Dreams, Problems, and Procrastination
In this week's IMM, I talk about what happens if all you do is talk about your dreams, how you can change the meaning of problems and why procrastination might not be what you think it is.
If all you do is dream, you simply remind yourself of what you are not
While it is important to have goals and aspirations, spending your whole life wishing and dreaming for more all you are doing is giving yourself continuous reminders that you are not where you want to be.
Having dreams is brilliant until you distil them to the point which is that you only dream of having/being something because you don't have it right now. By always talking of your dream you remind yourself of what you are lacking. And in case you haven't realised already - we are wired to see what we are lacking. We become comfortable and bored with what we have had for a little while and our brains start to focus on the future and what might be.
Work out your dream, set it as a goal, work in that direction, and only come back to the dream itself to check on progress.
Life is full of problems, you just need to choose which problems to care about
From birth to death life is full of problems. They're inescapable. The resolution of one problem just brings another one to your door. But once you realise this it is far less depressing than it sounds. A lot of happiness in life comes from a problem that is resolved, a challenge conquered, a struggle outlasted. The puzzle to life is to find the problems that you are best at solving while remembering that no matter the truth of a problem, your response to it is completely within your control. Two people can have the same circumstance but, based on their own unique experiences, view the situation from complete contrarian perspectives. Next time you have a problem in your life, remember that you can change what that problem means to you.
Procrastination is fear in disguise
Chris Williamson spoke this week about how procrastination is more about fear than about time management and I completely agree. When caught in procrastination we often explain it as not having the time to look at the project properly, or feeling too tired to start something new. Yet, certainly from my own experience, a lot of the time it's actually due to a fear of failing (or succeeding) and to not take action is easier than to take action that might expose us as failures.
I plan to take more time this year to assess when I'm not taking action because of procrastination and assessing whether fear is taking over, or if I am genuinely short on time.