I save EVERYTHING for the last possible minute.
And so the award for world’s biggest procrastinator goes to…ME!
It’s a terrible habit, I know.
But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re all kind of procrastinators. It almost seems as if society’s making the very act of procrastinating quite acceptable.
Especially for us twenty-somethings.
We’re told a lie repeatedly. Here it goes…
There’s plenty of time! Don’t be in a rush!
We’re in our twenties…we have our whole lives ahead of us…no need to be in a hurry.
But here’s the thing…
When we think that we have plenty of time, we tend to do nothing.
Think about it…when we know that we have a week before that paper’s due, we sit at home watching 100 episodes of How I Met Your Mother. Imagine what happens when we think that we have our WHOLE LIVES to do something, with no deadline in sight.
At what point do we actually get up and write that paper? At what point do we actually start?
Think about all the ideas you’ve ever had.
How many of them have you actually made happen?
When I graduated college, I had so many dreams. I had so many ideas.
I had so much that I wanted to accomplish.
And even today, there’s still so much I want to do.
But for how long have I been saying that I want to do these things?
For a LONG TIME.
And yet, nothing’s happened.
Because I keep convincing myself that I have my whole life to do them.
***
So at what point do we stop with all the talk and actually make things happen?
I hope it’s really soon.
Meg Jay, author of The Defining Decade, argues the same principle in her book, which I highly recommend to anyone in their twenties. Basically, she argues that people in their twenties have been convinced by society that it’s okay to delay adulthood.
30 is the new 20!
40 is the new 30!
So does that mean we get an extra 10 years to do nothing? Because I’m not a fan of that.
We’ve been programmed to think that we don’t have to make decisions. Not now, at least. We don’t have to start thinking about marriage. We don’t have to start thinking about a serious career. We don’t have to start thinking about buying a house. And why? Because we have our WHOLE LIVES to think about those things!
Well, how about we actually start LIVING our lives? How about we start MAKING decisions?
How about we actually start making things happen?
Because yes, it’s a lot easier to procrastinate.
It’s a lot easier to relax and watch How I Met Your Mother.
But if you don’t start making moves now, you’re gunna regret it later.
You’ll wake up 10 years from now and you’ll realize that all those thinks you wanted to do…you haven’t done them.
And that trip you wanted to take…you haven’t taken it.
And you’ll be sad.
Because you’ll feel like you’ve wasted a whole lot of time.
Then you’ll get discouraged.
Then slowly, and sometimes even without realizing it, you’ll give up on your dreams, and you’ll accept that you never accomplished those things that you once wanted so badly.
So let’s not let that happen.
Stop procrastinating, and get to it.
Those things that you want, you can have them.
So what’s stopping you?
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This is so true! I go through phases of serious procrastination, but then I start to panic that I haven’t accomplished enough of my goals yet so that usually put me back on track for awhile.
Nellwyn | http://www.thecardinalpress.com
This is so true! I feel like the first half (ok, 3/4th) of my 20s flew by! Now I’m trying to cram in as much as I can before 30 hits!
Girl I love everything about this! Shout it from the rooftops. We’re letting life pass by idly…
Wow, this is a great reminder! I couldn’t agree more! There is no better time than the present!
hugs, Christina
Christina | Fashion & Frills
Could not agree more!
This blogpost has made me a little bit scared to be honest.
It has made me think that the next ten years will go by in a flash and soon I’ll be 30 and have nothing to show for it! But I suppose it is true, people are deciding to have children at a much older age and leaving things like marriage until they’re much older. But is that not because they want to go off and travel and make something of themselves before they settle down?
Ellen,
http://fishnetsxd.blogspot.ie
I love this post! We automatically procrastinate when we know we have longer to do something. These are all great points!!
So true, and I completely agree. I am a huge fan of the quote “Why put off to tomorrow what I can do today.” – the more we do today, and in our YOUNG year, the better our older years will be. We are essentially setting ourselves up for a good future 🙂 Thanks for sharing, and loved this post!!
So well said! We really do need to stop putting things off for so long!
Loved this! I am such a procrastinator! I always tell myself it is because I work better under pressed (but I’m sure that’s just an excuse 😉 I touched on Meg Jays Ted Talk in one of my recent posts too. The one where she Talks about 30 not being the new 20 and I loved some of her points. I think it’s important that we experience as much as possible in our twenties so we truly get a sense of where we want our futures to go. I think some people get mixed up and think experimenting with different careers or taking the time to travel means we are wasting our twenties, but I disagree! as long as what we’re doing is helping us become better in some way then I support that!
Thanks for sharing!! Xx
Kendra | adjustingtoadulthood.com