Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Why We Procrastinate
A person can waste an entire life on procrastination. And when it comes to pursuing our dreams, procrastination makes no sense. Why put off what we ardently want?
Let's look at it through the eyes of Taylor.
Taylor dreams of being able to fire the current boss and have true financial independence. Taylor want it badly enough to almost be able to taste it.
Taylor studies marketing and business techniques relentlessly. There is nothing Taylor wouldn't do to achieve success...
... except take action to achieve that goal.
There are so many preparatory tasks that Taylor keeps finding to do that there's never time to put the plans into action. There's never time to do carry out the strategies that Taylor so dutifully learns.
It's procrastination, pure and simple. But why? No one can say that Taylor isn't motivated. So why do the most important things—the things that actually build the business—always fall to last on the to-do list?
It's because Taylor never lets the dream become reality. Crazy? No. It's a matter of misplaced self-protection.
When you have a dream—especially a powerful dream like Taylor has—it can be a wonderful comfort to enjoy. You are free to see that destination coming together with no flaws or obstacles. It is a beautiful slice of heaven just waiting for that time, sometime in the future, when it will be all yours.
The moment you take steps to get to that destination, reality steps in. That absolute perfection gets tarnished by the fact that things don't naturally come together perfectly.
You find that something doesn't quite fit and you make adjustments. It's not perfect anymore. It sometimes leaves you at disconcerting dead ends.
That dream destination that gives you hope of something better becomes part of the daily struggle. Most people would rather plod through life with a dream that they only go through the motions of pursuing rather than risk it by making it part of their reality.
The dreams we have are really nothing more than seeds. And seeds have to die to do any good. Really. A seed has to die and start to decay before the real plant can grow out of it.
And in the same way, we have to be willing to plant our dreams in the dirt of reality. We have to be willing to let them get stained and let the fantasy of perfection and ease rot away before we start to see any growth into a real business. Only when we take action to make that dream part of our reality can we achieve real success in anything more than our imagination.
Jeff
A person can waste an entire life on procrastination. And when it comes to pursuing our dreams, procrastination makes no sense. Why put off what we ardently want?
Let's look at it through the eyes of Taylor.
Taylor dreams of being able to fire the current boss and have true financial independence. Taylor want it badly enough to almost be able to taste it.
Taylor studies marketing and business techniques relentlessly. There is nothing Taylor wouldn't do to achieve success...
... except take action to achieve that goal.
There are so many preparatory tasks that Taylor keeps finding to do that there's never time to put the plans into action. There's never time to do carry out the strategies that Taylor so dutifully learns.
It's procrastination, pure and simple. But why? No one can say that Taylor isn't motivated. So why do the most important things—the things that actually build the business—always fall to last on the to-do list?
It's because Taylor never lets the dream become reality. Crazy? No. It's a matter of misplaced self-protection.
When you have a dream—especially a powerful dream like Taylor has—it can be a wonderful comfort to enjoy. You are free to see that destination coming together with no flaws or obstacles. It is a beautiful slice of heaven just waiting for that time, sometime in the future, when it will be all yours.
The moment you take steps to get to that destination, reality steps in. That absolute perfection gets tarnished by the fact that things don't naturally come together perfectly.
You find that something doesn't quite fit and you make adjustments. It's not perfect anymore. It sometimes leaves you at disconcerting dead ends.
That dream destination that gives you hope of something better becomes part of the daily struggle. Most people would rather plod through life with a dream that they only go through the motions of pursuing rather than risk it by making it part of their reality.
The dreams we have are really nothing more than seeds. And seeds have to die to do any good. Really. A seed has to die and start to decay before the real plant can grow out of it.
And in the same way, we have to be willing to plant our dreams in the dirt of reality. We have to be willing to let them get stained and let the fantasy of perfection and ease rot away before we start to see any growth into a real business. Only when we take action to make that dream part of our reality can we achieve real success in anything more than our imagination.
Jeff
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