Motivation Monday: Procrastination, The Thief Of Destiny!

To procrastinate is to delay your destiny. It is one of the things that stop people from achieving their utmost best in life and prevents them from maximising their potentials to add value to their world. 

Procrastination simply means to put off, lay off or postpone an important act or event that should be done in a particular time. This is one of the areas that affect many of us time after time. Procrastinate is worse than a thief. It is like an arm rubber, rubbing you of everything you have. It has the ability to steal, kill and destroy its victim’s destiny.  

In order to be successful in life as you chisel the gold out of your mine, you need to be able to stand against anything that may make you procrastinate.  

Procrastination is one of the easy ways we get stuck and never achieve our goals and dreams in life. Putting things off can have greater implications on your success than you can imagine. 

Procrastination is the platform for failure and disappointment-Mind the Gap: 

There are many reasons why some people put things off or postpone. However, if one is not disciplined enough, failure will creep in. When people lack motivation and will-power to achieve something great, they tend to put things off.  

This may be as a result of failure or rejection from loved ones and friends which may sometimes discourage them from taking action on specific tacks or projects. In fact, what differentiates a successful person from a failure is that successful individuals have the ability to recognize what, when, where, why and how to do something to add value to people around them.  

A failure, on the other hand, may not even acknowledge that time is ticking away but leaves everything to time and chance. Whatever and wherever you may want to get, you have the power to get there through the grace of God available to all mankind. Until you begin to take some action to fight any form of procrastination, this habit will only steal your opportunities, damage your career and pride or destroy your relationships and ministries. 

‘Procrastination is the thief of time’- Edward Young 

The word of God made an account in the book of Proverbs chapter 6:1-11; encouraging us to observe and acquire some vital knowledge from the ant – “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise.” 

The ant has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. 

“How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.” Proverbs 6:1-1 

Sluggards are those who always enjoy saying ‘I will do it later, give me more time to rest’ Each and every one of us faces the temptation to procrastinate, thinking we can do something later on and forget that the next thing to come to us is laziness. 

The way things are going in the world today and the pressure to meet all demands may pose problems, especially family lives, college, work, business meetings to attend, and others are likely to drive you into the habit of procrastination.  

You may be giving excuses like ‘I am waiting for the right time’ or ‘I am not in the right mood’. These are signs of procrastination which you need to check and avoid. Many people have their own reasons for procrastination, so you need to examine yourself to see what makes you feel lazy when it is time to do something very important.  

These habits can be in the form of lack of clear goals, underestimating the difficulty of tasks and not being aware of the time required to complete them.  

One of the main reasons people tend to procrastinate is that they do not have a clear understanding of a particular task, and sometimes think it has been imposed on them by somebody. Often the fear of failure or of success is the reason people are limited in getting to their desired destiny. 

In his book, ‘How to defeat procrastination’, Steven Cutler explained that procrastination is behavioural problems which most of the time, people suffer without realizing it is already ‘eating them alive’. 

Procrastination can make you unproductive, stressed and guilty about the things you failed to do. More importantly, it can cause people around you to dismiss you as uncooperative and obstructive to the group’s progress. This now affects your social relations. 

It is a sad fact that many of us have the tendency to procrastinate. Even though it is something that is regarded as unhelpful or even harmful, it may be very hard to find the strength within not to yield to its temptation. 

However, keep in mind that overcoming procrastination is possible. It can be easy and is highly recommended to cast out procrastination from your system if you are serious in getting to your destiny. 

“You may delay, but time will not”-Benjamin Franklin 

Not able to meet deadlines due to procrastination can easily cause so much stress to your health and put unnecessary strain on your relationships. This can also affect the way your immune system’s function and increase your risk of infectious diseases especially when you need to take positive steps to keep healthy.   

I have personally discovered that whenever I decide to put things off and not deal with them at the time I have to; I end up doing more work than I initially wished, causing more stress for me considering the huge workload that needs to be completed. 

Funny enough, I just wish that I could just close my eyes and open them to find all my work miraculously done for me, but this is not possible in real life. Some level of stress is good for us human beings but, too much of it can land you in a mental hospital.  

In order to get more out of life and be successful in whatever you do, it is very important that you take control over things and never allow things to get over you. For example, you need to take control over your financial spending and bails to avoid getting into more debts with your financial services. 

Not only does putting things off affect our successful life, but can also have a greater effect on physical health, which can then affect the way we work to generate positive results in whatever we are destined to do.  

Sometimes, I have seen some clients at Accident and Emergency who have postponed their appointment with the General Practice following a slight headache and end in the A/E with more severe complications. 

As a healthcare worker, I have also noticed that, sometimes, workload and case work can contribute to why people put things off. This can have a serious consequence on the quality of care provided to patients and damage our working relationship with other working colleagues. If you are not careful, the effects of procrastination can have damaging consequences on your life. This is the more reason why you need to do everything to avoid putting off as much as possible. 

Planning ahead is one of the antidotes for procrastination. It can help organize your day and your busy schedule. To be able to be all that the Lord has called you to be and get to your destiny, planning ahead is a great way to prioritize and schedule those events and activities in a strategic manner. 

No matter how busy your life, work, family and children make you, you still need to plan ahead. 

Don’t wait until the last minute. Maybe you see others procrastinating until the last minute, and it makes you worry that things will never get done in time. Regardless of which of these profiles suits you, planning helps everyone work together while still getting everything done in a team. 

From the passage we read in Proverbs 6:1-11, we discovered that the ants always plan ahead. We learned that they gather their food in preparation for the winter. They work hard during the summer when food supplies are abundant and enjoy them during the winter when supplies are scarce. 

Do you know when your ‘summer’ and your ‘winter’ seasons are, to gather the things you may need when the time arises? Do you know when to work or study hard and when you need to rest? Have you planned for the future? Have you done your best in whatever you are doing at the moment? Are you studying hard to get a job in the future, to work hard for your savings, to serve God wholeheartedly for your ‘heavenly investment?’ 

Did you know that effective planning saves hours of headache and worries? Planning ahead helps you overcome hours of confusion and gives you enough energy to tackle tasks, helping you to maximize your full potentials to step into your desired future. 

Anybody who is addicted to planning is able to maintain focus on specific objectives and direct resources on the most important things in creating their sure future. Know that whatever you do now will not be in vain, no matter how silly or irrelevant it may seem to you. 

Maybe you are working part time in a restaurant, or maybe you are studying something that you think is unrelated to your course; whatever it may be, God can always change and turn things around for you. 

Procrastination will always keep your destiny in stagnation. 

In my quest for success,  I have discovered that people are not always what they claimed to be around us, especially when it comes to our dreams and vision. 

They will try to put some limitations or hindrances across your path, just to make you lose the fire within you to achieve your goals in life. This can easily cause you to procrastinate. Therefore, it is to your credit to know that some individuals can be very mean to you and you must adopt a zero tolerance to their meanness. 

Take actions to set your mind against having self-pity when hard time and difficult times comes to you. Negative people will always make you feel down and pitiful. Remember that, we all have and make our mind up on the things we like or dislike in life; so, you are responsible for your own action when it comes to your successful life. 

Stop giving negative people the credit to limit or pollute your desire for success, and motivate yourself to pursue your aspirations without procrastinating it. 

Begin to have priorities and set time to accomplish a goal in life by hanging around with people who take delight in what you do and are ready to motivate and inspire you to discover, develop and deploy your inner strength to get the best out of life. Whatever it is, plan ahead and be organized in order to take actions to fulfil your destiny.