If you find yourself procrastinating, if you find that you have fixed a schedule for yourself and you can't stick to it, then that is a clear indicator that you have filled up your life with things you don't love. One does not postpone joy. One only postpones suffering. And that is procrastination.
“We will do it tomorrow!” What does it tell us about the quality of our life? We are not in love with what we are doing. We don't find joy in it and hence there is a tendency to lose time.
A few words go along with intelligence: Joy, freedom, love. They happen only in Intelligence. They are not carried forward from the past; neither love, nor freedom, nor intelligence. They are always in this moment.
Misery is carried forward, boredom is carried forward, in-attention is carried forward, repetition is carried forward, habits are carried forward. Whatsoever is unworthy is always carried forward, taken ahead, and whatsoever is really worthy lives and dies in this moment.
Relationships are carried forward; love cannot be carried forward. Pleasure can be carried forward; joy cannot be carried forward. It is right now, in this moment. And as the moment is gone, Joy will also go.You may have to rediscover your Joy again in the very next moment. There is no inertia in it. Only matter has inertia to it.
Freedom, love, joy, truth, they are right now without any inertia. You cannot have inventory of them.
Do not think that procrastination is about laziness. We often think that lazy people procrastinate. No, it's not about laziness. It's about the climate of the suffering mind. You want to escape the misery, so you are sending it away. You are saying it need not happen right now, it must happen at some other time.
So let's not ask — How to end procrastination? Let's simply get in to the question of living in a way, in which there is no need to procrastinate, in which the very thought of procrastination does not arise. Can one live in that way? Is that kind of a mind possible?
Procrastination is always about the future. A mind that is immersed in the present will not procrastinate. And a mind that is continuously thinking of the future will do nothing but procrastinate.
Awareness is not some magical trick. Awareness is just about looking at your daily actions and seeing, 'This is my life.' Life is not some imaginary quantity somewhere. What you do from morning till evening, is life. And if your life is full of delays, procrastinations, gossips, worries, tensions, then that is what you are living and nothing good can come out of this kind of climate.
Misery begets misery. Miserable decisions will lead to more miserable decisions. As is the seed, so is the fruit. You will have to look at the seed. That's extremely important. Find out what is it that you will not try to procrastinate and give more of that to yourself. Allow yourself to have more of that.
Procrastination is like saying: Don't get hurt today, get hurt tomorrow. But ultimately you are admitting that hurt is inevitable. Today or tomorrow it will happen. Instead of this kind of a dejected surrender, ask: Is it really inevitable? Why don't I like something? Why don't I like anything? Why is it so that I feel bored always?
Find out that to which you can dance. Find out that which you can do even without being paid. I am not saying that don't get paid. But find that out which you can do even without being paid. Find out a loving way of life. And remember this - one never procrastinates Love.
The writer is Acharya Prashant,Spiritual speaker and author
