You Do Not Live Your Life if You Procrastinate

Let’s live a meaningful life, not just live our lives.

There is always some force stopping us from starting something new, whether it is typing the first word, writing the first page, or shooting the first few seconds of filming.

Steven Pressfield created The War of Art to highlight conquering procrastination, one of my most frequently asked questions.

In his words,

The evidence suggests that most of us live two lives, the life we live and the life that remains unlived. However, there could also be resistance between us and the possibility of overcoming procrastination.

I find this to be a very profound insight.

My perspective on productivity and life was utterly changed by it.

After reading the book, I figured out my method of beating procrastination, and they might help you, too.

I am sharing three critical points from the book, and hopefully, you will apply them to your life.

1. Knowing your enemy is crucial.

Procrastination and laziness are not our enemies. However, nevertheless, there is a resistance problem.

What is this resistance?

This is the first question we should answer.

• Resistance is the opposing force actively working against us to stop us from doing what we want.
• It does not stop us from watching a movie or an NBA game. Instead, it prevents us from doing anything we know in our hearts will elevate us.
• Resistance arises when something keeps us from doing something creative or entrepreneurial or taking the risk of putting ourselves out there.

We always have to deal with procrastination when we try to do any of this, and the book has an excellent quote.

Rather than telling ourselves, “I will never write my book,” we tell ourselves, “I will write my book.” I will start tomorrow.’

Lesson#1 learned.

When I first thought about starting my blog or YouTube channel a year ago, I experienced the same thing. The first set of questions that popped up was:

1. Maybe, the timing is not correct.
2. I should have a studio first for my recordings.
3. How will I compete with the affluent writers we have on medium?
4. Why would anyone care for my blogs and videos?

This resistance was all procrastination that was building within me, which created fear resistance.

Fear is excellent because when we feel scared about doing something, it usually means we should do it.

So, I had to start somewhere, at some point — and I began during pandemic times.

My initial focus was writing every day, breaking down my topic ideas into small chunks, and writing to express myself and not impress anyone.

As Steven says in the book —

Fear is perfect because when we feel scared about doing something, it usually means we should do it. When we fear our work or call, we are more sure we will do it.

2. Being a professional vs. amateur.

Procrastination needs to be dealt with. The first method is professional vs. amateur.

• When an amateur takes action, it is whenever inspiration strikes, or when they feel like it, they are not committed, and their goal is to make money for fun.
• Professional shapes their life so that work is a priority.
• They are determined and committed to succeeding by following their inner drive and creative spirit.

We can only deal with resistance if we become a professional with our work rather than an amateur — Steve Pressfield.

This is interesting!

A professional who takes pride in the work will show up every day to the job no matter what. He/she will work through all adversities and always want to improve and be more inclined to grow from the feedback.

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Lesson#2 learned.

We always have to deal with procrastination when we try to do any of this, and the book has an excellent quote.

1. The moment I decided to start my content writing business, I was committed to making it a success.
2. All my initial achievements are just the beginning of my goal of being a ‘brand maker.’
3. I focused on three things: learning from the best, writing consistently, and using failure as a stepping stone to mastery.

3. Banish the ego.

I will do my thing whenever I feel like it because that other thing does not work.

On the contrary, if you are creating something like a pro, key point then we need to banish the ego.

We need to recognize that once we become professionals, we are constantly fighting the self against the ego, and from my perspective, the ego is more concerned with external events and how others perceive us.

In contrast, the self is this inner calm that we have.

When our ego leads us, our main priority is to maintain the status of the ‘I’ in the world.

So we are focused on how external events affect us; everything is superficial and surface-level.

We also have our personal and collective unconscious, which includes our dreams, intuitions, and aspirations.

We try to channel the self when we sit down to create because it is only through the self that we can overcome resistance.

Lesson#3 learned.

This came up directly from lesson#2.

When I set my goals for 2021/22, I focused only on the things I could control, ignoring the external aspects.

My ability to reach a million views or get followers on my YouTube channel or writing platform is absolutely out of my hands — so I ignored it completely.

Final thoughts.

I hope you get something out of this story, implement it according to the goals and processes you might have defined, and strive for the best in life.

Here is a video I created sometime back on my channel.

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