Procrastination and its cousin, Resistance to Change

Thank you for taking a few moments of your valuable time to peruse my blog.  I’ve never written a blog entry before and found myself procrastinating what I needed to do.  Not only was I procrastinating, but I was resisting change.  I recently changed my website and although it is more visually attractive, one goal in the change was to not have a totally stagnant website.  Learning to blog and writing blog entries help to keep a website more vibrant and dynamic.  Of course the extent to which the reader finds the entries vibrant and dynamic is unfortunately related to the skills of the writer. I will do my best to combine helpful content and a little humor.

First two powerful quotes: William James said “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” So true - my “new” website has been live and available to the public for nearly a month and the need to write and post my first blog has been fatiguing.  Victor Kiam said “Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.”  Ouch, yet true enough.  Who likes to miss out on opportunities?  Not me.

In general, I am not a procrastinator and in general, do not resist change.  So, why now and how did I move through the block?  Each of us that confronts procrastination and resistance to change, and nearly all humans do at some point, would answer the prior question differently.  It’s important to know the answer though and use it to help you. I value accountability and made an appointment to discuss posting blogs with my website designer, thus forcing me to write this entry beforehand. Although not too long, this blog entry symbolized the “big rock” that I had to put in the glass jar today.  Once I get off the phone with Matt, I can fill my day, my glass jar, with smaller rocks or less important errands or tasks. Was there a little fear associated with writing and posting my first blog?  Perhaps. I’ve found that if you do what you might be afraid of, usually it’s not so bad.  Generally, you feel pretty proud and sometimes very pumped afterwards.  So, I looked forward to those feelings, which will undoubtedly come when I reread this entry on my website. Then again, I could obsess over its content and berate myself.  That’s helpful, isn’t it?

Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations have been written on these topics.  If you google procrastination and resistance to change, you will be overwhelmed with content that may or may not be helpful to you. So, here is the summary and allow me to sound a bit self-promoting. Choose your big rock, each and every day, and put off working on small stuff until you fit that big rock in your glass jar. If these cousins routinely challenge you, or even if they usually don’t but they are for this one project/task, consider hiring an executive coach to hold you accountable, help you succeed in your endeavors and enable you to reach those personal and professional peaks. The view from the top is outstanding and the emotional feelings that come with a summit are priceless. Have a great day and thanks again.