Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Say Goodbye to Procrastination


We’ve often talked about the many benefits of Living in Truth, but there is one benefit that we’ve never discussed that is actually one of the best. Procrastination has been one of the biggest problems in my life, but Living in Truth makes it very difficult to be a procrastinator. You don’t even need to stress to make it happen. Dropping the bad habit of procrastination automatically happens when you Live in Truth.

Remember—Living in Truth is all about living in the present moment. It is all about accepting the verity of what is before you in the present moment. Procrastination happens when we fail to live in the present and let ourselves be overwhelmed by the future.

For example: You walk into your kitchen and know that it needs to be cleaned, but you only have twenty-five minutes and you have to go pick up Susie from her piano lesson. As you look around, vexation sets in. There is no way you can clean that kitchen in half an hour! It is at least a two hour job. As you ponder that fact the vexation grows into unnecessary pain and you end up throwing your hands in the air and saying, “I’ll do it tomorrow!”

But when you Live in Truth, you know that you only have control of the very minute you are now in. You walk into the kitchen knowing it needs to be cleaned but the verity of the situation (the Truth) is that you don’t have time to clean the whole kitchen. So without getting vexed you simply say to yourself, “I can’t do it all, but in twenty-five minutes I can mop the floor and clean out one drawer.” And you do it. No vexation. No beating yourself up over what a horrid house keeper you are. No unnecessary pain. As a matter of fact, you leave to get Susie feeling very good about yourself.

Or sometimes you do have two hours, but as you look around you begin to think about how much you don't like to clean and how the dried food has hardened on the plates so that it will be very difficult to get them clean and how you didn't mop the floor last time it should have been done either and so it will take more time and how you'd much rather be doing something else than cleaning the kitchen.

But when you Live in Truth, you realize that the verity of the situation is that your kitchen needs to be cleaned. So without getting vexed about what you want or don't want to do, you say to yourself, "I don't want to spend two hours in here, but fifteen minutes will make a dent in the work." And you do it. No vexation. And usually you end up spending a little more than fifteen minutes or the next day you put in another fifteen minutes and before you know it the task is done.
When we Live in Truth we realize that the present moment is all we need to think about and we ask the simple question, “How can I best use the next two minutes?” and then do it. You don't need to be overwhelmed by a two hour job, just think about the two minutes. In that way everything that really needs to be done eventually gets done without you vexing over it.

3 comments:

Mike and Julie said...

Love it!

Wendi said...

This is a really good reminder. Thanks! :)

Melanie said...

Love, love, love! The picture is fantastic! And, well, maybe you stuck a cord with me...
(I drove from Phoenix to see you speak in LA).