Don't put off until tomorrow . . . you know the rest. . .

“Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.” ~ Napoleon Hill

Although there's a 'should' in Napoleon Hill's quote, and you all know how we feel about that word, I still like it. I have been quite guilty of this for the past several days . . . if not weeks. There has been something that I've needed to do and I've been literally leaving it for the day after tomorrow . . . and the day after that . . . and the day after that . . .

How many of us are guilty of procrastinating about so many things in our lives? Now granted, what I've been putting off isn't one of my main goals or dreams. What I've been putting off has nothing to do with my art or my music or my writing or my myriad of delicious projects. But, at the same time, it is something that has continually been on my mind as THAT THING I have to do that I haven't done and I need to do in order to move on . . . So, something that obviously didn't start as an important thing, has now become this fucking annoying thing that won't go away. Of course, it won't go away because the only way it will actually go away is if I DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. TAKE CARE OF THE ISSUE.

To make the entire thing even more ridiculously absurd, when I sat down and finally took notice of what I needed to do, I realized that in actuality, it wasn't that big a deal. WHAT?!!! Yup! It really wasn't the scary, torturous thing my mind had created. This is what happens, isn't it? Most of the time when I procrastinate, I'm really just masking fear. In the case of this latest bout with procrastination, I was afraid of the steps I had to take to resolve the issue and of the resolution itself. Since I wasn't sure of what the outcome was going to be, I was fearing that end result and what that would then lead to. Oh, endless cycle of self-torture. It makes me laugh really. Because when I broke the big issue, I realized how ridiculous it all was. How what I had been fearing was actually what my mind had come up as the big, scary monster. It was all made up! What I'd been fearing was all in my head . . . all made up . . . what a waste of my time and energy.

Well, I've faced the big scary monster and he wasn't at all scary. What I've learned from the experience is to be prepared the next time I feel I'm procrastinating. I have to ask myself why? Why am I coming up with all of the excuses to keep me from doing what I need to do? What are the underlying messages in the experience? It seems to me that whenever I procrastinate about something, that means that I haven't been quite honest with myself about the issue at hand. There is something in the facing of the issue head on that scares me. There are things attached to the issue that I've been avoiding or trying to forget in the hopes that whatever it is will just go away. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. Things we have to deal with in life don't just go away. They are, almost always, things we have to learn from. These little annoyances are put in our way to teach us a valuable lesson. The lesson might have nothing to do with the actual thing you have to do. But, if we peel back the layers, the gem is revealed. And, it's always a better day once we come to that understanding and hopefully, we learn a little something.

Whenever we procrastinate, we waste precious energy. Energy that could be better spent in manifesting our dreams. That alone is worth the effort to face what we have to face with the full knowledge that everything will turn out fine. No matter what. So, let's get on with it! C'mon!

Peace and Light to you and KEEP DREAMING!

Gene-Manuel