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Daily Inspirational Thoughts

Procrastination: The Easiest Way To Kill Your Dreams

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By Gbeminiyi Obadan

Do you know that for the average Nigerian, January is the longest month of the year? Just check it after January we will suddenly be saying Happy new month in July, after that we are buying chickens and saying merry Christmas, and suddenly the year has ended. Maybe I exaggerated a bit, but you definitely get what I am saying. Everyone thinks we have time and tomorrow is still there, after all January has 31 days and February has 28 days and March has 31 days and we go on and on, till the year comes to an end, then we ask ourselves where did all the time go? What did I achieve in 365 days, then we enter the new year in regret.

In my experience as a life coach, I have realized that when it comes to coaching people on goal setting a lot of people encounter what I call the goal killer AKA procrastination.

Procrastination simply defined means leaving what you can do today to tomorrow, tomorrow in the case of a procrastinator never means the next day.

A lot of people are chronic procrastinators and do not even know. To the regular Joe procrastination may seem like just an habit, but I have realized that procrastination involves a special level of living in denial and daily lying to one’s self, it may be the number one reason why people say the grave is the richest place on earth.

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When I began coaching people especially to overcome procrastination, in order for them to live their best lives the first phase which is diagnostic led me to formulate what I call the different types of procrastinators, I realized that as broad as procrastination sounds there are many underlying reasons why different individuals procrastinate, most of the time knowing what makes you procrastinate why you solves half of the problem.

Four Types Of Procrastinators

In this article I will be sharing on just four types of procrastinators.

The Perfectionist

It seems very unlikely that someone like this will procrastinate, but most perfectionists will keep pushing back on a task simply because they want everything to be a certain way before they start, if it’s not up to a certain standard they refuse to continue the project, a peek into this persons closet shows skeleton of unfinished projects and we soon learn that perfectionism is just a cover up excuse for the persons inability to master the task given. Most times this person has an unrealistic picture of how the task is supposed to go, and would not start until this unrealistic picture is in the reality, this person forgets that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and that starting small is the key to a perfect project. If you do not bother starting, how will you even attain the picture of perfection you have in your head.

The fearful procrastinator

This person delays in taking action because of the fear of the unknown, or the fear of what others may say if failure occurs. This person most likely seeks validation from those around him and, the thought of ‘what if this task flops’ is his or her mantra. This person unlike the perfectionist procrastinator doesn’t even bother starting the project, so most of his ideas are stuck in his brain and he will probably go to the grave with the ideas, if he doesn’t get professional help.
This person doesn’t know that courageous people have mastered the art of going forward despite the presence of fear. A tip for the person is ‘failure is nothing but feedback’ change your perception of failure and watch yourself achieve what you didn’t know you were capable of doing.

The overwhelmed procrastinator

To the passer by, this person is very efficient, and is quick to action, whenever there is a task to be done, this person is usually the first to volunteer his or her service, what no one knows is that this person in a bid to seem efficient and up to the task has taken on more they can bear. This person takes on way too much tasks and appears to be at the fore front of all tasks, unknown to most this person is crumbling beneath all the tasks, the person most likely has a mountain of uncompleted tasks, because they are tired and can’t juggle it all. What this person needs to realize that it’s ok to say no to anything that is a burden to you. Be more interested in results than activities.

The last-minute procrastinator

This person’s most used phrase is ‘I work better under pressure’ the highest level of self deceit. This person leaves tasks till the last minute and begins to rush to complete tasks just at the last minute. What this person doesn’t know is that things like sleep, health, family time and many other things will suffer for this behavior.
The good news is that it doesn’t matter what type of procrastinator you are, it is possible for you to overcome in my practice I have seen that with a few coaching sessions a procrastinator can well be on his way to becoming a goal getter. For more information you can follow me on Instagram @coachgbemz or email me at [email protected]

In the interim here are some tips to help you if you procrastinate

How To Overcome Procrastination

  1. Forgive yourself for opportunities lost from procrastination
  2. Write down the tasks you need to complete and allocate a reasonable time to complete them
  3. Attach a reward to each completed task, this way you can look forward to completing tasks because of the reward attached to it
  4. Get an accountability partner to keep you in check, this could be a mentor or a coach
  5. Eliminate all distractions
  6. Celebrate your progress as you watch yourself become a goal getter

For more motivational articles, visit NG Motivation Column.

Gbeminiyi Obadan

About the author: Gbeminiyi Obadan is a lawyer who loves to blog about faith and life experience.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. berry blue

    January 16, 2019 at 11:22 AM

    Thank you so much . We need more of this.

  2. Fifelomo

    January 16, 2019 at 7:57 PM

    More of this…..tanx.

  3. Jacob

    January 17, 2019 at 4:25 PM

    Nice Piece Gbemi…

  4. Rosy

    January 17, 2019 at 4:52 PM

    Thanks a lot. interesting

  5. mike

    January 21, 2019 at 1:02 PM

    i love your motivation

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