At Vital Leadership we are dedicated to helping young adults reach their potential. Some negative traits often get in the way.
One such trait we often confront—procrastination—and the perception that “I have always procrastinated, it is just the way I am.”
When you were a baby, were you a procrastinator? I think not.
Think about how you learned skills.
In the classroom, your teacher asked you to do a few problems at home and bring them back the next day. (Remember when you thought that was cool? Maybe your older sibling had HOMEWORK and you WANTED some??)
Anyway, what did you do when you got home? Was your environment one that was chaotic and undisciplined and there was no reminder for you from a parent to do that homework?
Did you remember to do it on your own and take out your backpack and get to work? Did you have a place to do the work and a pencil with which to do it or were you in the car constantly, going from one activity to another and too tired once you reached your house? Or did your parent remind you, encourage you and maybe help you learn to put off watching TV until after the problems were completed and the paper safely back in your backpack?
You LEARNED a habit of how you dealt with the assignment. You were not BORN with that habit. So, now you call yourself a procrastinator, and you say it’s just the way you have “always” been. It’s just the way you “are.”
NO…it’s just the way you CAME TO BE.
So, now, you have the power to make the decision to learn a new habit, one of getting things done and doing priorities before play.
Make THAT you’re new reality and don’t blame the past…… or live in it, either.