You know that it is time for you to take a shot at finishing the yet unfinished, and starting that project of your dreams.
Or you probably know that this is the perfect time to start fresh.
You have planned. You’ve made your to-do-list and the schedule attached to it.
You’ve got all the resources you need.
You’ve even constructed a very well-prepared contingency plan should anything goes wrong.
But all those things don’t take 100% of your hesitance away. There is still something inside you that’s keeping you from taking that first next step.
To all my fellow self-proclaimed procrastinators out there, here are 7 awesome motivating procrastination quotes that I’d like to share with you.
P.S. Writing and reading through this article is going to feel like talking to myself. Yes, you are NOT alone. I keep reminding and encouraging myself to grow. We’re in this together.
Alrighty! Without any further due, here they are:
1
The scholar’s greatest weakness: calling procrastination research.
Stephen King
This.
The ugly truth.
Sure, we shouldn’t risk ourselves going out for a hike, unprepared.
The key is to know and stop when we’ve crossed that border between healthy and unhealthy period of research or any other forms of preparation.
Unfortunately, though, knowing and be willing to stop as we’ve realized our presence on the unhealthy side of the wall is often not that easy.
We know that nothing is perfect. And nothing should be, really, unless you’re fine with skipping a chance to grow as a human.
To put it in a context; there have been too many examples of considered-very-successful people who claimed to have “not enough” to “barely enough” education, when they started to build their empires, and often times, have given back to the world along the way.
That, all the while some portion of “highly qualified” people struggle to find their way to put themselves to good use, hence feeling unfulfilled.
Did you know that in too many cases fear is the mother of perfectionism, which is the mother of procrastination itself – which means that fear is basically the grandmother of procrastination?
Do not underestimate your capability to adapt.
Prepare just well enough, move forward, improvise and grow along the journey.
2
…the best possible way to prepare for tomorrow is to concentrate with all your intelligence, all your enthusiasm, on doing today’s work superbly today. That is the only possible way you can prepare for the future.
Dale Carnegie
Most of the time we get too caught up with future. Or is it just me? Hmm…
Worrying about the implications of what we’re about to put out there for the world – or even “just” someone – to see.
And you might be wondering if you’re good enough at what you’re about to share with the external world.
Don’t slide down the rabbit hole just yet!
Chances are all those experts started from somewhere with near-zero acknowledgement as well. Familiar?
What are you enthusiastic about?
What do you do time and time again?
Start with all resources at hand.
Use your precious intelligence to express your enthusiasm and vision – share your gifts and talents to inspire and connect with people.
Who knows, someone might benefit from what you’ve courageously offered.
3
A year from now you may wish you had started today.
Karen Lamb
So you’ve finally started.
To your surprise, you are braver and more talented than you thought you were at the beginning of this journey.
And you intuitively begin to speculate on how you could be somewhere even more spectacular than where you are right now, if only – yes, if only – you’d started even earlier than you did.
You could reach and help even more people, again, if only you’d started earlier.
You could start living your dreams right now. If only.
Where had all those years gone, you might ask yourself.
Obviously, getting drown in these thoughts is not going to help us going forward in life, unless we’ve got that ability to convert negative thoughts into mega-fuel that will help drive us towards whatever goals we have – before collapsing along the way.
Either way, with a common-sense approach, starting earlier lowers the probability of being stuck in the sea of regrets later in life.
Challenges are always there, waiting to be overcome by every human being, regardless of time and space. And in return, they would facilitate self-growth in every brave contender.
So, would you rather extend the restless waiting period, or go marching on the challenges and take them down anyway?
4
Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.
Denis Waitley
An often overlooked perspective when we talk about equal opportunity.
One way to look at it is that time is crucial asset in our journey towards whatever we’ve been wanting to achieve.
Light-hearted news is the fact that we’ve been provided with this equal opportunity of time since the very beginning.
Scary as well as amazing news is how we use and look at it:
We, as human beings, have been geared up uniquely from each other.
And at different points in our lives, we face various challenging circumstances.
Our different perspectives lead to different kinds of resolutions.
These ever incoming new experiences give us ever evolving new perspectives.
