Why do people procrastinate?
June 3rd, 2006Michael: “Time Saver! In a hurry, but want to know more? Grab a copy of Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
Imagine the following… You’ve set yourself up to achieve a goal, perform a task, or … Learn a language. You start ambitiously, but after a few days you see that you haven’t achieved your goal at all. Stuff got in the way, there were other more important things to do, you felt you needed some rest after a hard day’s work, etc…
You’ve fallen victim to the silent killer: procrastination. And there’s nothing you can do about it, you simply can’t make all things happen. You have to live with it. Better luck next time.
WRONG. You can defeat this silent killer. The only thing you need, is to realize why you procrastinate. It’s not because you don’t want to achieve your goal; it’s because there’s something else that gets your attention first. Something that gives you more pleasure than sitting down and taking out your text books (”I’d really like to see that next LOST episode now!”), or something that causes less pain than looking up those foreign words (”Did I hear the doorbell? I have to answer the phone!”).
In a nutshell: people tend to move away from pain rather than move towards pleasure. Why do people don’t quit smoking? Because the pain of stopping (”it will hurt now”) is stronger than the benefit of a better physical condition (”I’m in fairly good shape already”).
So what do the Pros do? One of their approaches: they realize that they only procrastinate to avoid pain. So they act immediately. They do something, regardless how small, that brings them closer to that goal. Instead of closing their text books, they start doing at least one exercise, get “connected” and get one step closer to their goal.
The cost of procrastination:
- Unachieved goals
- Feelings of failure
- Frustration
The benefits of acting now:
- You’ll achieve your goals
- You will be successful
- You’ll impress other people
The quick way to start becoming a Pro:
- Decide what you want to achieve (this sets your goal)
- Ask yourself why you want to achieve it (this motivates you)
- Do the first (small or big) step right away (this will get you going)
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Do you want to learn more about this? Anthony Robbins has written some great stuff about this. I thoroughly recommend one of the following products:
And, if you really want to take a step to improve your life, and if you are willing to invest 30 days (one or two hours per day) to make it happen:
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