All of us procrastinators have something in common. Our favorite way to procrastinate is to plan that we will change and start doing what we are supposed to do when an important date comes. For example, I will wait until the first of the year. Or I will wait until my birthday, or some other significant date.
Often times, we will set Sunday or Monday to be the special “get something started date” and when that comes and goes in the back of our mind we will set the next week as the time to get started. We will then continue to blow this week off until next week comes when we are supposed to finally get started.
This “wait until X day” process is what literally kills you. You keep putting off the healthy or right thing to do until some important day gets here and when it comes, there inevitably arises some hurdle or obstacle that gives you an excuse until the next date comes. This process repeats, where all the while you are worse off because you have not started yet.
I have come up with a new way of battling this problem. It is called the do it right now, regardless of what day it is, mentality. In fact, start on a Thursday. You do not need it to be Monday, or Sunday, or the 1st or the 31st. You do not need it to be your birthday, or new years day, or Christmas day. It does not need to be the solstice or the new moon. It just needs to be today. You can make February 24th just as important as January 1st or any other arbitrary day.
There is something powerful when you start on just any day, nothing special about it day. It frees you up from the most powerful excuse of the procrastinator. Disarmed, your mind is fresh out of options and so the only thing you can do is to start. Now, my suggestion is to start small. Something that you WILL do, because if it is too hard, that will become the next excuse. Keep it simple, do it today, and repeat. Pretty soon you will have made a habit and that is the most powerful thing you can do to drive a change in your life.
So start on a Thursday, or some other odd ball day. In fact, any day is a great day to start to improve.
Guy Reams
