Procrastination
« Everyone is procrastinating on something in life. »
We all have the Rational Decision-Maker,
who will decide to make productive things.
But we also have the Instant Gratification Monkey,
who will just show up and suddenly take over the wheel.
This monkey lives entirely in the present,
it has no memory of the past,
it has no knowledge of the future either,
all it cares about is easy and fun.
Sometimes it’s right, it does make sense to do easy and fun things,
“leisure time” is what it is.
But when leisure time is unearned one can’t even enjoy it,
there is way too much dread, anxiety, self-hatred, and guilt.
Sometimes it’s doing the less pleasant things that makes more sense,
for the sake of the future, the big picture, the long-term plans.
But how do you get to the hard things zone?
Because that’s where the really important things tend to happen.
Well, you wait for the Panic Monster to wake up.
And it does anytime a deadline gets close.
Anytime there is a danger of public embarrassment,
of a career disaster, or of some other scary consequence.
Panic will kick out the monkey
and will make you do the wildest things,
like writing 8 pages in a day
when writing the first sentence took you two weeks.
But if there is no deadline, the monster won’t show up.
It’s the other kind of procrastination, that’s less visible, less talked about.
It’s delaying seeing your family, exercising, taking care of your health,
delaying working on your relationship, making art, being entrepreneurial.
Its effects can extend outward forever.
It can be the source of a huge amount of unhappiness and regrets.
Unless one decides to go out and do the hard work,
and to finally take matters into their own hands.
There is a way to stop being a spectator in life,
there is a way to stop suffering quietly.
There is a way to stop being frustrated
because not being able to even start chasing one’s dreams.
It’s realizing how life short is,
how little time there is really left.
It’s being aware there’s this monkey,
ignoring it and just starting today.
by : antιdrastιc element
based on : Tim Urban’s Ted talk
Inside the mind of a master procrastinator
ιmages credιt : www.waitbywhy.com