Transcription
Hi, welcome to day 22 of the Intensifi podcast series. My name is Toad.
Today, I want to talk about overcoming bad procrastination. Now, we've looked at how to start, how to continue in the spirit, how to deploy your mental powers to focus on what you want to achieve, and then we've also looked at how to work hard. You know the combination of your spirit, soul, and body efforts intensifying together to achieve what you want to achieve.
But in the next few series, I want to look at some things that can prevent us from intensifying efforts on our journey to success, and we're looking at overcoming bad procrastination today.
Now, procrastination means to put off intentionally the doing of something that should have been done. I believe there are good procrastination and bad procrastination. For instance, if you plan to go to work, which is necessary, and as you're about to step out of your house, you start hearing gunshots, it just makes sense to procrastinate that activity—that is good procrastination.
But the one I want to address today is where you have an internal struggle to perform, and you keep putting off important things that should have been done. We need to address that—that's bad procrastination. It's a major killer of productivity, and it's one that can stop you from intensifying towards the success you desire or you deserve.
Now, almost everyone I know procrastinates in some bad way. I also do, but we have to be very careful that it doesn't affect us in a very dangerous manner. We need to overcome bad procrastination.
Now, why should I? Why is this important? Why should you overcome bad procrastination? This is because every plan you have and every vision you have is for an appointed time. There is usually a timing to your plan. I like the book of Habakkuk 2:3 in the Bible that says, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time.” Anytime God has given you a desire, a goal, or something you are pushing for, there is an appointed time.
There are also concomitant effects of following Him on time. The best example I know is the death of Jesus. When he was going to die, he said, “On the third day I will rise again,” and scripture has been written that on the third day he was going to rise. If you decide to procrastinate to the fourth day, and some of us will probably do it on the thirtieth day or never do it at all, a lot of things that have been lined up to happen would not happen. It would violate the integrity of scriptures.
The same thing is true in your life. There is a timing that God has prepared for you for what He wants you to do. So, you need to ensure that you overcome procrastination.
Also, if you don't learn to overcome procrastination, you will be necessarily avoiding and missing opportunities, and even prosperity. Ephesians 5:15 says, “Be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but rather live like those who are wise.” Verse 16 says, “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.” It is God's desire; it is God's design that we make the most of every opportunity. He wants us to take advantage of them and not procrastinate.
You know when you should be taking advantage of opportunities because many times in life, opportunities usually come in a short time window, and if you miss it, you may miss it forever. For instance, if you are in school and you had the opportunity to make a first class or a second class upper, if you miss that window, you have left school. You can't go back unless you want to study that course again. You will only be in that school for that period; you've missed that time window.
I love what John Mayer once said: “Pay now and play later, or play now and pay later. Either way, you will still pay, but it's always cheaper to pay now.” So now is the time to take advantage of the opportunities around you because it may be very costly and very deadly to pay later.
I knew a guy, and I have seen many guys right from campus days, who, you know, it was time for them to get married, and there was somebody they had in mind to marry, and they were just procrastinating to discuss the person until the person came to invite them for their own wedding ceremony.
So, this is something that is very important. In fact, procrastination also affects our health. Research has shown—it was a study published in the Psychological Bulletin of 2019—that around 20% of adults are involved in chronic procrastination. Now, this has been discovered to lead to increased stress, which can affect sleep disturbances, high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system.
So how do you overcome this bad procrastination that has an impact on your health, on your prosperity, and on your productivity? First of all, you need to recognize that you have this problem and forgive yourself. You need to acknowledge that, “Okay, I have a problem with procrastination,” and you need to commit that, “Okay, I'm going to forgive myself for the past things I have missed, for the past prosperity I have missed, and even the illness I have because of procrastination. From today, I'll start taking responsibility and stop regretting the past.”
Start focusing on what you want to do. You know many times, people keep focusing on the wrong things that they've done, and they keep going down because somehow, what you focus on amplifies. If you focus on the wrong you have done, you will do more wrong things.
So stop focusing on what you want to stop doing and start focusing on what you want to start doing. Your focus really matters. What you put your eyes on matters.
Then, stop waiting for a perfect time or a perfect person. I've talked about this before, but it's important to emphasize it because one reason why many people are procrastinating is because they are waiting for a perfect time or waiting for a perfect person.
No matter what you're going through, you need to start creating time to attend to the most important things in your life. Start things even when all you require are not complete because many times they are never complete. If you want to start a business, you want to start a ministry, start a project, or you want to start a building, just start. It's not every time that you will have everything that you need.
Then daily, prioritize key success factors—that's what I call them. Now, let me give you an example. There was a story about a committee of rats. They met and they planned that they were going to put a bell on the neck of the cats that always harass them in their environment. So whenever the cat started moving, they would know and they could run away.
Now, they discussed extensively about this plan, but the one thing they did not agree on was who was going to put the bell on the neck of the cat. That was the key success factor, but it was not discussed.
I've been in meetings, I've been in projects, I've been in government meetings, and I've been in business meetings where people discuss extensively, but they fail to address the key success factors—the elements that are so necessary for the task or for the project to achieve its goal.
You need to make sure you start with that. For instance, you wake up in the morning with a long list of things to do: “I want to wash, I want to do my hair, I want to visit family, I want to study, I want to call a client, I want to send an email, I want to play football.” You have so many things. Ask yourself, “What is key? What is a key success factor?”
Because we always have a to-do list, we must look for what is the key success factor. For instance, if you want to start a business, the key success factor is to have clients, not to have an office. Because people say, “I don't have capital, I don't have an office.”
No! Do you have a few people that believe in you and your product, and they are willing to do business with you? If you do, then you can start that. If you run a business, one of the key success factors is that you must never run out of cash. You must never run out of cash. So, you need to learn how to prioritize managing your debts.
If you want to get married, the key fact is to be sure that the person you want to marry is the person you should spend the rest of your life with because it's not just going to have beautiful pictures on Instagram.
So, always prioritize the key success factors. Sometimes, what I do to myself is, when I have so many things to do, I try to find out what is the key success factor and I deal with that first when my energy is still high and fresh. If you do that, it will help you to minimize bad procrastination.
Finally, I would say minimize distractions and stop scattering your energies. Now, how do I mean? I'll talk about that tomorrow. Many people scatter their energies, and they don't know that they are doing that.
So, I'm going to talk about that tomorrow and in the next sessions—how to stop scattering your energies and how to minimize distractions.
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I'll see you tomorrow.