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The Enemy is in Your Mind

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In my experience, I’ve accepted the fact that procrastination is possibly the biggest mental enemy that we have to contend with when it comes to completing tasks, executing visions and reaching our goals. Procrastination always seems to convince us to believe that we will have more time, at a later time, just in the nick of time, to get things done.

The persuasive enemy that it is, procrastination causes us to delay things of importance, and oftentimes it will convince us to prioritize doing things that provide immediate gratification over things for which we must wait to experience a reward. For example, if you had a choice to either go and do something fun with your friends or stay home and do homework, which would you want to do?

In my experience, I’ve accepted the fact that procrastination is possibly the biggest mental enemy that we have to contend with when it comes to completing tasks, executing visions and reaching our goals. Procrastination always seems to convince us to believe that we will have more time, at a later time, just in the nick of time, to get things done.

The persuasive enemy that it is, procrastination causes us to delay things of importance, and oftentimes it will convince us to prioritize doing things that provide immediate gratification over things for which we must wait to experience a reward. For example, if you had a choice to either go and do something fun with your friends or stay home and do homework, which would you want to do?

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In either case, if you look just beneath the obvious reason for procrastinating, fear is almost always in the corner whispering sweet nothings of doubt and telling you all the reasons that you should delay doing what you need to do. I’m reminded of an image I once saw on television. There was a man who was at the brink of making a critical decision, and standing on his shoulders were two little men; one representing good, and the other representing evil. In one ear, the man is hearing faith saying, “Go for it! You can do this!” and in the other ear, he hears the voice of fear saying, “You know this is not going to work, right?” More often than not, fear emerges as the victorious winner.

I believe that fear is one of the primary reasons that people tend to procrastinate. Such anxiety could be based largely on a fear of failing or being viewed by others as a failure. Without doubt, failing is one of the greatest fears of many people. No one wants to be perceived as someone who set out to do something and it didn’t work.

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Consequently, many will settle for doing nothing instead of doing something and potentially failing at it. These individuals are usually satisfied with merely fantasizing about success in lieu of actually pursuing it. Engaging in a dialogue with others about what they “should have” “would have” and “could have” done or what they “will do some day” is good enough for them.

 

There are also those who procrastinate because they are perfectionists. If these guys lack sufficient details and information needed to ensure the project is “perfect”, they will delay working on it altogether. This is oftentimes referred to as engaging in the “paralysis of analysis”. The paralysis of analysis simply means becoming stuck and action-less due to their over-analysis of information in hopes of eliminating any potential of failure. Consequently, the task is usually never completed on time, and more often than not, the task becomes completely abandoned or aborted altogether.