Procrastination!

A sluggard’s life is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. Proverbs 13:4

Last week while walking our dog, Rocco, on a gravel path, I suddenly felt a familiar pain in my foot, and I knew there was a small rock in my shoe. Every time I took a step, there was that irritating rock causing me pain. I had a decision to make. I could either stop right there, sit down, take my shoe off and remove the rock, or I could just ignore the whole situation. The smart solution would be to remove the rock, but I decided to procrastinate and keep going because “how bad can it get?”

I took another few steps and with each one, the pain just became worse, so I sat down, ripped the shoe off, and removed the rock! The pain was immediately gone, and I had to wonder why I waited so long to act on the small things in life that annoy me??

Procrastination is defined as the action of delaying or postponing something. A recent survey of Americans found that only 10% of us say we struggle with procrastination. The other 90% never got around to filling out the survey!! Most of us are just like me and the rock when it comes to dealing with hurtful things which keep coming up in our lives. It just seems easier to “think about that tomorrow”, or just keep promising ourselves that we will deal with the issue “one of these days.”

In the Bible, every plague God sent on Egypt mocked one of their gods. For instance, the Egyptians deified lice, so God sent them a lot of the lice and added frogs. Finally, Pharoah called for Moses and said, “All right, I give up.” But when Moses asked, “When do you want me to get rid of the frogs?” Pharoah’s answer was classic procrastination. He said, “Tomorrow.”

Just like Pharoah, many times we put off the changes or actions that we know would be good for us. We all have some things in our lives that we are procrastinating about changing. Why? Maybe we are afraid of what the changes will entail. Maybe we are just too lethargic to go ahead and just do it. Maybe we are too proud or stubborn to jump in and fix it. Whatever the reason, just like that rock in my shoe, the issue won’t go away unless we decide to act on it.

Take forgiveness for example. We all have hurts in our lives which eat away at us every day. The greater the offense, the harder it is to forgive, but we must, otherwise the hurt is like an albatross around our neck. It is said that we only hurt ourselves when we procrastinate the act of forgiving. Someone once said that “refusing to forgive is like eating poison and expecting the other person to die!”

There are several reasons that we procrastinate. First, is indecision. Whenever we have a had time making up our mind, the easiest thing is to wait. Today with all the choices we have in life, there’s always the decision to procrastinate. The second reason is perfectionism. We tend to set such a high standard for ourselves, and if we can’t do something perfectly, we don’t do it at all.

Next, we procrastinate because of fear. Whenever we are afraid of failing at something, we tend to put it off. Passive aggressiveness is a big reason we procrastinate. We wait to do something to exercise our control over others. Kids do this with parents all the time. When we tell them to clean their rooms, the answer is usually, “In a minute.”

Finally, we procrastinate because we are lazy. The world of today wants everything to come easy. We don’t want to have to work too hard to achieve anything. Proverbs tells us that “lazy people want much, but they get little.” Procrastinators limit their potential, wipe out opportunites, and presume on the future. No one is guaranteed tomorrow to get things done.

Procrastination prevents us from acting on the opportunites God sends our way and making the most of it. In short, when opportunity knocks, we have to open the door. I wonder how many opportunties we have lost because we have procrastinated. These opporunities to make a difference in a relationship, in another person’s life, or in the world should never be missed.

Rather than spending another day with a rock in our shoe, deal with it and enjoy the day!

Procrastination is my sin. It brings me naught but sorrow. I know that I should stop it. In fact I will – tomorrow. Gloria Pitzer