Yup, I excel at putting things off until tomorrow or the next day or the next week or the next year.
#4 on the list of things that you must give up to move forward is I must give up procrastinating on the goals that matter to me. Part of the definition of moving forward is reaching for your goals. As I mentioned yesterday the first issue is knowing what my goals are in the first place. I know in goal ridden societies the concept that you have no goals drives some people crazy. The idea that 20 years ago my goal for the day was to get out of bed. Two goals would be get out of bed and get dressed...now that was a fantastic day.
I actually did a bit of research on my procrastinating disposition....one possibility I learned from Flylady, if I couldn't do things perfectly why should I start. Flylady introduced me to the real perils of being immobilized by fear of not doing everything perfectly. This is a link to one of Flylady's posts on perfectionism and procrastination.
http://www.flylady.net/d/br/2012/09/27/flying-through-perfectionprocrastination-and-crisis/
I admire Flylady and she helps many people get a handle on house work and cleaning up your life. I don't follow her as closely as I used to because I was overwhelmed by her emails. Plus her 15 minute routines quickly turned in to 2 to 3 hours a day of doing far more housework than I wanted to do. However, should you be interested in getting a handle on house cleaning, mount wash more, and other organizational skills she is one lady that teaches from her own experience.
I realized that I am lacking a number of skills when it comes to goal setting. A biggy is that I can think up in 10 minutes more than I can accomplish in 10 years. I am interested in so many things that I find sticking to just one difficult. I get easily bored and don't want to finish a project. I can hit overload where if any one expects me to do one more thing I will crawl back into my shell until everything goes away. I also joke that I love that whooshing sound when a dead line flies by. Most of the time I come home too tired to do anything but sit immobile in front of the TV and eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I could go on and on and on about all my excuses and silliness over procrastination. The most stunning article I read declared that a person that procrastinates their projects is under committed and not over committed. If I were truly committed to things I valued, then I would make time for them. I am easily distracted and I am still working on this concept, "if I say yes to someone else than I am saying no to myself." To make my dreams and goals come true I need to value them and start heading for my goals. Progress, not perfection. I decided how much is enough. I need to look at all my projects and prioritize them by things I actual do want to accomplish...I think I will do that tomorrow.
1 comment:
Hi Ruth,
I procrastinate too; I realised that I too expected perfection so I wouldn't start. I often stop in the middle of projects and I then would find out that I really never wanted to do it. I've procrastinate a lot that the procrastination becomes a signal that I might not want to really do this. Rather it is a signal to look more closely at the stuff I said Yes too.
I like what you wrote about the concept of 'if I say yes to someone else than I am saying no to myself'. I hadn't looked at it like that before, thank you.
Hugs, TR
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