What Would Happen If You Stopped Procrastinating?
Short answer: You’d finally finish that book. Long answer: It depends.
Procrastination is a drug we all get hooked on every once in a while. It’s also hard to say no to, especially when it’s backed up by several bouts of innate laziness. Take my situation for example: Since January, I’ve been working on a novel and it’s coming on quite nicely. And now, I’m using these frequent Medium posts to put off further writing my book.
I haven’t written a single word in two days. I don’t know what it is; the writing well is pretty much tapped out at the moment. But in all my years of writing, if there’s one thing I have realized, it’s that we always wait to have a feeling or some form of inspiration before we do something when it’s actually the other way around.
Just do it
Don’t sit around wondering how you can do it or when you can. Just go ahead and do it. The more you wait to deliberate whether it can or cannot be done, the more time you’re spending not doing anything productive. Now, some of you might say, “Well, you’re one to talk. You’re doing this instead of working on your book.”
Well, maybe. But at least I’m being productive by writing this out to you so you can learn how to be productive as well. I see you sitting on that ottoman in your sheepskin robe, judging me. Hop to it!
Failure isn’t real
If you quote me to your lecturer, I will deny ever saying this. But, really, we need to take a chill pill. How can we move forward without first stumbling? How can we learn and know we are right if we cannot make mistakes? What is the collective noun for monkeys? (Seriously, does anyone know what it is? I’ve been thinking about it all day… Anybody?)
We take failure too seriously and it’s the reason why the lot of us are afraid to even try. We keep putting one thing or another away for another time not because we have something better or more fulfilling to accomplish but just because we don’t want to see the looks on other people’s faces (and even ours!) when we don’t do very well. How is that of any balderdashing importance?
What’s important is you getting out there and taking the entire world by the cojones regardless of what anyone else thinks. And, more often than not, regardless of what you may think as well.
So, whatever it is that you do; writing, singing, eating corn on the cob whilst staring into the middle distance, just do it.
And the collective noun for monkeys is not ‘gang’, by the way. I know that’s what you were thinking.
