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Wayne Dyer has said, “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” He calls it a disease, but if it is, it is a disease that can be totally avoided and it can be cured. If you tend to procrastinate, have you ever calculated the toll that procrastination takes on your life?
Procrastinators tend to say things like: “I do my best work under pressure.” Or “I just have trouble getting started.” You can find all kinds of excuses for procrastinating, but you’ll have to admit that procrastination creates many problems for you. Here are some of the reasons people procrastinate; see if you can identify with any of them:
- We procrastinate because we’re simply lazy.
- We put things off when we’re facing an unpleasant task or something we just don’t enjoy doing.
- We procrastinate when the task seems overwhelming—too big.
- We procrastinate when we feel insecure about how to do it or we’re afraid of failing.
- We procrastinate because we don’t know how to get started.
If you struggle with procrastination, I want to strongly encourage you to make this a matter of serious prayer and determine how you’re going to break the bad habit. First, identify where you tend to procrastinate the most and ask yourself why. God says he’ll give us wisdom if we ask for it, so ask for wisdom from God to show you what’s causing you to put things off so much.
Then, set some rules and guidelines for yourself to help break that bad habit. Here is one quick cure for procrastination: Whatever you have to do today that you don’t want to do, do it first. I tell you, this works! I use it all the time. Often we procrastinate on the things we just don’t like to do. But once you get those done, it frees up the rest of the day for you and increases your energy and motivation for other tasks.
As long as that unpleasant task hangs over your head, you mentally slow down because subconsciously you realize that the faster you work, the sooner you’ll be forced to do the unpleasant job. Or you’ll manufacture other busy work to avoid getting to that thing you don’t want to do.
This one simple discipline could be life-changing for you. I urge you to give it a try. It will bring you great freedom and reduce your stress.