BITE THE BULLET
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today” — I wish I had written this line but alas! They are the words of the great american president Abraham Lincoln. So what exactly are we going to talk about here in this article? Is this going to be yet another article about the so often over-emphasized and over sensitized “misvirtue” of PROCRASTINATION? I’m afraid it is but to add to it, it is going to address the deeper problems that come embedded with it. The English dictionary describes Procrastination as “the action of delaying or postponing something”. We in this article will try to delve into why one does that and how one would be better off by perhaps not doing it.
First of all let me safely declare that we are all procrastinators in one way or the other. Difference is some of us if fortunate manage to finish what we have to before others. That just makes some of us look better than others.
Have you ever wondered why we defer doing something that we ourselves have decided to do in the first place? Isn’t that paradoxical and rather hypocrite? It surely is not the lack of motivation because had it been so, you would not have taken up the task in the first place. It is the fear of failure, fear of having to go through a reality check. Think about it-the delusion that you have created for yourself is so comforting that you don’t want to get out of it. It is as good as calling a watch water resistant when as a matter of fact it has never even come close to water. Sure its a water proof watch but what business does a watch have to be in water in the first place right!
Take my writing exercise for example. I always knew that I could write and I always wanted to find an expression through my writing in form of a blog/articles. However, I did not do it for the longest time. Sure I had excuses for it- I was busy with the more “real” stuff, I did not have the time, etc. but the truth is that I perhaps was not ready. I was scared of how my writing would be perceived by the so many people I’d have to personally recommend it to and what if it didn’t create the magic I expected it to. It would probably mean that I’m not as good a writer as I thought I was. This fear however would never let me know how awful I was either. Basically it would have never helped.
Now to the more disturbing aspect of this evil- INACTION. Can you recall that feeling within you when you are inquired for the umpteenth time by one of your parent, your partner or your colleague if the particular task/ responsibility that you took up was done? Can you identify that toxic feeling which suddenly makes your chest heavy and your heart rate hits the roof? You are obviously infuriated to a point where you just snap back at the person. Your first response is that to be evasive and depending on the relationship with that person you answer back for being shown how inefficient you are or you quietly and helplessly try to deal with the storm stirring within you. Regardless you are frustrated. You are not frustrated because this person showed you that you are incapable. Instead you are frustrated because you are GUILTY of INACTION. Inaction is a vacuum that only creates hopelessness,resentment and self hatred. It is the only thing worse than actually failing.
Broadly speaking we have two kinds of goals in life that we set for ourselves- I call them the outer and inner goals. Outer goals are the ones we complete for the world’s validation of us. They are almost always time bound and have deadlines that one needs to adhere to. Finishing an assignment for example or preparing for that end semester review is an outer goal. In such cases most of the times one manages to pull off the work though the quality of the goal achieved is inversely proportional to the level of procrastination. When it comes to inner goals however we are not so lucky. Whether it is that fitness goal, the business expansion plan, that team meeting that has been on your mind or the relationship issues that need discussion. These are not time bound and hence do not find a sense of urgency in your check lists, while ironically they are the ones having a direct impact on your day to day life and thought processes.
Fear of shaking things up, having to get out of your comfort zone make you want to be just where you are. Let us invoke the great Abraham Lincoln once again to answer this one — “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today”!
Procrastinators are bitten by the bug of immediate gratification. They tend to choose tasks that are simpler and have immediate rewards and defer the more difficult ones for “later”. Unfortunately this becomes a way of life for them. It only makes way for more anxiety, fear, stress and guilt making the person live in self doubt and despair.
Assuming what I said is true- that all of us are procrastinators it becomes very important to then understand the impact of the extent to which doing something is delayed. If it is something entrepreneurial in nature for example one will clearly lose the beginners’s advantage. Can you imagine if Einstein had waited another day to publish his Theory of Relativity? The point I am trying to make is we all hate getting in uncomfortable situations but the best way to get things done would be to think of all the amazing things that will happen to you and all the good feelings you are going to feel once you have done what you had to as opposed to thinking of all the embarrassment and shame you will go through if things don’t turn out the way you have imagined. For the not so significant actions that will not have such a huge impact on your life but you have to do them anyway- like sending a update via e-mail to your team, remind yourself about inaction and the impact it will have on your inner self. It should help you decide wisely and over time you will see a new habit of doing things when they’re supposed to be done enveloping you.
Now whether you want to be that dynamic fearless individual who’d rather bite the bullet or be the person who waits for the bullet to bite him is a choice you have to make-Will you make it now or will you make it later?
