How many things do you have in your head that you’re planning on getting to? You may tell yourself you’ll get to them tomorrow, or in a few days, or a week, or a month? Perhaps instead of time, it’s based more on events. You tell yourself you’ll get to it as soon as you finish a certain project at work. Maybe you like to base your event doing on earning a certain amount of money or when your kids reach a certain age…or you more often wait to do things until you reach a certain age? Why do so many of us put things off? There are definitely things in our lives that we decide we want to do-and we do them. There are things that aren’t on a waiting list! If we want to eat something we like eating, more often than not, we’re eating it. If we wish to go to a movie, or a concert, or a play-we get a ticket. If we want to see a friend or a relative, we don’t usually say, I’ll do it in a month or after I finish this project. Ok, If the friend lives far away and it takes planning, that does happen. But those plans materialize. The more important difference is once that month ends or you finish the project, you actually will be rushing to do the thing(s) you had intended to do. Those “very special” other things are on another “very special” list…those things some how don’t get done. Those things we procrastinate about doing! Why? Most of the time it’s those things that we don’t really want to do. It’s something that’s keeping us from doing those things. If you really think about it; most of the time it’s those things we fear doing. If we fear doing them, then it’s not a problem to keep putting them off. If you tell yourself in the next two weeks you’re going to have more time to go the gym and then you’ll start to work on your goal of losing 10 lbs, that seems like a great plan and a great goal. Many of us have heard about or made a similar type of plan. That time comes and something else comes up. What comes up? It could be you’re too busy at work and there aren’t enough hours in the day. It could be that you went a couple of times and then twinged a muscle in your neck and lost your impetus to go. But what about the plan? It could be you felt or are feeling you didn’t or don’t have the proper workout clothes, or the weather hasn’t been good enough to get to the gym. It could be anything. If you want to find a reason not to do something, you will find it. Likewise, if we want to find a reason to do something we can find it. The reason we may not be going to the gym is we’re afraid we won’t meet our goal of losing weight. Postponement is a terrific way of never really knowing what will actually happen. Some things in our lives aren’t so easily postponed. Something like the gym is quite easy to postpone. Some things we don’t want to postpone. Then there are the things we choose to postpone because whether we realize it or not…the choice of postponement seems better. Suppose you took the pressure off yourself? What if you readjusted your expectations to find your inner balance? Our own choices may be filled with inner demons, they prod us to compare ourselves to others, they tell us we’re not good enough, they make us feel we’ll never be able to accomplish what we set out to do. Using the gym as an example: what if instead of going the gym to lose 10 lbs, it was instead to feel more energetic…stronger… or even youthful? Or instead of choosing the gym you decided to walk or take a pilates class?
What things in your life are you putting off? Why? Readjust!
What are your thoughts?