Procrastination,
like all of your behaviors carries consequences. Whether your behavior is conscious or unconscious,
you will eventually have to deal with the effects.
Procrastination is something that we all
have to confront and deal with from time to time. It’s only natural to
procrastinate at times, but the way you deal with your procrastination patterns
will determine what effects procrastination has on your life.
One of the most obvious effects of
procrastination is the failure to reap the rewards that would come from taking
action. When you procrastinate you simply fail to take action on the very
things you know will bring you the rewards that you desire. Although you know
what you want and even what you need to do to get it, you still have to take
action and it’s usually at this point where procrastination sets in.
Double
Whammy: The Effects of Procrastination
Because the results you desire are often
something bigger and better than what you currently have, you must step outside
your comfort zone to get it. You might have to take actions that you are not
comfortable with to which your unconscious mind reacts by
"protecting" you against that which is uncomfortable. Although the
short-term effects of procrastination might seem to be "positive" the
long-term effects are almost always negative.
Failing to reap the rewards of taking
action can have many effects. Taking action on your ideas and desires is one of
your most empowering gifts. It is the process by which you can make the
intangible tangible. Through your actions and your behavior you create or
un-create your life. It’s not only the direct results of your actions that
create your outcomes, but often the very fact that you are actually consciously
affecting the conditions of your life. It is not just your actions, but rather
your failure to take action that will have a greater effect on the rewards you
reap from life. From this point of view the effects of procrastination are not
just a direct loss of rewards, but an indirect one as well. Every action is a
cause set in motion that affects and builds on past and future events to the
point where we can never really determine the actual effect of one specific
action. More than anything else, action opens you up to opportunity.
Opportunity is rarely the result of you
waiting for it. When you put yourself in line with what you want most through
your conscious action you expose yourself to opportunity. It’s never a case of
whether you have opportunities but rather are you noticing the opportunities?
But even more importantly, are you using the opportunities or are you
procrastinating? One thing is for certain: when procrastination becomes a
habit, you won’t even notice all of the opportunities on your doorstep. You
will live your life in distraction, constantly looking for short term
"pleasures" to avoid the real challenges that will cause you to reap
the real results. You will always "turn a blind eye" to the real
opportunities. Those who succeed are rarely the people with the most splendid opportunities.
They are the people who saw an opportunity where no one else saw it, and then
they took action to realize it.
Out of all the negative effects of
procrastination and indecision, the failure to spot and act on an opportunity
is probably the saddest. So many people with so much talent fail to live up to
their true potential because of procrastination. The rewards you reap from life
will be either a direct or an indirect result of your actions or your
inactions. Not only will procrastination prevent you from reaping the rewards,
but your inaction will prevent you from even being exposed to opportunity.
Opportunity is knocking, but you have to take action and at least open the
door. Don’t let the effects of procrastination stand between what you are and
what you can become. As the famous entrepreneur and businessman Victor Kiam
once said, "Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin."
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