I remember the first time I saw a procrastination meme that struck Home. Freshman year. Scrolling through MySpace in my dorm room, wasting time before I was supposed to meet some teammates for dinner in the dining hall downstairs.
A friend at Texas Tech had posted one of those surveys, you know, Who was the last person you spoke to? Who was your first grade teacher?
And there it was: What meme do you relate to most today?
Their answer:
It was midterms, so…
But it was the first time I connected with procrastination, the act of delaying or postponing something, on such a real level.
Before college, I didn’t hunk of procrastination as a purposeful activity. It had never been presented as such, and everything up until high school was either easy or I’d just knock it out.
And, as we started interacting more & more online, as people started making more content about the absurdity of everything, the memes about everything, including procrastination, were soooo fantastic.
But I also felt as if, like with most things, people were missing the point about what it could mean.
They were negative about procrastination.
They were self-deprecating about their procrastinatory tendencies.
They weren’t hearing what procrastination was trying to tell them:
- What you’re doing sucks./This isn’t your passion.
- You need to find a new approach to whatever it is you’re putting off.
- You need to buckle down, harden up, or otherwise get in touch with your mental toughness.
When you’re fired up about something, what do you do? Put it off, or zip-zap it right up? I’m gonna bet it’s the latter. Paying attention to how you feel when you’re doing (or not doing) something can tell you if you’re on-message with your true driving force, or if you need to reassess.
If you ARE aligned with your calling, procrastination may just be your “gut” telling you to re-evaluate your mental approach or efforts. Maybe something doesn’t feel right, so your intuition is pulling back on the reigns.
And, if your doing something you absolutely HAVE to do, well, maybe it’s time to have an internal Come-to-Jesus. Remind yourself of your WHY, or take a second to get a larger perspective/see the bigger picture rather than the one task at-hand.
Remember: even the “undesirable” things in life can be beneficial, if we choose to use them as such.
Now, enjoy this song from Pinocchio. Sub “procrastination” for “conscience” & give me a whistle over on Instagram.