One of the most harmful habits for the process of self-improvement is the habit of postponing. What drives us to postpone and how to overcome this deeply rooted habit? Keep reading.
Human beings are beings of habits, who develop routines as a strategy to save energy and maintain control over the contingencies of everyday life. However, change is always presented as a constant that challenges habits, takes us out of comfort and pressures us to make change decisions. When we assume that some of those decisions will alter our life patterns, a frequent tendency is to postpone.
And it is that everything that tries to modify our habits will find resistance, because our system is conditioned to conserve energy and avoid disturbances and drastic changes, at least while new habits are being developed.
To postpone is to postpone or postpone for another time, the decision or the execution of certain actions. We postpone payments, medical exams, interviews, purchases and everything that is not relevant to us or that we value as dangerous for our stability and general well-being. We avoid doing what could harm us, which causes us anxiety, even if it leads to not achieving important goals and then we experience a certain amount of guilt and frustration.
The postponement has a positive or reasonable side. It is appropriate to postpone certain decisions or certain actions, when we do not have timely, truthful and / or sufficient information to proceed in a certain direction. Also when it is presumed that deciding or acting can bring uncompensated negative consequences. The idea of “a good taste, a good scare” can motivate us to act, despite possible consequences, considering that what has been achieved or lived is well worth the price.
However, postponement made a habit, reveals low self-esteem, undervaluation of the present moment and lack of understanding that everything good has a cost. And this scheme can be installed in individuals, couples, families, companies and countries, as a saboteur subculture of productivity and progress, by compulsive avoidance of change and effort.
The habit of postponing can be used as a strategy to gain attention, since it is possible to force others to be aware of us and what we do. It may be a way of saying: "I am in control" "now they depend on me", "I need help", "I cannot do this", etc. In all these cases, the message reflects insecurity and devaluation.
When the habit of postponement takes over us, our life becomes an eternal "putting out fires", a permanent emergency that detracts from harmony, balance and affects our sense of the pleasure of living.
It is worth remembering that it is the action and not only the intention, it generates the results we want. That is why the habit of not doing, of leaving, of staying, reduces our power over our life.
So having seen the effects, it is pertinent to seriously and consistently approach this issue, to overcome it and achieve effective changes. To generate this change, you have to recognize the problem and decide to face it. You need to review and reconnect with your power to decide, do, and achieve, as well as focus on values and goals, make plans and act, and learn to move ahead of pessimistic ideas and comfortable habits. It is necessary to watch the mind to dismantle the excuses that lead us to believe that tomorrow is better than today.
You need to stay motivated, focus on achievement and its benefits, and the harms that postponement will bring. We can be motivated by the desire to win and the fear of losing. It is preferable, by the way, that we are mobilized by positive expectations.
Another support to suppress the postponement, is to make a daily list of priorities that includes urgent actions, those that can wait a bit and those that we can leave for later without regretting it later. Likewise, define the important actions, those that will generate greater profit, medium profit and low profit. By ordering our needs in this way, it is easier to rank and do today what produces high benefits and is of immediate importance, what constitutes medium importance and generates average performance will be the second to be done, to finally tackle the lowest performance and that we had established what to expect. In this way, if we do not have enough time to do everything planned, at the end of the day, we will have carried out the highest priority.
We can start by making a list of postponed decisions and actions, and taking one day a week to update them: paperwork, payments, meetings, etc. It is not about doing much, but about getting the mind-brain system used to our new ideas and new behaviors. Then it will be easier.
It is also worth listing the excuses that appear regularly, in order to recognize and ignore them. Let's think that not everything that emanates from the mind is true or positive, but it is not. And you have to stay alert to their scattered and confusing games.
Do not expect that everything you have to do is always pleasant. There are bitter remedies that cure. Sometimes we have to do something that we don't like but that suits us. If you let yourself be guided by bodily sensations you will miss many valuable opportunities. Nobody breaks a record, becomes a general or conquers his freedom, without battling laziness, pride, resignation and fear.
What it is about is to raise awareness of the tendency to postpone, to understand its negative effects and to be able to adopt a more effective, responsible, relaxed and dignified way of relating to our personal goals and projects, taking control and avoiding being victims of disorganization, stress and the consequent damage to our image, due to the irresponsibility.
Do it, do it now, and do it right. That is the key to living efficiently. Remember that what you have today will be what you will remember as a past when, in a few years, you make your inventory of achievements. It is okay to think, to want, to desire, although what defines success is action. Thanks for reading me. Twitter: @doctorrenny Web: www.laexcelencia.com
