Three Toxic Habits to Subdue
- Procrastination is the consequence of not getting things done.
It’s Wednesday morning and this is the third week you have put off organizing your office files. I’ll work on them tomorrow you say, but as the old childhood saying goes, tomorrow never comes. This is just one of many excuses I could give you for putting something off.
Many of us procrastinate at some time or another. For a small minority of the time, that’s okay. But when our behavior becomes excessive for putting things off, it becomes detrimental to our well-being. It becomes a way for the saboteur to constantly exist in our space as a way of life.
Procrastination can create a stagnate environment. Your potential for growth ceases to exist because nothing gets done. It makes me wonder what the true reason is behind this toxic habit. The beginning is to do some self-reflecting. Could it be you are afraid of the success that could blossom in your life? Or are you afraid that your freedom will be taken away by making progress giving you the feeling that your time is not your own?
The self-saboteur is our greatest enemy. The ego wants to always get its way. The ego will undermine all of the things we know as success. It feeds on all of the negative statements that we have ever heard – you will never amount to anything, I told you, you couldn’t do it, you don’t know what you are doing, you are too stupid to do anything right, why are you wasting your time on something that idea. What is your saboteur telling you?
Caving in to these emotions allows whoever said them to you to keep you in victim mode. When you overcome procrastination you are charting your destiny in life. You become everything good you know yourself to be. What will you chose?
The solution is to eliminate one thing at a time. Focus on the present task at hand. Focus on the NOW while you are working on that project. Chip away at it bit by bit until it’s done.
- Incomplete projects are comprised of lacking or unfinished parts and items not considered perfect.
Wow, I can’t seem to get anything done, you say. I start one thing then another pops up for my attention.
Incomplete projects can line up to include quite a long list of items. You started piling up ill-fitting clothes to give to the charity group that has been calling you for a couple of months. There’s more I want to add like those old T-shirts that remind me of places I’ve been that were so dear to me, you might say.
I have so many photos that need to be put into those albums. I’ll do that one evening real soon, comes another response.
We can justify the action to anything that is a task we just don’t want to think about. What is that doing to your mental anxiety? Out of sight, out of mind – I don’t think so.
When we accumulate clutter in our homes and offices, we create clutter in our lives. Incomplete projects are a form of clutter. Many times we want something to be perfect, when getting that “thing” to a point of “pretty good” is the place to be. Then later you can return to the item to make it even better. I followed this point myself for an appearance I was making because I needed a major promotional piece. I was proud however for the initial task had been completed. And it gave me momentum to stay focused.
Incomplete projects work on your stress level because you know nothing is done. If when you look around, you see parts of projects something is going on that you need to address. If an adjustment is not made you may begin to feel inadequate. For an entrepreneur it may be time to build a team of people to help you. I was faced with that too and when I began the implementation of team building, I felt much better. I was getting somewhere, not just spinning my wheels.
You don’t have to get everyone or everything into place at the same time, but put an action plan together with a timeline. To begin, ask yourself this question, “Where is the immediate need and who has the skills that can take care of that need?” Maybe it’s someone to clean the house for you or it’s someone to make telephone calls to help build your business. Move forward where you can to get projects completed.
- Indecisiveness is being not conclusive, is lack of decision making or is vacillating.
Who has been caught up in the swirl of indecisiveness? Its allure pulls us in before we know it.
The two previous points could make indecisiveness raise its head while you are trying to decide where to begin to end procrastination in your life or what project you want to complete first.
Being born under the astrological sign of Cancer, which is a water sign, I’ve learned to just do it. Where have we heard that before? Water tends to slosh around from instability, so to be decisive is truly a stabilizing force for me. It took me all of my early adult years to learn that one.
When you are not stable your emotions can run amuck, just confusing the issue, and that is what indecisiveness creates. You, and everyone around you, become frustrated from your lack of decision making.
When you lack decision, nothing gets done. The best attack, make a decision stick to it. If it turns out to be a decision that was not so good, you have learned what not to do again. If it was good, then you know something you didn’t know before. Being passive doesn’t allow for anything positive to happen because when you make no decision you have learned nothing.
Choices are made all of the time, good, bad or indifferent. The important thing is that you make the choice, don’t let someone or something else make it for you.
Begin detoxing your life for a healthier and happier existence.