Hence new and improved ways of handling and experiencing everything this life has to offer.
Consequently, it might appear that some people has got the rhythm “right” and smooth from the beginning.
Some other people, may not be so.
But there will be tomorrow for some of them.
The outcomes will be determined by how they respond to, let’s say, the adversities.
And the way they finally respond will depend on how much they grew from the previous life circumstances.
Some of us might get stuck and fall to the very bottom, but climb back out of it, fuelled, sky-rocketing to even claim our own head start.
So we see, time is fair and forgiving.
Problem is, are we that forgiving to ourselves?
And are we going to be persistent enough when the waves stack up from the procrastination, and the new ones keep coming in all the while?
5
God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.
St, Augustine of Hippo
It’s interesting how we always know that there is no guarantee of tomorrow; to the point that we tend to take that truth for granted.
I’ve always thought that it would be safe to say this:
Uncertainty is the only absolute certainty.
And even though the most important individual in your life, whoever he or she is, did forgive you, would you be able to forgive yourself as forgivingly for every chance you shy away from?
6
“Procrastination is not Laziness”, I tell him. “It is fear. Call it by its right name, and forgive yourself.“
Julia Cameron
Every time I procrastinate, I can’t help but dislike myself even more.
Depends on what we can do about this situation, but in my experience this often leads to that vicious loop where anxiety takes over the much needed discernment.
See ya later, effectiveness! See ya later, productivity!
I’ve been living huge portion of my life being that person with relatively many things to do, that 24 hours in a day had often been not enough.
Even as a child with, I can say, great childhood – especially when I compare it to many others’ – I realized that I had a difficulty to bring myself to a carefree state.
And I still do.
There have been lots of times where I have to convince myself that I really deserve a free time. A pampering time. A time to chill and be “lazy”. For the sake of my general wellbeing and, of course, mental health.
It’s getting better over time, though, with a lot of self-training to do.
Ha! Another thing to do, in order to do nothing.
So, why do I feel like I am being lazy at times?
Because I do procrastinate, at times.
Why do I procrastinate?
Perhaps because I know that the fruition of what I’m doing is not going to happen overnight.
And I’m probably afraid that with myself alone going all in, investing the resources at hand and yet another MORE time; I’m afraid that things won’t work as planned.
Remember when I said earlier that fear is the mother of perfectionism, and so it’s basically the grandmother of procrastination?
Now seeing procrastination as fear instead of laziness changes everything.
Obviously, the ways one treats laziness and fear would be totally different:
Most people would likely be critical at any symptoms of laziness.
However, we would likely be far more understanding when somebody shares her or his fear that might hinder that person from goal-achieving.
When we understand, we will skip that self-critical cycle, straight to the step of finding a way to solve whatever our problem is.
Plus, it’s way easier to forgive yourself (and move on!) for having a fear as a human, than for having tendencies to be lazy at any given chance.
7
Life always begins with one step outside of your comfort zone.
Shannon L. Alder
Mm-hmm. Couldn’t agree more.
Since the beginning of our time; the labor of bringing humans to life, the child being born, all the changes, nothing exists without some form of discomfort, or even traumatic pain. And also compromise, risks taken, to the point of sacrifice.
Change plays with balance, which in turn brings various types and degrees of impact to both our physique and psyche.
But change is necessary.
For nothing will grow in the absence of it.
Perhaps it would also be safe to say that the only constant is change.
And it’s intriguing to witness how change always forces us to adapt. To grow. To develop. To improve.
Getting out of my comfort zone and yet my murkiest fear cloud years ago is one decision I’d be forever grateful for.
For I wouldn’t have experienced that kind of JOY and appreciated myself more if I gave up to the fear.
Now. Have I overwhelmed you with all those uncomfortable nudges?
If someone said yes – good.
Gather the courage, summon the fierce, bravest version of you, and break-free from that procrastination “spell.”
You’ll mend that broken relationship with yourself, be a happier, more fulfilled person and be forever grateful that you took the chance.
AND. You’ll be amazed at what you may find along your unique, soon unfolding journey.
Love and best wishes,
Ella
