8 Beliefs to help you avoid procrastination

8 Beliefs to help you avoid procrastination 1. Talk is cheap Talk is useful for detailing your goals and asking for advice from those in a position to help. However, unless your goal is to act, deliver a speech, or give detailed instructions etc., talking alone will not bring you any closer to fulfilling your goals. 2. Nothing is achieved without action Having a clear vision of what you want to achieve is an essential step towards realising your goals. But, without taking specific action, your vision will remain nothing but a daydream. Daydreaming is one of the more common forms of procrastination while taking positive action is the most effective way to avoid procrastination. 3. You will never achieve perfection It doesn’t matter whether you are waiting for the perfect moment; the perfect opportunity or; you are waiting until you are capable of doing something perfectly. You are waiting for something which will never arrive. Perfection is neither possible nor necessary. All you can do is the best you can do, with the resources available to you at the time. After that, you can strive to continuously improve by seeking feedback, learning from the experience and implementing your learning. If you don’t take action you will have nothing to learn from. 4. Nobody else will inspire you Nobody else is going to take the time to aspire you to achieve your goals. They are your goals and you are the one who will benefit from achieving them. The thought of how your life will be improved by achieving them should be enough to inspire you. If it is not then I would suggest that you are not dreaming big enough. 5. There are no guarantees Nobody can predict the future. There are no guarantees that you endeavours will be without risk. Every attempt at progress is accompanied with a certain level of risk. The best you can do is to prepare for the risk and try to minimise it. The one thing you can be extremely confident of is that failure to take action will not bring you any closer to your goals. 6. If you want change, it is you who must change Other people will not change just because you would like things to be different. What you can change is how you relate to them which in turn will require them to change how they relate to you. Your desired change will never happen unless you change. You can avoid procrastination by taking responsibility for the changes you want to see. 7. Confidence follows action Many people avoid taking action because they want to wait until they are more confident in their ability to succeed at it. The problem is that you can never be truly confident in your ability to do something until you have actually done it. 8. There are no blueprints for success It is your life. You have your own unique purpose and you set your goals to help you fulfil that purpose. Nobody else has, or can walk your journey for you. Therefore, nobody else can provide you with a blueprint which guarantees you success. Others may offer advice but in the end you must make the decisions and take the actions.