plan to do so.?

Procrastination is a thing of the past now. I whipped it. I sent him running.? I had a plan, I used the PAW method.?

PAUSE: First, I had to learn to Pause my thoughts, actions, and life. I had to collect myself and get the proper perspective. I had to take a deep breath.?

AWARE: Second, I had to become aware and understand clearly what the underlying cause of my pain was. At its core, procrastination was nothing more than fear.?

WILLPOWER: I summoned the willpower to set and commit to achieving obtainable goals. This can be tough because our reptilian brain strives to avoid pain to survive. If you allow it to control you, it is destructive.? There are three practical ways to attack this: 1) reduce the pain of getting started, 2) increase the pain of not moving forward, and 3) accept and fight through it.?

Asking yourself some questions can significantly help you, as they were to me then and remain so today. Questions can give you answers to help you get moving, making it more painful to do nothing. You know the answers to these questions:

• What pain am I causing by not doing anything?
• How is my inaction impacting my future?
• What is it costing me to continue doing nothing in the long run?
• Is my inaction making me a stronger person or a weaker person?

Another step that helped me was breaking my goals into workable parts, “baby steps” if you will. Doing this reduces any pain you might still be encountering. As you break your goals into manageable steps, procrastination will leave you. Each time you achieve a baby step, your confidence level increases exponentially. You will have a different mindset about your goal. This will be the catalyst to jump-start you into action.?

The bottom line was that I had to face the truth about any fear I had about achieving my goals. Until you can eliminate fear, step out boldly, take action, and do this honestly, confidently, and with a doable plan of action, you will never get rid of procrastination’s hold on you. This hold is like a ball and chain around your foot. It weighs you down. It doesn’t want you to have a purpose or be intentional with your life.

This is how I eliminated procrastination from my life. You can do the same. I believe in you. You can chase procrastination out of your life. Understand that Mr. PROCRASTINATION will look for the right time to call you again; don’t answer the phone. Is your telephone ringing right now? I see you reaching for your cell phone. Please don’t answer it. Answering will take you places you don’t need to go and keep you there longer than you need to. Don’t give procrastination a place in your life. He means you no good. You don’t have to learn the hard way—by experience.?

Please take my word on this. I would never lead you astray.

When procrastination calls, remember, YOU HAVE A CHOICE!

Courtesy of Dr. Ormond Wimberly Jr., Ph. D. occasionally contributes to the Master Coach Dan blog community.