Rush Through Life At Your Own Risk!

Bogged down by procrastination? Part of the problem is that you think you have to get it done today, or at least sooner than later. You've been brainwashed by the popular maxim: "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today."

Hogwash!! Even though your goals can only be accomplished through appropriate daily deeds, they nevertheless take time and cannot be rushed. When you feel you must hurry to accomplish your goals, this leads to what I call “goal-rush” thinking. This is a sure-fire way to short-out your energy and sabotage your efforts in the pursuit of your goals. Feeling rushed often leads to muddled thinking, mistakes, lack of concentration, abbreviated attention span, frustration and eventual failure.

Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? Do you frequently feel tired throughout the day even though you’ve slept well the night before? Have you ever felt harried for no particular reason? Does life overwhelm you with all the demands and tasks that it presents you every day? Do you find it difficult to relax when you have the time to do so? Do you feel anxious as you prepare for a presentation, performance or meeting? Do you feel that something bad is about to happen or that “the other shoe” is about to drop and it won’t be good news?

If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, you are more than likely experiencing the effects of “goal-rush.” Ironically, rushing yourself to accomplish your goals results in confusion about what actions are most appropriate to take, and this winds up stalling your efforts to take any action at all.

The main reason you’re not taking action to move forward is that your brain is overworked. It’s tired from trying to process, manage and integrate all the bits of data it receives and retains every day of your life. It’s exhausted from being pushed to perform in over-drive. You need to take charge of your brain and tell it what’s important and what’s not. You need to consciously direct its movement toward subjects of thought that are edifying and away from those that further drain its energy and focus. You need to stop rushing through life.

Ever see those 3-D pictures? They’re sometimes called “Magic Eye” puzzles. At first inspection, they look like a jumble of smudges and smears with no apparent form or image. It takes three traits for a person to see the third dimension:

1) belief that the third dimension is in there waiting to be seen

2) belief in yourself that you can see the third dimension

3) determination to stay engaged with the picture until the third dimension emerges

If any of these three elements is not present, all you’ll be able to ever see is what first presents itself to you – a two dimensional surface with no depth or meaning.

As you pursue your goals you’ll do well to engage these three traits of goal accomplishment. To do this requires time and timing. Allow yourself the necessary time to decide what needs to be done and the appropriate timing in which to do it. Some things cannot be done effectively before other things are done first. With this approach, you will discover that what you need to be doing to achieve a goal might not need to be done until tomorrow.