Procrastinators are made, not born. Procrastination is indirectly learned in the family milieu and can be traced back to childhood. When a child has not been made accountable or made to be responsible by being given various tasks that they have to accomplish in a timely matter and structure, they are being trained to be procrastinators. When their excuses for being irresponsible are accepted, their parents do them a tremendous injustice.
Twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. Sixty-seven percent are too blind to see and admit to their own inadequacies. Therefore, for them, procrastination is a lifestyle – albeit a maladaptive one – and they have a propensity toward never practicing punctuality.
Procrastination can even be a form of rebellion. Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that don’t take a lot of commitment on their part. Sometimes, because of their fear of failure, they procrastinate on a project so that their incompetence is masked by delays, stoppages, and setbacks. With them, it is always tomorrow, next time, when conditions are better, phone calls, everybody, too much on my plate, etc.
Chronic procrastinators are usually chronic liars as well. They are not necessarily bad people; they are simply people with a character flaw (to put it mildly). Nonetheless, there is a high cost for being a procrastinator, and/or having one on your team or staff. Procrastinators can cost companies thousands; and depending on their position, they can cost a company into the millions of dollars.
Imagine the price paid in your own life for doing something later rather than now. For example, have you ever gone to a department store, and the shoes you wanted were on sale for 75% off the ticket price, but you procrastinated and decided to buy them the next day? When you went back, the same shoes were back to the original price, $299.00. You lost approximately $224 dollars by holding off on what you really wanted. Everything in this world does sum up to dollars and cents. However, you understand the value of a dollar more than anything else in life does.
Leave a Reply