Olives International: How to Kill Procrastination

Excerpts from Grow Your Seeds by Uyoyou C Charles-Iyoha

Procrastination is said to be the thief of time and if you permit me, I will add wealth, favor and all the blessings God prepared for His children. The thief of time is no ordinary thief. This thief is a very skilled thief. He steals of what is important to your success and dignity in life without you ever knowing that he is the one at work. Slowly, but tactically and in a very organized way procrastination takes control of the procrastinator’s life. The procrastinator always has an excuse for putting anything that needs to be done off. Decision to be taken to propel a person forward, avert danger, save a life, introduce new changes for major breakthroughs are put off to a later date that is of course again postponed because of procrastination. Same goes for activities, utterances to be made, and appointments to be kept. The procrastinator just keeps putting things off.

Surprisingly, procrastination is not really a function of laziness. It is most often the result of fear, the fear of leaving the familiar for the unfamiliar, the fear of treading in untested waters, the fear of success, the fear of failure, the fear of prosperity, the fear of living a holy life, the fear of making a lot of money, the fear of being known, and just about any fear you can think of. Procrastination can also be a result of a bad habit of leaving assignments undone to be done at a person’s earliest convenience. However, a person’s earliest convenience may wreak havoc on the activities of other people.

This explains why smart people who are daily forging ahead in their daily businesses never want anything to do with a person who procrastinates. The simple act of procrastination can put a billion dollar business in jeopardy, create chaos that may take days, weeks and months to bring under control, destroy lives especially in the case of emergencies. Take for instance a situation of natural or manmade disasters where help is required immediately and a procrastinator is the one who has to provide that help. So many lives will be lost before the procrastinator shows up.

No wonder the Bible condemns the lazy farmer who kept sleeping in; postponing the day for ridding his farm of weeds in Proverbs Chapter 24 verses 30 to 34. The farm was overgrown with thorns and nettles; and its stone wall was eventually broken down. Particularly instructive is the fact that this very promising farm was ruined on account of procrastination, “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest” was what invited poverty into the procrastinator’s life.

Procrastination is an entry point of the devil, a strong legal ground which you give the devil to operate on. Acting promptly is what kills procrastination. Procrastination has cost me quite a lot and I have had to learn the way. That is why I appeal to you to get rid of it from your system if you have a problem with procrastination. I recall that God instructed me to move out of a particular office space which I honestly loathed but tolerated because the rent was peanuts. I hate to admit that I was penny wise and pound foolish particularly so when God asked me to move to a more decent office space that I could easily afford. That penny pinching office space sandwiched between rows of other offices went up in flames one night when one of the neighbours got careless. What a way to learn but I did learn. That explains why I always say that whatever you have to do should be done promptly. Remember that the early bird catches the fattest worm. Procrastination is also why I delayed on http://www.olivesinternational.com. I was to commence publishing in 2008, especially 2009 and 2010 when I had the resources to act. But I celebrated ignorance and refused to act hoping that as time wore on, I would get the ideas without seeking knowledge. I could have dealt with the ignorance part by seeking knowledge. Instead, I just waited believing that someday light will come. But what would have happened if I diligently sought out the light then? I would have become a billionaire earlier and saved myself the financial and emotional hardship coupled with the humiliation I experienced as I struggled financially in 2011 and 2012.