Procrastinators Are Always Successful

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

23 Jan 2007 11:10 AM

I bet that title caught your attention and I bet the first thing you did when you read that was go pfft. I know I did when I typed it. But you see, procrastinators are extremely successful at procrastinating. They put things off, they wait for tomorrow, only in a procrastinators world - tomorrow either never arrives or it crashes down on their heads.

Procrastination is Chronic

Now, we have all procrastinated at one time or another - I have. I've looked at a pile of laundry on the floor and rolled my eyes and said, nope, I'll do it tomorrow. Sure I could do it today, but I don't want to and I know I can do it tomorrow. The difference is - I'll weigh whether I have the time to do it tomorrow and I'll weigh whether not doing it today is going to really impact my schedule tomorrow. If it is, whether I want to or not, I'll make sure the laundry gets done today.

For a chronic procrastinator - they don't worry about whether they will have time tomorrow. They don't care if they have time today - their biggest goal is to avoid success at all costs and they will create any obstacle possible to make sure that happens. Before you think I'm exaggerating - let me tell you a story of a young woman I knew a few years ago.

A Tale of Procrastination

This young woman was quite bright and very talented. She was employed in a position for which she didn't have the actual qualifications for, but she did quite well in it. She had a natural talent for this type of job and when she was on, working - she was very, very good. So why did she lose her job and get evicted from her home all in one day?

She procrastinated.

• She would put off going to work.
• She would put off depositing her paychecks.
• She would put off paying her bills.

It wasn't that she couldn't afford to pay her bills. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy her job. It wasn't even that she wasn't capable of doing her job. She chose not to do it. She chose to skip work - her reasons varied. Occasionally it would be that she was sick, sometimes it was she couldn't sleep, other times it would be she was up too late or her alarm didn't work and there were times when she just didn't feel like it.

Prior to being evicted and fired, she received numerous warnings both from her landlord and from her boss. Despite all of these warnings and notifications, she continued to make the choices she made. When she was evicted and as she was packing up her things to move out - we discovered four paychecks that she'd never bothered to deposit. There was over $5,000 in capital there - but she had no job, no home and she couldn't seem to understand why it was all happening to her.

It happened because she procrastinated.

Look At Your Choices

Be sure to look at your own choices and ask yourself, seriously - why didn't you work out today? Why aren't you meeting your fitness goals? If your reasons are more to do with procrastination, it's time to take long hard look at yourself. Procrastination's long term effects can leave you like my friend - homeless, jobless and scratching your head. It can affect your health. It can affect your way of thinking and it can affect your success in life.

Are you procrastinating?

Related Articles:

Cleaning The House: A Study in Procrastination

Five Ways to "Fire" Your Inner Procrastinator

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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Andrea Hermitt (5507) 23 Jan 2007 10:56 AM

I used to procrastinate when it came to paying the bills. It was not that I couldn't afford them, but that I liked the "pretty numbers" in my checking account... then I would get mad when bill collectors would call at 8am and disturb my sleep.

Eventually I handed the checkbook and bills over to my husband who does a better job at getting bills paid on time.

Heather Long (16954) 23 Jan 2007 02:40 PM

I had that problem, at one point, but my husband was really anal about how he kept the books for finances and I learned really quickly how to keep track there.