We all have dreams and goals that we believe will make our lives blessed. But, we can be our own enemies by procrastinating on our dreams.
Procrastination or putting off what can be done now in the future is common. When life holds so many pleasures like watching movies that you love and eating mouthwatering snacks like Oreo covered sundaes, then what could motivate you to act on dreams?
But before putting a bandaid on a problem, look at the problem behind seeking short-term pleasures in front of taking the next action on your dreams.
This can be a bit challenging because we tend to run from feeling terrible about ourselves.
I ask you to pause for once and really understand why you procrastinate. Because when you do know why, you can solve the real issue causing you to put off your dreams.
I did this exercise over three days and I did not realize the multitude of excuses I tend to come up with to promote my procrastinating behaviors. My only consolation is that I’m quite creative with my excuses.
Nevertheless, here’s my list of reasons why I procrastinate. Read through and see which one apply to you. If you have a different excuse from what appears on this list, post it in the comments and I will update this list.
- I was bored and I just could not force myself to do boring work.
- I was tired and needed sleep.
- I was stressed out by my boss and could not focus on my goals.
- My husband stressed me out and I could not focus on taking actions on my goals.
- My assistants needed work from me. These were urgent and I could not make time for my long-term goals.
- I was overwhelmed with the magnitude of the goal and the new skills I had to learn to accomplish it.
- I was afraid that what I put out will not be good enough so I never started.
- I was uncertain about how to proceed…will the action I take produce results?
- My office (or home) was too cold/ too hot to concentrate.
- My family needed me.
- I needed to read more.
- I had to wash all the wares and clothes in the house before getting started on the action for my long-term goal.
- My belly was too full with food to write this blog post and my brain was deprived of blood to think at all 😁.
- My niece was coming to visit so I had to clean the entire apartment from top to bottom.
- Covid-19 made me a hermit and I needed to socialize and get a nice cold long island iced tea in a decent bar.
We admire others who take the action on their dreams and console ourselves with poorly written destinies.
But, you don’t have to give up your dreams. I beg you not too because you can’t fix something if you are not aware of the real problem.
I think you got the gist…we can come up with a multitude of excuses to procrastinate on our dreams and goals.
So, take a few days and repeat this exercise of listing the reasons for procrastinating on your dreams.
I will see you in the next week with one way how you can address all of the above and more reasons behind our tendency to procrastinate.
