The Pitfalls of Procrastination

We all put off making decisions and taking action sometimes (yes, me too). It's okay to do that occasionally but if you are a regular pontificator then it will constantly cause you pain, even if you aren't aware of it. By putting things off on a regular basis you hold yourself back and instead of progressing in your life, you'll regress.

Mary's Story

I've been coaching Mary for over the past 6 months and she is a classic procrastinator. She'll often agree to taking necessary action which results from each coaching session she has and then not do anything. She's always got the excuses. In fact she could write a book with some of the reasons she comes up with. Her behaviour has had a dramatic impact on her business and personal life.

Her business is growing yet she can't keep up with the growth. She's constantly had staff issues because she puts off dealing with them.

Her office systems are in chaos as a result of not taking action.

She's losing money and having sleepless nights. Her personal life is taking a battering and her relationship with her husband is floundering. She know what she needs to do and yet will not take the time to get the foundations in place.

Now I just wanted to say that the coaching hasn't been a failure in fact despite all of this, Mary has made progress ? slowly.

She has finally had a wake up call. And it's such a shame it had to happen this way.

Mary was working on her computer when the task alarm rang reminding her to ring her Grandmother. This was not the first time she had set this reminder up. In fact it had been appearing over the last month and each time the bell rang, she put off ringing and set another date. It would have been easy to pick up the phone and call her grandmother, yet she chose to procrastinate and reset the alarm again.

However this time when it rang, she stopped in her tracks. She read the note which said 'Phone Grandma'. A wave of sadness engulfed her?Mary's Grandmother had died three weeks earlier!

The Final Word

Mary shared this story with me and was happy for me to write about it so that maybe someone reading this will stop procrastinating and ring their grandad, husband, brother, sister, mother or other loved one before it is too late.

Mary is really feeling the pain and that profound incident has turned her around.

Reminds me of the story of the old man and the dog:

Old man sitting on porch on rocking chair, his dog next to him is whining and howling .. another person walks past and asks "what's the matter with your dog?" and the old man replies, "oh, he's just sitting on a nail" ? stranger asks "so, why doesn't he just get off?" .. to which the old man replies "well, it obviously doesn't hurt enough".

About The Author

Lorraine Pirihi, principal of The Office Organiser (http://www.office-organiser.com.au) is Australia's Personal Productivity Coach.

Lorraine specialises in working with businesspeople showing them how to dramatically boost their productivity, reduce the stress and the mess in their lives and have more time for enjoying their life.

We Offer a Broad Range of Services and Products including: Coaching for small business owners and professionals, keynote presentations and workshops, books, CD's, DVD's and on-line learning programs.

Take action today! Contact Lorraine to discuss your specific needs at lorraine@office-organiser.com.au

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Coaching Information:

Related Articles

Transform Your Image And Accelerate Your Success
Being a lifelong student, I am regularly attending seminars etc. to become the best I can be in all areas of my life.
Discover The Coach Within You
One of the three basic roles of leadership is the coach or mentor. The best boss is often the best coach.
Personal Core Values: Your Key to Success and Happiness
Each of us has our own set of personal values; these are the things which we believe are important, which motivate us and to which we give priority. If I asked you what your personal values are, the chances are that you would struggle to find the answer.
Its Game Time! Four Powerful Lessons in the Game of Life
I turned 29 last week, and if statistics are right and I die on or around my 78th birthday, I am almost 40% done. In a numbers game, that is pretty close to half way.
Guilt By Association & Wealth By It Too!
"Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee what thou art." - Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616) Spanish novelist.
Creating Supportive Environments
I'm writing this on my laptop in a Cosi café in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.
Personal Development Profiles
Personal development profiles, also known as personality profiles, are a tool I frequently use before starting a course of coaching with a client. The client answers a series of questions about preferred behaviour styles and their responses generate a report which outlines their strengths, areas for improvement, blind spots, their contribution to the team, ways they could improve their communication and how to deal with challenging people.
Are YOU a Dreamer?
This morning I watched a news article about a young woman who had just set a world record for sailing across the English Channel. What was special about this Channel crossing? The sailor, Hilary Lister, is a quadriplegic who steered the boat by blowing through two straws.
People Pleasing and How to Stop!
"People pleasing can leave you feeling empty and taken advantage of." Deb MeltonOne of the ways fear shows up in our lives and keeps us from living fully is when we become a people pleaser.
Why Pacing and Leading is for Wimps!
Okay, you have read some books on body language and they all said you must mirror and match, pace and lead..
Self-contentment Leads to Confidence
Being self-content means accepting and acknowledging who you are at your core and becoming satisfied -- maybe not perfect, but satisfied -- in all areas of your life. When you learn to better understand, better appreciate and eventually love yourself, you exude a quiet confidence that will open doors to what you want in life.
Im Gonna Die MY Way
My wife says I have the strangest taste in movies. You see, there are movies I can watch again and again, which she couldn't sit through once.
Why?
I met Sean a year and a half ago in a crowd of 50,000 people. We struck up a conversation and really hit it off.
Nothing is left to Chance
You are going to meet a very important client for lunch. What do you do? If you are anything like Anna the first job is to ensure the outside you is perfect, well dressed, matching clothes, clean shoes, washed in your favourite soaps, perfume.
Addiction to Thinking
Randall sought my help because he was stuck being miserable and had no idea how to get out of his misery. In his life he had experienced moments of great joy and sense of oneness with all of life, but those moments were infrequent.
What is the Success Lesson in this Story?
One of my clients gave me permission to tell you his story.Jim called me 9 months ago and asked for help.
Coaching Prime Time
An awful lot of fantastic coaching has been coming out of Hollywood lately, have you noticed? Whether it's Morgan Spurlock's feature film debut "Supersize Me"..
Freedom for All; Is it Possible?
Freedom for all species and people, and freedom of stress; is it possible? Could the Internet be a tool to getting there?Freedom, what is it? I am an Internet writer whose job is to write about the Internet. Does that mean I am locked into this one area? Am I allowed to write about other things? Well today I am going to test out my supposed freedom, by writing about freedom.
3 Secrets to Developing Superior People Skills
1. If What You Are Doing Is Not Working Change Your ApproachWhen I was in school I always had a small group of close friends but I never found it easy meeting new people.
Negotiating Difficult Life Transitions
Life is a process of beginnings and endings. In both life and nature, there are times when things move slowly and don't seem to change very much.