Breaking procrastination for meaningful success
Whenever we are in big doubt about anything, we normally tend to delay things. Worse, we also try to consult any number of friends or relatives and this leads us to even more confusion. We are also stumped for any firm course of action, since we have doubts about the effectiveness of the action itself.
However, it should be noted that the art of being in continuous doubt or fear of the unknown and doing nothing, is what we call as "procrastination" This is a real problem, and it can really drag any person down to a viscous cycle of inaction.
When we are affected by this disease, it is wise for us to come out of it as soon as possible. If we try to consciously try, we can easily come out of it, and avoid very unpleasant situations.
A cousin of mine had gone to Bangalore. He stayed in a three star hotel arranged by the company. My friend did not bother to call up either his sister or his brother-in-law, also based in Bangalore. However, when he went out shopping he was spotted by his sister.
The very next day, when he landed in Chennai, the sister rang up inquiring why he did not even bother to ring up. My friend could have pleaded pardon, and the issue would have been forgotten. However, he swore that he was not in the city at all. His sister virtually started crying over the phone, telling him very accurately the time she spotted him in the company car and how when she tried to call him, his cell was switched off.
My friend had to apologize, which he did. However, the fact that he lied, added fuel to the fire. It was left to my friend's wife to patch up. It was sheer laziness, sheer procrastination.
So, even in small social matters, we could avoid procrastination by simply calling up some close relative and saying hello, even if we do not visit them. We should also make notes of important things we do, but we postpone this, thinking that we can remember anything. Once again, procrastination.
However, apart from the seemingly simple things, when an opportunity presents itself, we should grab it with both hands, go through the cycle of hard work and then excel. For instance, when teachers are appointed, some teachers immediately register for the part-time M Phil or doctorate degrees and do not wait even a minute. Five years of hard work, would have taken them places.
What is the next step? Obviously, writing of quality research-based articles in any good National journal and at least five in some international journal, within a span of one year. Those who succeed in doing so, go ahead in life. Those who keep on thinking of some tomorrow that never comes, land up on the losing side.
The most first principle of breaking procrastination is very simple: DO IT NOW. Once this habit is firmly in place, we would have taken the firm first step.
The second most important principle of breaking procrastination is to take the new few steps to set in motion, the series of actions required to make the action a meaningful one. For example, in the aforesaid example, it would mean a huge amount of library research to zero in on the topic for the M Phil degree or the doctorate degree. Such research will also throw up some action points for the research-based papers to be published in both the National and international journals.
The third step is to keep the habit of breaking procrastination a regular feature of one's life. For example, it is becoming very common to see people have a big initial blush of enthusiasm, but also give up easily on sustained action, or new action.
In fact, we have so many people who are raw graduates. If they had utilized their time to pick some Information Technology skill, they would have had a much better chance to being employed. However, they are not able to overcome their weaknesses for "taking it easy". Since they do not know what to do in any given situation, they end up being miserable failures in their lives. In fact, this is the story of most young men and women from the semi-urban areas, where the exposure to the modern realities of the Corporate world, do not reach them at all.
The fourth step of breaking procrastination is to make deep inroads into action of a serious kind that will change the person forever. For example, if the person is on time, keeps up with appointments, helps someone in need and so on, he or she will gain more confidence in himself or herself and then become a more fuller person.
It should be remembered that procrastination, as a habit, is a very dangerous and useless habit that destroy's our entire personality. We send the perfect bad messages about it, and even our body language does not do any good to our reputation. People quickly start branding us as inefficient or ineffective. Once this happens, we tend to only reinforce such an image, in whatever we do.
Procrastination is also infectious. Hence, we should never tolerate it. We should break it continuously, and in ways that it changes us for the better. Once we have acquired new habits, we should stick on to them, and not allow our personalities to go back to the old habit of procrastination.
In India, we have several examples of how people who have done superb hard work, with planning, have landed themselves in very high positions. We need to understand such success stories and try to adapt to their ways, For instance, if we understand how youngsters adapt themselves to the various demands on time, leading to superior performance of professionals in Infosys Technologies, TCS, the entire Tata group, Larsen and Toubro and so on, we would realize that it is possible to DO IT NOW, and then follow this principle, with the steps outlined above.
When we learn from experience, we become all the more knowledgeable, and more effective. Once we understand the dangerous cycle of procrastination, we can explore serious ways of breaking it, as a habit, and emerge as more successful people, in whatever we do.
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