Do you know the #1 SILENT KILLER of dreams?
“Where did the time go?” It’s a common phrase expressing the passing of time. But it could have two completely different meanings.
Joe and Diane just had the best vacation of their lives together. Joe looks at Diane and says “that was wonderful, where did the time go? Let’s do it again!”
Alex finishes up a 65 hour week in a stressful job and does not enjoy it. Weeks, months go by repeating the same routine. Even years. One day Alex stares at an empty coffee-stained mug on his computer desk and wonders to himself “my… where did the time go?”
For one person, the question “where did the time go?” could mean they lived an exciting life, fulfilled their greatest desires, and just want more of that experience.
For another, the phrase might mean they can not figure out how they let precious time slip through their fingers so quickly while missing out on their dreams and want more time so they can do what they missed out on.
And then there’s everyone in between. What about you?
Or better yet, if you could get more time out of your day to design the life you want, what would you do with it? Would you build on your dreams? Or would you continue to let opportunities slip by?
The answer seems obvious. You would probably use the time to become a master of your destiny and take control of your life.
So what stops us from just getting up out of our seats and just “going for it?” That’s where our silent killer comes in. And it is deadly to your dreams, desires, and goals.
Simply put, it’s name is procrastination. (You’ll want to keep reading this even if you tend to do better under pressure because it might just help you do better, whenever you want, by your terms.)
That’s right. We all recognize the #1 Killer which is fear.
We know fear because it makes our gut churn, our body shiver, and get’s us to either fight, flee, or do nothing. We know the voice of fear too. In fact, it might be too familiar and sound just like us. It’s often the voice in our head that pitches us our own self-doubt and insecurity. We can see, feel, and hear fear.
When we recognize fear and how it stops us from our life’s dreams, we can face it.
However, fear is a bit less deadly than our silent killer when it comes to living to the fullest. Reason being, procrastination comes cloaked in many forms.
It might sound like “I’ll do it next week.” Or “I’ll start after this round” while playing a video game.
Or it might feel like the need for an extra long lunch break or even something more enjoyable like laughter while scrolling on a streaming video platform that feeds us what we want, moment after moment. And at some point, we might recognize the time we’ve wasted and say “oh shoot, where did the time go?”
This is not about being a machine and hustling 24/7 until we burnout either. It’s about recognizing the many faces of procrastination just like how we can recognize fear in many forms.
When you are able to recognize procrastination, that’s when you can truly start to take control of your time, your life, and go after what you truly want in life.
Want to learn more about procrastination and the proven brain science breakthroughs to overcome it?
Check out this page on Prosperity Conscious.
Let’s also take a peek at another voice of procrastination called self-trash-talk. Have you ever spent more time thinking about doing something but either never get to it, or you wait much longer than you needed to?
For example, if we have a fitness goal such as losing weight or improving overall health, one of the activities might include cardio exercises such as running which many might dread. As we prepare ourselves for our run, the dreaded sound of self-trash-talk might start to appear.
“I’ll never lose this weight so it’s not worth it.” “I’ll wait until I get better shoes.” “I’ll listen to a few more podcasts, and watch a few more videos to motivate myself because I’m not ready yet.” “I’m just a lazy person, maybe I deserve where I’m at.” “I’m terrible at cardio exercises, let me keep searching to see if I can find some miracle diet so I can skip running.”
Do you recognize any of these thoughts yourself? If so, ask yourself this: is it you or your procrastination talking?
The fact is, you don’t have to let those thoughts define you. Procrastination breeds thoughts that distract you from what you really want. It’s not usually because of a fear of running or going to the gym that keeps us from exercising, it’s procrastination. And the worst part is it’s tough to know which thoughts are valid or which ones are procrastination rearing it’s ugly head.
If your shoes are ripped and torn, maybe you do need to go get new ones. Maybe a podcast or video might give you that extra spark you need to get your workout in. Maybe there is some sort of diet or routine that you do not know about that could change your life — such as finding ways to protect your joints and ligaments and being hydrated and fueled with the right nutrients so your body can handle the exercise.
With so many distractions today, procrastination only get’s easier and more unrecognizable.
Three hours on social media, consuming content purely for entertainment can feel like an instant. We recognize the time as three hours on a clock, but our body and mind does not experience it the same way. The time zooms by. And when that time start’s to add up, we miss out on great opportunities to live the life we want. Unfortunately, we only recognize it after the fact.
Can you start to see how deadly procrastination is? It’s not deadly because it feels bad. Most of the time, procrastination feels good. But it kills time, our most precious resource.
Money, energy, resources, and food, most anything we can want in life is abundant. Or they will be along for as long as we and billions of others remain alive. But our time is limited.
Few people fear procrastination. It might even feel good at times, such as putting off an important activity by doing something else we’d enjoy more, for the moment.
Is there something important in your life that you once felt fear about but overcame it? And now it’s a matter of simply getting yourself to do it? But you find yourself distracted by other things that are not as important?
Fear can even be helpful in some cases. Fear can motivate you to get out of a bad situation, or to get into a better situation.
Being afraid of a bad situation such as being broke, having a bad relationship, or looking out of shape might motivate you to change your money mindset, focus on loving, and get a gym membership.
So far I’ve only used small examples. Add up these “put offs” and “distractions” and minutes turn into hours which turn into days and more which could have been time put toward a major breakthrough or something even more fulfilling.
Overall, procrastination kills time, and causes us to put off things. It is a silent killer of dreams because it’s easy to to undetected. Now that you recognize it, getting control of it, and claiming back your time to pursue what you want in life is only a few steps away.
Now that you’ve become more acquainted with procrastination, be sure to take those steps to get more out of your time to do what you really want. Your future self, and others too will thank you for it.
If you want proven ideas that have helped thousands end or reduce their cycle of procrastination, simply visit Prosperity Conscious.
