Setting Your Goal For 2006

Do you find yourself delaying everything, never really getting anywhere and always feeling unsatisfied?

In life we are constantly setting goals for ourselves and our New Year’s resolutions are a perfect way to keep track of those targets.

Setting a goal for 2006 will not only give you something to work towards, it will also give you the confidence that comes from achieving your goal. 

There is no limit to what can be accomplished with hard work and dedication so set a goal for 2006.

I believe that there is one underlying reason why people procrastinate: fear of failure. I think that most people don't really want to fail - they just have a hard time dealing with the thoughts that go with it. 

I used to procrastinate every day, spending hours on end buried in some task of some kind. I'd work on it and work on it and then, out of nowhere, there would be a major setback and I'd spend two more weeks trying to get back on track. Oddly enough, the failure itself didn't give me that much trouble - at least not until about six months after it had happened. Then suddenly I was hit with the realization that I hadn't achieved any of my goals at all and it was all because of one stupid lapse in judgment. I couldn't go on with life the same way. There were no more distractions, no more excuses to not take action. I had to face up to my fears, do the hard work and get busy. 

Once we accept that procrastination is a choice and that we can choose not to procrastinate, it becomes much easier to deal with it. Instead of feeling angry or frustrated when things don't work out, we can choose to focus on our goals and move forward without dwelling on what could have been.

While it's easy to say that procrastination is a choice, it's not quite so easy to actually do something about it. The first step is to recognize the choices that you're making. The next step is to consider which choice is best for you and finally, make the decision that will lead you in the right direction.

In other words, if you know that you're not getting much done during your work day, then either work from home or start working at home as often as possible.

The trickiest part of all of this is taking the necessary action to achieve your goal when the time comes. This is where the biggest stumbling block exists. When you know that there is something that needs to be done, but you never get around to it, then you're procrastinating. 

There are a few things that can be done about this. You can decide either not to make any New Year's resolutions or simply break your resolutions as soon as they fail to work out. I'm sure that won't help much. Another thing you can do is stop making promises to yourself so that they'll just be broken in the long run anyway. That won't help either and besides, it's a bit dishonest too - almost like making a deal with the Devil. Don't forget... procrastination isn't always bad.

Conclusion

As per the end of the chapter, in the appendix section, there are three various links for you to read "Learn about Procrastination". One is about procrastinators and their journey to conquer their weakness, another one is a book review of "procrastination" by Alan Lakein and third one is an article where Dr. Nishimoto shared his view on why some people suffer from procrastination.

He became a professional writer within a short period after publishing his first article in a magazine at the age of 13.

As briefly mentioned in his book, he used to suffer from what he calls as "self-defeating behaviour" (procrastination).