I sat in front of my mentor one day and he said to me…I heard that you can play basketball pretty well. Your very good at what you do at work and your highly gifted. BUT…You are lazy, and you are overweight. Those words hit like a brick in the face, the man was right.
How did he see all of this about me when I thought no one else knew. It was at that time that I was reminded to go back and study what the word PROCRASTINATION was and if I was practicing this sin in my life. How? Where did it come from? When did it get here? Why had I become comfortable with it? And would I become bitter or better and run away and cry like a big 30+ year old baby…..??
Let’s give some definitions for this word before I begin so you will know what I am talking about:
PROCRASTINATION Defined: noun: (1) Procrastination is a plague that quickly spreads through crowds of students. It is most commonly found in high schools, where teenagers make up the highest contamination rates. It is airborne and extremely dangerous; infection can occur even if there is no contact with an infected person.
(2) Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so. The word has origin from the Latin procrastinatus, which itself evolved from the prefix pro-, meaning “forward,” and crastinus, meaning “of tomorrow.” It could be further stated as a habitual or intentional delay of starting or finishing a task despite knowing it might have negative consequences
the action of delaying or postponing something. “Your first tip is to avoid procrastination
What does the Bible say about this to believers and doers of the Bible? Because I would argue that I believe the book and regarded it highly! Right?
Proverbs 14: 23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk (procrastination, laziness) leads only to poverty
Ephesians 5: 15 – 17.. So be careful how you live. Don’t live like ignorant lazy people, but like wise people. Make good use of every opportunity you have because these are criminal days. Don’t be fools (stupid), try to find out what the Lord wants you to do. AND GET MOVING!
Procrastination has been around since the start of modern civilization. Historical figures like Herodotus, Leonardo Da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Benjamin Franklin, Eleanor Roosevelt, and a multitude of others have all talked about how procrastination is the “enemy of results”
Some of my favorite quotes about procrastination is from Abraham Lincoln, and Mark Twain: Lincoln wrote “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today” and Twain penned these haunting words, “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.”
Here is a truth fact about procrastination – Is that we all know by experience that it doesn’t’ work. Notice how I used the word “work” which is at the very root of Procrastination. The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary!
Who likes to procrastinate? Just about everybody! Research shows exactly that: When you procrastinate, you might feel better in the short-term, but you always suffer in the long-term.
It does not really matter why you procrastinate, or the reasons you give yourself. Some people love the pressure of deadlines. Some are afraid to fail so they put off what needs to be done until the very last moment. But one thing that all procrastinators have in common is that procrastination has a price.
Research published in the American Psychological Society journal, by Dianne Tice and Roy Baumeister discusses the cost of procrastination. It is closely related to:
- Depression
- Irrational beliefs
- Low self-esteem
- Anxiety
- Stress
Procrastination is not innocent behavior. It is a sign of poor self-regulation, a lack of discipline.
Here are some comments people have made:
- The years after I got out of college were also a struggle for me in terms of starting and finishing work, projects assigned at my employment.
- Every time I had an idea or a goal, I would start, but along the way, things would soon go wrong. I went from starting the race, to total chaos.
- Distractions Procrastination is a habit that just sneaks into your system.
- It is not something you can shake easily.
- Every time I had a business idea or I wanted to start something; it went like this:
other ideas, other opportunities, failure, negative self-talk, etc., would get in the way. And the results are always the same: You never get anything done. So, what was my action plan to be? I asked the Holy Spirit (Yes! My helper. The same person who helped Jesus when he walked the earth as a man in the flesh) to give me an example and he gave me this account from the Bible: Let me show you what he reminded me of:
The story in I Kings 13:11-34 about the liar who got a man killed..Now read fo’ youself!
11An old prophet was living in Bethel. His sons told him everything the man of God did in Bethel that day and the exact words he had spoken to the king. When they told their father, 12he said to them, “Which road did he take?” (His sons had seen which road the man of God from Judah had taken.) 13The old prophet told his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” After they had saddled the donkey for him, he got on it. 14He went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. The old prophet asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “Yes,” he answered. 15“Come home with me, and eat a meal,” the old prophet replied. 16The man of God said, “I’m not allowed to go back with you. I’m not allowed to eat or drink with you. 17When the LORD spoke to me, he told me not to eat or drink there or go back on the road I took to get there.” 18The old prophet said, “I’m also a prophet, like you. An angel spoke the word of the LORD to me. He said, ‘Bring him home with you so that he may have something to eat and drink.’ ” (But the old prophet was lying.) 19The man of God went back with him and ate and drank in his home.
20When they were sitting at the table, the LORD spoke his word to the old prophet who had brought back the man of God. 21The LORD also called to the man of God. He said, “This is what the LORD says: You rebelled against the words from the LORD’s mouth and didn’t obey the command that the LORD your God gave you. 22You came back, ate, and drank at this place about which he told you, ‘Don’t eat or drink there.’ That is why your dead body will not be allowed to be placed in the tomb of your ancestors.” 23After the old prophet had something to eat and drink, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. 24The man of God left. A lion found him [as he traveled] on the road and killed him. His dead body was thrown on the road. The donkey and the lion were standing by the body. 25People who passed by saw the body lying on the road and the lion standing by the body. They talked about it in the city where the old prophet was living.
26When the old prophet who had brought the man of God back from the road heard about it, he said, “It’s the man of God who rebelled against the words from the LORD’s mouth! The LORD gave him to the lion. It tore him to pieces and killed him as the word of the LORD had told him.” 27Then the old prophet told his sons to saddle his donkey for him. So they did. 28He found the body of the man thrown on the road. He also found the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body, nor had it torn the donkey to pieces. 29The old prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. He came to his own city to mourn for him and to bury him. 30He laid the body of the man of God in his own tomb and mourned over the man, saying, “Oh no, my brother, my brother!” 31After he had buried the man of God, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the tomb where the man of God was buried. Lay my bones beside his bones. 32The things that he announced by a command of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and all the illegal worship sites in the cities of Samaria will happen.”
33Even after this, Jeroboam didn’t change his evil ways, but he once again made some men priests for the illegal worship sites. He took all who were willing and appointed them to be priests at the worship sites. 34Appointing illegal priests became the sin of Jeroboam’s family so that it had to be destroyed and wiped off the face of the earth.
We will continue with Part 2….