The art of (un) procrastination

Have you ever wondered how many times you found yourself making the same New Year's promises? And yet, year after year, you are breaking your own promises then blaming it in time. Then you’re throwing your goals through the window.

What is the value of your words? Have you ever thought about it? Putting yourself in the passenger seat of your own life makes it even harder to reach your goals.

When we become “adults” we realize that we can make our own decisions all by ourselves, but the truth is that we can’t get anywhere alone. We often repeat the same phrases daily and end up making them the rules in our lives, thus believing that “it's okay to do that”, because I can't do anything to change this scenario.

These attitudes reflect on the achievement of our goals. Take a moment and think of those actions that we fail to do due to the small excuses we create in our minds. What phrases do you usually come up as an excuse? It's not just about making decisions, but about knowing what actions to take at the right time. It's really not easy being an adult and having a lot of ways to go along with responsibilities to fulfill. But how do I know whether or not I am procrastinating and letting life go instead of living it?

Those extra five minutes in bed in the morning, or that tempting little button on our alarm clock called "snooze", the lack of time and money to take care of your health, the busy schedule, or the simple fear of change. These are the little villains we face called "procrastinating actions." All these actions make us a procrastinator. The repeated automatic daily attitudes inform our brain that we are not committing to achieve our goals, so you are unconsciously cheating on your priorities.

How many times have you found yourself saying you can't do something like travel, go to the gym, go back to school or even visit that distant relative? The reason is always something like you don't have the time, money, or simply repeat that you are too tired to extend the day after work, but yet, you spend several hours on social media and do not sacrifice that delicious unhealthy snack.

What actions do you know you can start to change from now on? What are you willing to do to stop procrastinating and finally get out of the comfort zone? Many times life comes down to what you give first, and see the results later. It's time for you to take action and look at your goals and start walking toward them.

And what does Bilingual Now have to do with all this? As our slogan says, we want to “change lives” and we have prepared for you 5 basic steps on how to be stronger than your desire to procrastinate.

1.  Write down your goals, and what you can do TODAY to start walking towards them.

Writing down your goals will help you to visualize where you want to be and it also helps you to create an image of your future you on your head. Imagination is your best friend here!

2. Scale the main actions you want to change in order of priority.

Create a step-by-step list of things you can start doing today to get you closer to your goal, and work on them every day! If you’re not taking action to achieve your goal, it will end up being just a dream. To bring it to pass, you have to move towards it.

3.  Before bed, write down action plans for what you can do the next day to get one step closer to your goal.

Not everyday you will succeed with everything you wanted to accomplish, and that´s ok. This is step is very important to help you to get back to your goals even when your day didn’t finish fully accomplished. Remember again, imagination is your best friend. Visualize yourself moving toward your goal and write down how you will do a little bit of it tomorrow.

4.  Seek to create daily habits and maintain a regular schedule.

Get rid of everything you see as a distraction in your daily life. Be careful, things you do repeatedly become your habit, even when you’re not paying attention to them. Take some time to meditate, exercise and take care of health.

5.  Have time for yourself. Use your time to do something you really like, even if you have to study, such as learning a new language or playing an instrument.

We could list here a dozen of steps to tell you what you should and should not do to start NOW on your journey of stopping with the procrastination, but what we want is for you to take a minute and think about small actions or choices that may or may not make you a procrastinator. And then, think about what can you do today to change these actions that keep you from being your best version.

We want to hear from you! Do you think our tips can help you to (un) procrastinate? Share your opinion with us!