Ending Passivity and Procrastination

By Abundant Robert K. AWOLUGUTU
The great George Orwell once commented: “For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle (home life, and perhaps the trade unions or local politics) he feels himself master of his fate but against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavouring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him.”

A passive person is one who accepts whatever happens or what people say to him without taking action to change the situation in his life. A passive person lacks initiative; they are often overwhelmed by events in their lives.

Passivity is a disease; it is like a lid has been placed on the abilities of its victims. Those who are passive are like spectators. They are like people without dreams. They lack the spirit of ambition and dynamism. They do not have goals that excite them. They have nothing to live for. They have nothing to strive for in life. The world would not have made any significant progress with passive people. The prime movers of civilization and human development have been active people, people who set goals and committed themselves to the achievement of those goals.

Where do you belong? The club of non-performing passive people or those who are in the arena sweating and toiling to improve the system of things of this world?

A passive life is not good for you. You can never make news with this kind of attitude. You should never accept whatever happens to you as fate. Get over your state of passivity and go on to make something of your life. You have been engineered for success. Don't settle for mediocrity. Rise above your problems and go on to achieve the goals the good LORD has helped you to set.

Passivity can kill your dreams and you must not allow this to happen to you.

Procrastination is another evil thing that can cause death to your dreams. You procrastinate when you postpone what you are supposed to do to get results. It is something that is common with a lot of people. Some people have brilliant ideas, set goals and plans about what they want to do with their lives but they never take action to bring their dreams into fulfillment. They never take the initiative, they never get started and therefore get nowhere in life. They are stuck so to speak.

Procrastination is a killer of dreams just like passivity. But why do some people allow passivity and procrastination to get the better part of their lives?

Fear of failure
The fear of failure holds them back from taking action to better their lot. Keep your goals under your hat. Do not discuss all your ideas with people. Some people will not like you to get ahead of them in life.

Seeing the bright future that lies ahead if your plans get through, they will out of envy throw spanners into your plans and cause their derailment. They will cause you to abandon your plans by convincing you of their impracticality. They will craft scenarios depicting people who failed doing what you intend doing.

After listening to such negative and disparaging comments you may give up on your dreams. You do this to avoid criticism and possible failure. You do not want to become a laughing stock in the eyes of others.

Passivity and procrastination put you in a rut. You only think highly of what you want to do without actually doing anything about them. Your problems remain unresolved. You make no progress.

Men of action
Bible exhorts us that faith without works is dead. Your excellent ideas are worthless unless you take action to get things done. The people whose names are ringing a bell are people who were men of action and not passive people. Think of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who have achieved greatly in life. They were men of action. They took action to actualize their dreams and goals. They did not procrastinate.

WE have seen how passivity and procrastination can undermine your progress in life. How can you overcome these twin evils?

Break down the process
First have a clear goal and a road map for achieving the goal. Break down the process of goal achievement into manageable tasks and deal with one task after another until total success is attained.

You can eat an elephant but only after taking one bite-size after another. There is wisdom in doing this. Some poor income earners were able to put up their own accommodation using this very principle of breaking down tasks and doing one thing correctly after another whereas some high salary workers without good planning and allowing procrastination have not been able to put up their own houses.

Breaking tasks into manageable stages will enable you do great things. From practical experience writing a book is one of the easiest things a determined person can do. I have made a personal commitment to submit one or more articles a week to the media. After one year I will have not less than fifty two topics covering a wide range of subjects which can be put together in book form.

Another technique for dealing with passivity and procrastination is to commit to paper what you want to do. Keep a diary of your activities. Review your activities and eliminate what wastes your precious time. Do more of what takes you to goal accomplishment as opposed to what is drawing you back from the achievement of your goals.

Do not delay in carrying out your plans for successful achievement. Delays are dangerous. William Shakespeare, the great British poet and playwright wrote: “Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.”

There is another cogent reason why you should not allow procrastination to get the better part of you. It leads to missed opportunities to better one's lot. AS a very wise man once observed, “Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.”

Value your time for your presence in this world is but temporary. Time is the stuff your life is made of. Waste time and you have wasted a part of your life.

Our inability to finish projects we have started also amounts to procrastination. Finish every project you start. It is far better than having a thousand projects and unable to complete even one.

In conclusion, passivity and procrastination are killers of dreams. Their toll on success and happiness is heavy. We are born to succeed. The world is waiting for our contribution that will make this world a better place than we came to meet it.

To Your Success,
Abundant Robert AWOLUGUTU
Corrections Officer
Kumasi Central Prisons
+233(0) 208 455 296.
Email: [email protected]