Is Procrastination Bad?
Today as I was washing dishes, I had the following thought:
Many speak of procrastination as though it was some of form of mental or emotional dysfunction, but what if it is a manifestation of a natural protective system? What if procrastination is a call for help generated by our lives not being aligned to our internal life vision?
Maybe that is why it is so common, even though no one sees it as a desirable trait. We live in a time more than ever where people are judged more by what they have, then by what they feel or how compassionate they are. Maybe the way we live is the dysfunction.
Maybe in choosing lives and jobs that do not celebrate our inner divinity, we trigger a procrastination reflex. Maybe procrastination is our wake up call telling us that we are choosing to fill our lives with too many things we do not value.
This is would also explain why procrastination is often expressed in those things for which we can be ultimately be “busted” by others (delaying important projects, not cleaning our homes, etc.). Maybe procrastination is our truer deeper selves seeking the assistance of others to discover or rediscover our path.
We often question the nature of procrastination with the assumption that the things which we procrastinate about are inherently valuable and need to be done. But what if they aren’t? The things you are avoiding may clearly be essential to the performance of the job, but what isn’t obvious is should you be doing that job? What if instead of having a job, you need to discover your calling?
When you are procrastinating and go to sleep or compulsively check email or surf the internet, maybe you are finding ways to keep your mind occupied, so that you do not have to face the circumstances that triggered your procrastination. If you confronted the cause, you may have to deal with the reality that you may need to change jobs, relationships, or even scarier change yourself, in order to live in the abundance you know you are capable of.
If we can categorize procrastination as a type of dysfunction, we can distance ourselves from being responsible or accountable for its impact upon our lives. That which is separate from ourselves can be justified and marginalized. However, if procrastination is a systemic response to the choices we make, then we have to examine the nature of who we wish to be, and change our lives accordingly.
I am not saying that all procrastination is an expression of this system (sometimes people are just lazy or disorganized, and some people just need more accountability), but I think there may be something to this concept for those in whom procrastination is a recurring limitation in their lives.
What if procrastination is a call to be more than we are? I’m going to have to think more about this idea. What do you think?
2 comments February 26th, 2006