Procrastination Costed Me An Year!
This is how procrastinating took an year off my life
“We must all suffer through one of two pains: pain of discipline or the pain of regret, difference is discipline weighs ounces and regret tonnes” - Jim Rohn
This isn’t going to be your trivial how I overcame procrastination to be a millionaire story. If you’re interested in such a manufactured delusional script then this article isn’t made for you, but if by any chance you want to see the real ramifications of this dreaded thinking trap on one’s life then:
Welcome this story is for you!
I’m going to lay down exactly what made me lose an year to procrastination, from how it started to how I’m fighting it day in, day out, & what are the things that you should take away from it.
Let’s plunge into my tale of losing an year to procrastination:
∘ The Advent: The Thinking Prison!
∘ What is IRR Cycle?
∘ How Am I Coping With Procrastination?
The Advent: The Thinking Prison!
So, this is the part that I mull over every day and it hurts more every time I do.
Like with every sentient being on this planet there’s an intrinsic tendency of putting aside the hard work which can infuse stress and don’t get me wrong there’s no problem in doing that.
Rather it’s our body's stress coping mechanism for dealing with a sudden influx of stress and that helps us to take a break, get ready and be more prolific in the longer run.
But the problem arises when every task we do gets associated with stress. Sounds Weird Right? This is exactly what happened with me an year back; Yes this story is from this very hated pandemic era! I don’t know exactly what happened to me back then, but I started attributing every task or activity I was given with stress and that made me unconsciously quit them as the mere thought of doing them made me frightened and intimidated.
Due to which unsurprisingly I started to recede and fall behind in my zoom online classes and grades went drastically down, but even the bad grades weren’t enough and didn’t motivate me to get out of this thinking prison rather they made me feel more intimidated and pushed me into a cycle which I term as a The Intimidation Realisation Reiteration Cycle.
What is IRR Cycle?
What Is It? You may ask! Let me explain this cycle to you in brief with a story from my life.
See, whenever a task was given to me with a deadline hanging that went directly into my mind’s stress-inducing list and wasn’t remembered until the deadline was near the horizon. This made those tasks to be forbidden and the mere thought of doing them Intimidating. One thing I remember blatantly is this line, which I uttered every other day to myself before putting aside these tasks:
“Today ain’t the day, Will do this assignment tomorrow with full focus and better cognitive ability”
As if I was going to have the cognitive ability that of Stephen Hawkins the next day, But as it’s with deadlines they come to an end. When they did anxiety, stress and most prominently intimidation prevailed across my mind and suddenly I was getting that task done with whatever I had got. With the task completed self Realisation used to kick in along with mulling over the fact that this procrastination is getting over me and something needs to be done.
New Plans, Vows were crafted to change my life forever, but at last Reiteration of the same activities happened over and over again.
This psychological cycle of first getting intimidated by stress-inducing tasks then realization of my misdeeds and at last reiteration of the same activities; falling back into the same trap, became part of my life insidiously, & literally took an year off my life.
How Am I Coping With Procrastination?
Procrastination is a mental prison that has been conjured and fabricated by our lies, So the first step in getting rid of it for me was curtailing stuff that made me fall into this trap and then de-rooting these lies by embracing the truth. It may be cliche for some, but for getting over procrastination we need to embrace lies and rectify them with a reality check.
Winning the War in Your Mind by Craig Groeschel was the book I read during this dark time of mine and it helped me in seeing what were the things in my daily schedule which were pushing me into this thinking trap and how a person could overcome them. So, If you’re trying to get over procrastination rather than trying to change your thinking to change your life then I’ll highly suggest this book to you.
Today, I do procrastinate a bit but most of the time I shut it down if it's unnecessary and focus on the things I want to manifest. The ability to discern what is real and what’s not has developed after this year-long battle, and tbh this is the only useful thing I got from procrastination!
One thing that you should take away from this story was right at the start of it; Yes I’m talking about the quote, It basically told you that it’s easy to fall into this trap of apathy, where you don’t wanna do necessary things and bask in momentary delight, but these temporary gratifications are going to fill you with regret, and that is going to hurt you more than if you were disciplined enough to take action and do the imperative things.
I hope this story would’ve helped you out! Comment below to share your experience with procrastination & How did you overcame it? I’ll try to respond to every comment! Thank you for reading this story.
