Remember when I talked about Resistance? That little 5-year-old toddler who's trying to convince you not to do anything challenging? Well yeah, that little sucker is also responsible for all the time you spend procrastinating.
Procrastinating - doing anything but the one thing you know you should be doing, pushing it as close to the deadline as possible - is one of Resistance's more genious ways of operating. You've probably noticed that you get all sorts of tedious or uncomfortable things done when avoiding doing that what matters most. For example, when I was still a student I used to clean my entire apartment when I should have revised for exams. Because that little voice inside my head told me that the cleaning had to be done. Funny thing is, it only told me that when I should have studied. It never told me to clean on a Friday night after finishing all the exams. It only told me to do it when I had something more important to do.
And how easy is it to agree with someone who wants us to do the easier of two tasks?
Resistance will tell you that anything, ANYTHING is more important to do than that what you should be doing at the moment, thus making you procrastinate. You could run a marathon in avoidance of the things you know you should be doing but don't exactly want to do. And it's so much easier to agree with Resistance than do the hard work.
When you notice this is happening - and trust me, after a while of observing your behavioral and thought patterns you will start to notice it - take a step back and think for a minute. Is what you're doing or planning to do really more important than that other thing? Is what you're doing really so urgent it cannot wait until you've finished the other thing, the thing you rationally know you should be doing?
And remember, Resistance doesn't want you to progress in life or in your career or in your health. It wants to see you jobless, overweight, slouching on the couch munching on potato chips, your double chin wobbling as you do, watching some mindless reality TV show. It wants you pathetic and under its power. It gets huge satisfaction from it.
If you let it.
RK
