Posted June 9, 2008
“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” - Hebrews 12:1
Procrastination is expensive. I mean literally, it makes you poorer. You know this. I know this. But do we always act is if we do? What long-term rewards do slip through our grasp because we caved to the short-term, short-lived pleasure of instant gratification.
I’ve been taught this lesson many times over the course of a few decades, but a recent event hammered it home for me, I’m hoping this time for good.
To make a long story short, I had let a few, uh… administrative details on the car slip by for a bit too long. Every time the thought crossed my mind to send in the required forms and a check, something more fun or pressing always had a way of bogarting to the front. As a result, getting into my car and driving anyplace had become an exercise in controlled paranoia. Would today be the day that some billy bad-ass cop decided to pull me over and give me a hard time?
Well, that day did come indeed. I went through the usual stages of denial, grief and anger at the incredibly inane police checkpoint – which was clogging up a busy thorofare during morning rush hour and apparently nabbing scores of other auto paperwork procrastinators. Contractors, some professionals and executive looking types. You know, the ne’er-do-wells who form the backbone of the community. But no one who appeared to be an actual threat to the public. Ah, our tax dollars at work.
Anyway, the final emotional coming-to-grips stage of this whole affair for me was acceptance. And actually gratitude, for the gift of learning this lesson and escaping with such a relative slap on the wrist. Yes, my fines totaled close to $200, but it could have been worse – they did let me drive away.
So where’s all this going? Well, Ticketgate, as I now refer to it, gave me a wake-up call to stop lollygagging on the things that are easy to put off today. Because as you know, today becomes tomorrow, becomes next year… before you know it, you’re looking at the satiny insides of a steel box.
That weekend, I blew through a copy of the book, The Now Habit (A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play, by Neil Fiore, Ph.D. This book, by the way, had been sitting on a bookstand in my living room for close to two years, its cover collecting dust , its virginal pages safe from my disinterested eyes. But reading it was a truly transformational experience. It got me to taking a mental inventory of all the things I want and need to do but either couldn’t start, or couldn’t finish, because of the mental blocks causing my procrastination. A partial list of my deferred plans:
Train to get back into competitive bodybuilding
Write and publish some books
Save enough to go on a real vacation
Fix that leaky gutter
Get rid of some clutter on eBay
Start looking into getting more education
Invest more, and more wisely
Fiore, a licensed psychologist, gives some empowering explanations for and solutions to the chronic problem some of us have of “putting off till tomorrow.”
Here are a few key points I found particularly helpful:
If you habitually procrastinate, it doesn’t make you lazy or unworthy. It’s actually quite natural to want to procrastinate, in the hopes that someone else will take care of the problem or that the passage of time will make it a non-issue. (Problem is, it often doesn’t work out that way, like with taking care of your body, filing your taxes, keeping your registration and insurance up to date, etc.)
Instead of saying “I have to, should do, or must do X,” say “I CHOOSE to do X.” Where “X” equals some long-delayed, necessary task. This subtle change in word choice makes a HUGE difference to your subconscious mind, putting you in control. Saying it the other ways, like most of us have been trained to think, makes you feel as if you lack control. It’s as if you’re a resistant mule being dragged someplace you can’t stand to go.
Schedule your “play.” According to Fiore, the highest achievers are NOT the workaholics who see their friends and family once a year. But rather, those people who’ve developed the ability to chip away at large projects right from the start – and “force” themselves to play on the weekends, holidays and vacations.
If you have trouble finishing what you started, it may be a “fear of finishing.” Specifically, the fear that if you finish, you’ll open up a whole can of worms you’re not equipped to deal with – greater responsibilities, big demands on your time and attention, etc. Fiore makes the interesting point that this is why many Hollywood stars self-immolate at the seeming height of their careers!
Keep on starting. Yes, the task is big, and finishing it may seem impossible, but completing it is merely a series of starts strung together. Focus on starting, rather than on finishing.
There’s much more to this powerful little book; I plan to read it again. The first time delivered some real turbocharged results, and I’m wagering the second run will uncover important nuggets I missed on the first pass. My own observation: It’s critical to make a distinction between “activity” and “achievement.” In other words, just because you’re busy doesn’t mean you’re doing what will yield you the best long-term results. I’m talking about the “Pareto Principle.” The notion that 20 percent of the things you do give you 80 percent of the results you want in life.
That other 80 percent of your activities, then, need careful consideration of whether they’re really necessary or if you can assign them to someone else.
Author Tim Ferriss calls this doing of miscellaneous stuff, just to feel busy, “Procrasterbating.” It may feel good to do it, but it doesn’t have any real long-term value. For instance, vacuuming instead of sitting down to do your term paper. You might not have vacuumed in months, but it’s one activity you can do with minimal guilt to avoid the pain of starting that paper.
So if you want big results, avoid procrasterbation. Make time to play. CHOOSE to do the work (it’s actually not bad once you start). As Pat Croce says, “stop ‘shoulding’ on yourself … instead, kick the ‘should’ out of yourself.” And remember to Keep on Starting.
