Thursday, October 10, 2013

Day Ten- Letting Go of Procrastination




“Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.”  ~Spanish Proverb

I can totally relate to this statement because I am often guilty of putting things off until tomorrow.  Consequently, my to-do list for tomorrow is a mile long! Perhaps you can relate, as well. So why do we procrastinate? 

We each have our own reasons. Avoiding an unpleasant task, lack of motivation (a.k.a. laziness), or fear of failure are common issues. However, I think the overall issue is that procrastination is deceptive.  We buy into the lie that as long as we are going to eventually do something, then everything will be ok. Sounds nice, but life doesn’t really work that way. As my father-in-law likes to say, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” The longer we put things off, the more they stack up. We begin to feel overwhelmed, anxious, and probably a bit cranky. The to-do list simply grows, but it doesn’t go away.

When I was in college I often described myself as being one of those people who worked well under pressure. I liked to think that I did my best work when under the threat of an extremely close deadline.  In reality, I simply lacked the self-discipline to stay focused and do the work without all of that pressure to motivate me. Boy, was I deceived! Now that I know better, I try to do better. It is definitely a challenging process.

Procrastination steals our time, steals our peace, and steals our joy. The good news is that we can have victory in this area! We can create a new habit of taking care of things right away. What have you been putting off until tomorrow? Be brave and deal with it today!

“So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” ~Ephesians 5:15-17

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