For a huge majority of Indians, life is a big constant struggle.  The rising cost of every single item of food items, clothing, housing. education of school and college children and so on, takes a big toll of their health and happiness.

Be that as it may, there are quite a few issues that stand out, if one needs to progress and develop far beyond what he or she is now, financially and socially in terms of the economic order.

For instance, for a middle class man, the main obsession would be one of good education that he or she needs to provide to his or her children.  For the rich, it would mean, making more money, by and through prudent management of resources.  The actions would differ from case to case.

In this process, procrastination -- the dangerous practice of "I will do it sometime tomorrow" becomes a mindset and acts as the most important problem when one wants to develop and progress.

Time related issues

There are a huge number of issues on which each one of us miss out.  For instance, it is prudent to just take one huge "pure protection" policy, for a huge amount of say, forty lakh rupees when the earning member is less than 23 years old.  The amount would not exceed Rs.8000/- per annum, at current prices and would not increase much thereafter.

So, the family is well protected and life insurance becomes a good investment, but for pure protection.  This is a very wise policy and choice, as the return on life insurance, in terms of what are called endowment policies, is so poor.  It is hardly two or three percent.

The issues related to long term savings need to be tackled at this stage, as it is still possible to park small amounts of money in recurring deposits, that will fetch good returns and help the individual to tackle inflation.  Similarly, it is wise to invest in non convertible debentures of companies that offer much better returns when compared to traditional fixed deposits.  This is exactly what is needed -- the right decisions at the right time.

Secondly, it is also prudent and wise to have children early after marriage, as most men nowadays get married at the age of 28 or when they are older.  This creates problems, as when they turn fifty, the child would have just completed college, and would be just ready for employment.  Any further delay, of say, three or four years, would complicate matters even further, and it will be a challenge for the man or woman or both, to really bring up the child in a good manner.

Children related issues

In many cases, parents are totally irresponsible and wait for the inevitable to happen.  More often than not, parents do not care much for the welfare and character building of their children and, even if something amiss comes to their notice, they tend to say, "let me do it tomorrow".

Chances are that in nine out of ten cases, where the peer pressure is huge, and things like attraction towards the opposite sex happens quite quickly, that parents ought to act very fast and nip anything in the mud.  Even when the mother is keen, the father allows things to drift and before something they wink, something dreadful happens.  This is outright dangerous and can spoil entire careers of children. 

So, parents should really avoid procrastination at every stage.  Regarding academic excellence, what has to be done, has to be done.  For instance, in the huge metros, there are quite a few good tutor shops to crack the IIT and IIM exams.  The expenditure on this front, is worth the salt.  Most parents from the smaller towns or cities, hesitate to do this, and the children are often wanting when it comes to expressing themselves, and when the children are compared to those from the metros, they are found to be totally inadequate at the crunch time.

All this can be avoided and procrastination should stop.

Relationship-based procrastination

Thanks to an overdose of masala movies, many youngsters fall in love with some girl, but fail to express that openly. The girl gets to know about it from third party sources, and things become very bad for either or both parties.

All this can be avoided if men stop their procrastination practices and get to do things the right way.  Similarly, the differences of opinion between husbands and wives should never be allowed to assume gigantic proportions or known to others.  A mutually trustful relationship is a must and should be nurtured carefully.  This does not happen and procrastination simply destroys all that is good.  This is very unfortunate.

This is an age of unreason.  Perhaps the heart has a reason that reason cannot reason.  So, any difference of opinion  needs proper probing and if the deep roots are analyzed, things will become that much clearer.

So, the list of procrastination is so huge.  In matters of social action, a group of people, or several groups of people need to get together and do something very urgent.  Procrastination in matters of public interest will only enable political groups or parties to further their selfish agenda.  This situation should never be allowed to develop.

Procrastination is very dangerous.  It becomes a habit if not tacked head on.  The individual has a big role to play and can do many things through proper actions, at the right time.  Once the "here and now" action mindset takes over, there will be a great sea of difference for the individual and things will become far better. 

Emotion related procrastination

Human beings are all emotional at some point of time or the other and can be vulnerable when it comes to some emotion, more so, when it involves some negative emotion like anger or jealousy.  The second emotion of jealousy makes people loose control of themselves and indulge in a series of negative activities, which takes them nowhere. 

Procrastination makes a big entry here, to some individual or the other, and everything gets delayed.

In conclusion, it can be safely said that procrastination is a hugely negative thing.  It should be avoided at all costs, since work done is always done.  This sort of doing work will work wonders for any human being, at any point in time. 

• Written by ABSIVAKUMAR.
• In category General Reference.
• 8 years ago.

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