On procrastination

Inaction is action

Procrastination is a lack of decision. Lack of decision is inaction.

One chooses whether to act or not to act. Therefore one simple decision to act paves the way to progress.

It’s not so long ago that I found myself in the abyss of inaction. Bootstrapping is hard, especially if you’re solo founder. I’ve spent almost 6 months on doing things that had not had the outcome I expected. Now I can see my own mistake. I let my expectations exceed the threshold of my reality. That led me to self-doubt, which in turn led me to inaction.

Now, after changing my environment and looking back I can see that I need proper focus and time to calibrate my inner voice and thoughts. After all, it’s the thoughts we have, which determine the actions we take.

If you’re in a situation where you struggle to attach your success to reality, I’d recommend to take a step back and ask yourself the following:

What decisions have I left undecided?
What promises haven’t I kept to myself?

And then, after finding a few decisions and promises that are uniquely yours, I’d ask:

What actions do I need to take in the next week to fix it?
What system should I have in-place so that it won’t occur again?

This requires analysis where one looks into himself hard enough to see the missing pieces. It’s worth it and I’d say do it. Nobody promises us tomorrow.

The solution, the system

A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week. — George S. Patton, General of the United States Army

Anything that happened to me in my adult life is an outcome of the system I have. It might be bad, it might be not. The point is that I have one. You do too.

In absence of clearly-defined goals become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia, until you ultimately become enslaved by it. — Robert A. Heinlein, writer

The routine, daily activities or rituals. No matter how I call it, it’s there. It’s what my life consists of. Day in, day out.

If I want to achieve things I haven’t achieved before or if I want to experience life I haven’t experienced — I need to change my routine.

And this is what I’ll be leaving you with today.

Think deep about your activities, your daily trivia. We get so carried away by the minutiae of everyday life. We need to take care of our priorities.

There’s no answer outside. It’s within us.