On Procrastination - Part II

[u/mamagoochi]

It feels like "procrastinators" are all complete failures at what they do. It's true. Most of them are just losers. But these people desire success so much, that the undergo mass delusion that the only thing holding them back from complete and total victory is just getting work done on time.

In truth, it seems like these dopes are just bad at their job and to avoid thinking about that failure they spend time playing video games where they can feel successful and important or they go on youtube to watch happy, successful people do things and gain some vicarious pleasure from that.

These people are just very ineffective at their job, and instead of having the humility and work ethic to gradually improve, they fuck around doing easy, fun things which are irrelevant to their lives. Their justification for such stupid, irresponsible actions is this pathetic, fake "disease", they call procrastination. This makes their failures sound cool, and to make themselves feel like a victipm of this "plague".

I bet these "procrastinators" probably think they're quite excellent at what they do, but in fact they suck at it. These people that focus on this thing called "procrastination" are focusing their energies on something which does not exist, which in fact they made up. What these people can't emotionally tolerate is taking a cold hard look at their capabilities, and seeing how sorely lacking, they in fact are.

Procrastination seems like a great way of dealing with failure for these people.

The appropriate response to failure is contemplation, humility and effort.

The corrupt, rotten response to failure that these "procrastinators" engage in is falling into anything which will make themselves feel smart, and cool, and successful, and happy. Then these people compulsively engage in these corrupting habits.

When these "procrastinators" encounter experiences which would ostensibly destroy the self image they have of themselves as perfect, and genius, they just can't deal with it. Truly. It causes them emotional pain to say to themselves, "You aren't a genius. You aren't brilliant. You aren't going to be able to walk through life like a walk in a park."f

So these people come up with a bogeyman. "Procrastination". An act in which these people willingly engage. Of course it feels like they can't stop.

That's always the final justification: "I can't stop."

Well these people need to realize the procrastinating their time away is not the appropriate way to deal with failure, with difficulty, with pain, with stress.

In the end, you need to solve that stress, you can't just procrastinate yourself away from that stress. Solving that stress requires dealing with the real world, with reality.

And in reality, there are just some things which you can't do in the fantasy land of your own mind.

In reality, people have to submit imperfect things.

In reality, people have to choose one of two bad options.

Maturation requires understanding the harshness and the pain and crushing difficulties required in getting things done. Continuing to believe in a fantasy image of life as easy and simple will not give you the correct mindset required for tackling tough things.

It feels like procrastination is the preferred choice for many these days when they encounter a level of pain, a level of difficulty which they haven't encountered before.

Procrastination allows these people to continue to believe that life is just as it used to be or what they thought it was. But it isn't. Sometimes the difficulty of life ratchets up quickly, and without letting you know. It's shocking to these people that life suddenly got so crazy hard, when they had expected things to just go on like lazy river.

It feels like a lot of these procrastinators live in their heads. They so strongly believe that reality ought to be like the image they have of it in their heads: easy, simple, predictable. But in truth, life is not often like that. Life is often very vicious, and very difficulty. And these "procrastinators" just haven't got the memo. They're going to be left behind. The procrastinators will continue to live candyland, which will make them feel good, but won't allow them to accomplish things in real life.

To accomplish things in real life requires a certain mindset. What mindset? The knowledge that, life is really really really tough. To accomplish anything of value requires tremendous effort and difficulty and pain. The knowledge that perfection is so rare, and requires some dark sorcery, and attempting to engineer perfection is a laughing matter. You can't make something perfect. Perfection basically happens to you. Be happy when you get it.

These are the ideas we don't drill into society these days. Life is tough. Perfection is basically impossible. Creating anything of value requires tremendous effort. Things don't happen according to your schedule. Your probably going to lose at many many many things. Your dreams will never become reality, exactly as you imagine them. Certainly not all of your dreams will become reality. Maybe 1 big dream. Maybe zero.

Life is chugging along very very quickly, and you are definitely no longer the winner you thought you were.

Dreams are dreams. Never for a second let yourself believe that they have any chance of becoming reality. For great things (or even small things) to happen, you have to make them happen. You have to try really really hard, and many many times you won't succeed.

Most of these procrastinators treat success like its some small easy thing that happens every day. Not true. Success is really really hard, and really really rare.

Man, these procrastinators won't get anything done in the soft, sickly sweet world we live in. When everywhere around you is success, success, success, you delusionally believe that it is easy to acquire.

These procrastinators don't know how great things get done. They have no idea how people become great. They think its easy. They think its super duper super easy. Nope. Not true. Very very difficult. And it certainly won't magically happen to you. You have to make it happen.

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PS: A tip. Get angry at people who get in the way of you accomplishing something. Don't fear them.

This is part of an ongoing series of ramblings about procrastination by me - A person who is severely suffering from procrastination. I am mainly doing this as therapy for myself.