It’s Time for Healthy Procrastination
As the year closes, we celebrate achievements. (More on how celebration nourishes a positive mindset in a future post.) It’s also helpful to evaluate what we didn’t do.
Our time on earth is limited. (Maybe, it’s a mystery). We chase work/life balance, prioritize meetings over meaningful work, and create “To Do” lists to manage it all. Take a moment to think about why you sacrificed some tasks for others.
Was it Healthy or Unhealthy Procrastination?
Unhealthy Procrastination prevents a person from working on or nurturing things that matter to them. It isn’t a factor of not having enough time, or the large number of things that need to get done, but avoidance of truths or limitations they may not want to confront. This person feels paralyzed -- Maybe because of a skill or talent they don’t have yet, a worry they won’t perform quality work, or a fear of being judged and what people will think. The dream of “what might be” has so many thrilling options, that they never take steps to make it a reality.
Healthy Procrastination (prioritization in disguise) occurs when someone accepts they can’t get everything done in their finite lifetime. They wisely decide which important tasks to focus on first, and deprioritize (or reject entirely) tedious tasks that would distract them from reaching a more important goal. By giving themselves this permission, the healthy procrastinator feels calm, in control and vibrant by only choosing to focus on things that will strengthen their lives. They bask in the knowledge that the things they didn’t complete weren’t failures to act, but were intentionally removed to make space for richer outcomes.
My New Year’s wish for everyone is that you learn how to become Healthy Procrastinators. Instead of feeling afraid that you don’t have the skills, or worried about what other people might think…
Make your life as vibrant as it can be by choosing to nurture what’s most important to you, every day.
Deprioritize or eliminate what distracts you from your ultimate goal.
Identify what will bring you true happiness during your lifetime and create a plan to move forward.
