Procrastination: The Silent Killer of Dreams | #1
by Dewana Coffey, RN | December 29th, 2023
Procrastination steals our dreams, often without us ever noticing.
I put my ego aside and studied what worked for others.
Here’s a quick story about what I learned followed by action steps to start today:
Scrubs bleached the vibrant hues from Sarah’s dreams, leaving a dusty easel in the corner, a tombstone of too many tomorrows.
Her thoughts returned the words “maybe, tomorrow” when she saw a beautiful sunrise on her drive home.
Years of putting others’ needs ahead of her own left her thinking of the lie of tomorrow.
“Tomorrow” she would whisper, but tomorrow never came.
This silent morning, thoughts roared to life louder than any alarm.
Life isn’t a race to finish the painting but rather a beckoning invitation to continue making tiny, vibrant strokes for as long as possible, Sarah realized.
Sarah, the nurse, the artist, the woman finally understood.
Dreams weren’t treasures found on some distant horizon; they were built, brushstroke by stolen brushstroke.
Each day, each stroke, a rebellion against the fear of “tomorrow.”
Sarah stared at the blank canvas, no longer a symbol of emptiness, but a canvas of endless possibilities.
Today, she didn’t wait. Today, she created.
Some quick stats on Procrastination if you’re unfamiliar:
- It is a high drive for something combined with not taking action
- Thinking, planning, & learning until you could teach it out of fear
- Instead of getting a reward from taking action you get it from avoiding pain
- You’re fearful because you don’t trust that you know what you should do
So… what can we learn from others’ experiences?
You can only really control one thing, you.
But first, you have to trust yourself.
Create self-trust with this simple, 3-part framework:
1) Find Yourself
2) Fix Yourself
3) Free Yourself
Pair this framework with unmatched knowledge of who you are and you gain the ability to know the difference between what to use your time and energy and what not to do.
Let’s dig in:
Before you can trust yourself you have to first Find Yourself.
Stop wasting your time & energy chasing others dreams by finding yourself.
Doing this provides:
- A way to stop numbing yourself because you are not chasing your dreams
- Confidence to use your limited time rather than giving it away
- More time to do what is important to you
The fast way to find yourself is to meditate to stay mindful more often.
- Allow feelings and thoughts to flow in & out without action
- Acknowledge them
- Move on
Simple, but highly effective.
The next part of creating trust focuses on Fixing Yourself.
To do this, Fixing Yourself starts with:
- Eating gut healthy foods to repair your mind and body
- Moving your body & experiencing outside environments wakes up your senses
- Avoiding distractions and addictions stop you from numbing your senses
- Experimenting with different actions finds what you love to do.
Start by taking small actions to make a big difference in how you feel fast
The ultimate reason to create trust is to Free Yourself.
To do this, Freeing Yourself starts by knowing what to leave for someone else:
- Don’t waste your time doing things that benefits others dreams
- When you trust yourself you know what you can control and what you can’t
- You have just as much right to follow your dreams as anyone else as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else’s ability to follow theirs.
Freedom, after learning to trust yourself will guarantee you are successful at kicking procrastination in the bits.
So, let’s recap what we’ve learned:
The first step to overcome procrastination is learning to trust yourself.
1. Practice meditation every day
2. Take care of your health
3. Don’t numb yourself to death
The point of meditation, and mindfulness is to know that feelings and thoughts will pass without having to waste your precious time & energy if they don’t fit who you are or want to become.
Start today and you will see your dreams start to come true, one tiny brushstroke at a time.
Until Next Week,
