Who hasn’t fallen victim to the reassuring line, grounded in best intentions, that it’s ok to leave things for tomorrow? That could’ve come from a friend, a loved one, or ourselves. Yet, the next day, before you open your eyes, you realise that you’ve got a triple volume of work: on top of what you originally planned for a day, you also have stuff carried from before, not to mention the new demands of the day.
To save you from that scary prospect, your inner voice tempts you to stay in bed longer, ‘You’ll only be more productive and have a clear mind if you get a proper sleep.’ Your semi-awaken brain nods to that convincing logic letting you rest a bit more. And it’s only when you wake up that you remember your plans to start training for a marathon this morning but now it’s too late.
Lowering Standard
Trying to fit in more stuff in a day, you start lowering your standard. Because by now it’s a matter of completing things, not necessarily how well, any longer.
One thing on top of another and before you notice these constantly accumulating responsibilities, like a snowball, knock you down, throwing your life off balance.
Eventually, being overwhelmed and out of energy to push harder, you allow yourself to take it easier. And, gradually you become more familiar with the next week, next month and next year’s territories.
As a result, with all the evidence of you being a constant failure, your confidence plummets to zero. And this reinforces all the limiting beliefs of you lacking the ability to succeed in ambitious endeavours.
An Illusion of One Last Thing
Beware of the trap of one last or one quick thing. Who hasn’t spent a night glued to a screen watching ‘only the last episode’ of a new show? That summarises it all. When we’re hooked by something — we can’t stop ourselves. Unfortunately, the same with familiar patterns — we stick to them by inertia even being aware that they don’t serve us.
The only reason the quality of our life remains the same despite our desire for a change is our lack of action even when we recognise the need for a change. As soon as you’re dissatisfied or uncomfortable, you’ve got to address a malfunctioning pattern immediately while you’re still in a state.
Another common issue is failing to follow through with our new decision due to the unreasonable conditions we set up for ourselves.
For example, let’s say, the volume of incoming emails drops your productivity. You realise that checking emails only twice a week, every Monday and Friday between 2 and 4 pm should help. Yet, instead of setting up an auto-reply and forgetting about your inbox until the next relevant day, you create a condition to address already-arrived emails, ‘so that everything is clean beforehand’ and then, you promise yourself, you’ll shift to a new system. Two years later, you might discover, that emails still eat a large chunk of your time.
As soon as you recognise the need for a change break the pattern immediately by introducing the new behaviour. If you’re leaving this for another day or better time — there’s either not enough pain in that issue for you to introduce a change. Or, a new approach you’re coming up with isn’t working for you.
Either Act on It Now or Accept The Consequence
The same pattern people run with smoking, and other habits or addictions. ‘When so and so happens I’ll act upon my plan.’ If something is redundant — stop it now. Otherwise, accept it and live with it.
We promise to start a new habit tomorrow. Be that going to the gym or waking up at 6 am. Yet, the moment the alarm goes on, we turn it off. We do that because we lack sufficient reasons to commit.
A contrary example might be when you plan to have either a workout at 7 pm or meet your partner or friends for dinner. Yet, one thing led to another and you find yourself at the office at 11 pm.
Failing to stick to our original plans, we pick the route of suffering. Not only do we become unreliable narrators to ourselves, incapable of sticking to our own choices. Jeopardising our plans also affects our moods; be it a result of fatigue, arguments with loved ones, or disappointment with ourselves for failing to stick to our decisions.
Key Takeaways
If something no longer suits you — act on it immediately.
One More leads to Someday forming part of the Neverland.
Don’t get surprised you’re failing at your goals until you’re clear on your reasons to pursue them.
