I have untold amounts of practice procrastinating. In fact, I’m writing this post (which as been a draft for about a year) as I procrastinate on something else—a lot of something elses, to be frank.

It feels nice keeping my skills up-to-date.

Don’t you ever wonder that if you quit practicing your procrastination you might forget how to procrastinate?

That was a tongue twister, wasn’t it? Whew. I had trouble reading that back through…

This is where I get serious. Because the answer to that question is “yes.”

I’m not going to make this into a long article, so I’ll say only one more thing. Think about it. If you just start practicing not procrastinating one day, and practice a little every day, pretty soon, you won’t be procrastinating nearly as often.

So call it practice. I do. This was my daily practice to quit procrastinating. My next goal? Become a finisher.

Hey, you might could say I’ve been practicing that this morning too! I’ve finished this post.

Post from: Perpetual Procrastination

Expert Advice: Practice

That’s never been more clear to me than after this weekend, when I spent some quality time listening to the unabridged audio book Become Who You Were Born to Be: We All Have a Gift…Have You Discovered Yours? by Brian Souza. Now, I’ll admit, the book feels slow sometimes, meandering through biographical tales of inspiration more often than offering practical advice. However, even books that don’t always seem to be filled with interesting and fascinating material sometimes contain real gems of wisdom. This is one of those books.

The author relies on us to learn by example instead of offering a simple list of things we should do to find out what our passions are. These examples give us the opportunity to see how others discovered what they’re good at and what they’re passionate about. This is actually a nice way to handle the subject since not everyone follows the same path to discovery.

I am not finished with this audio book yet though, so I can’t say how it all turns out. I can say that I’ve gleaned at least one important, possibly life-changing, bit of wisdom from the book so far and I’m anxious to try it out as an antidote for procrastination. This might not be how Souza meant for me to use his material, but that’s the beauty of books. We all take something different from each one.

About Goal Setting

Souza advises us to “avoid the goal setting traps” because goals are often “boring” and “useless” unless “there’s a big juicy dream attached to them.”

This is very true in my experience and I’m wondering now how I can make this work for me and my never-caught-up laundry and my perpetually unswept floors. These are two tasks I hate beyond any other (except maybe dusting, mopping, and killing spiders).

I wonder if setting up a big, juicy dream might propel me toward these goals a heck of a lot faster than a dread of embarrassment at having an untidy and uncleaned house.

My Experiment

Souza says that “most goals appear to be unrealistic until we begin making strides toward their achievement.” So, my goal will be large, inspiring, and possibly unrealistic, but it will motivate me the way a tepid, small, realistic goal or dream never could.

Souza also says:

• Goals should be measurable and specific
• I should have definite but realistic schedule, timeline
• I should put together a written plan
• I should take immediate action
• Goals need emotional intensity because the emotion and intent behind a goal gives it meaning and zest

My Dream: I want to have the prettiest, tidiest, cleanest house (and laundry room) in my neighborhood. I want an awesome house (but don’t want to move). I want beautiful flowers around my yard, and a vegetable garden in back. I want warmth and beauty inside, some organization underneath it all, and clean floors and tidy furniture.

My Goals: (1) Sweep, dust, mop, and tidy each room in my house, one room per day starting today and allotting a reasonable amount of time per room, while striving for excellence in each room, and keeping a checklist of room names. (2) Arrange furniture and belongings in an organized and eye-pleasing way. (3) Start with a container garden this year, and plan for next year’s vegetable garden. Make, buy, or otherwise get pots to plant vegetables in this year, and visit the farmer’s cooperative this week to pick up flowers (and vegetables) for around the front porch, and plant them next weekend.

Wow. Talk about big dreams. :)

Next on my agenda? Explore my dream of an internet empire.

I’m going to post a follow up on this experiment on Friday. I’ll let you know if this particular dream fires up my soul enough to overcome any of my procrastination habits.

By the way, don’t forget to check out Souza’s book yourself. You can either buy it (audio book or print book), or check it out with your library card from the R.E.A.D.S. website.

Post from: Perpetual Procrastination

Planning isn’t the problem; the lack of a dream is