Here’s a point that might give you pause. Certainly, it has a pro and a con aspect. However, it’s the “con” aspect that really gives the pause that gives you pause.
Every behavior has a payoff.
This is obvious if you think about it. It means that we do something to get something.
Easy enough to understand, is it not?
This echoes a truth about human nature. We do everything we do to generate a feeling. When you understand this, you can understand humans (including the one you see in the mirror) much better.
Here’s the point that might give you pause. And it’s a pause that costs you money.
Consider an all-too-common behavior like procrastination. If “every behavior has a payoff” is true, this must also be true for procrastination as well.
So what possible payoff can a self-defeating behavior like procrastination deliver and how is that at all desirable?
The answer lies in a fear of success and an acclimation to the feeling of failure. Arguably, these are not desirable even if they are familiar.
And we human beings choose the familiar over the unfamiliar all too often. This is true even when the unfamiliar is the far more beneficial choice.
When you procrastinate, you avoid success. And if you suspect that success and the money it brings with it have undesirable consequences and unwanted responsibilities, procrastination is an acceptable behavior.
If offers a payoff that is safe and familiar, that is, no success and no money.
And if the feeling of failure is familiar and you have accepted this as the norm in your world, can you see how this makes procrastination even more “acceptable?”
And you can always say “I didn’t have time” or “I just didn’t get around to it.”
This is not the way of success. However, it is the way of failure.
So what’s your payoff? Which side of the coin is “familiar” to you?
If it is the coin of success, you either have a lot of coins or will soon. And that’s a desirable payoff.
Filed under: Undeserving Thoughts Tagged: | procrastination
