So, I have been listening to a lot of enlightening media lately, and they seem to have a central theme. The moment. Most of us get caught up in the day-to-day living of life, in which we are always tuned into thinking about things that don’t necessarily apply to right now. If you want to overcome procrastination, you must respect the moment.
With this economy, it sure is easy to drift away thinking about this bill or that bill, or how we are going to pay this or that. With the election season caught, we get thinking about the worse case scenario if this candidate gets into office or if that candidate gets into office.
We get into our emails and forward all this negative news about Candidate X and get all bend out of shape. Oh, how we worry about worst case scenarios. Oh how we dwell in the past and fret over the future. It is these type of activities that are really procrastination in action. In this state of mind, it is hard to overcome procrastination.
The enlightenment masters all say the same thing. ”Now is the moment of power”. You can’t change what happened yesterday, nor can you control events that are happening many days from now. The only thing that is within your ability to affect is NOW, because there is ONLY NOW.
Robin Williams starred in a movie in 1989 called, “Dead Poet’s Society”. This movie had a very powerful catch phrase in it… “Carpe Diem”. But seizing the day isn’t good enough… it’s too vague. More importantly, you need to SEIZE THE MOMENT. Carpe Punctum… Specifically… SEIZING THIS MOMENT.
Time is now. So clear your mind from the trash within, the thoughts that pollute and disempower you. The thoughts that tell you that you aren’t good enough, and the thoughts that tell you that you’ll never measure up. Those thoughts that nitpick at your self-worth and make you feel inferior… they are all trash.
Trash is what keeps you from the only thing that matters… this moment. NOW.
So if you want to motivate yourself to overcome procrastination, just realize that the only thing that you have control over, is right now. Carpe Punctum, my friends. Life is filled with only moments, and doing the right thing now, will ensure that your life will be where you want it to be in the future.
I’d recommend picking up the book, “Peaceful Warrior”, by Dan Millman or watch the movie by the same name. It will help give you a different perspective on this time called time. Use this moment wisely, don’t abuse this moment. Don’t waste this moment. Do in this moment that in which is most important, and your life will be better than you could possibly imagine.
Get off Cultivate Greatnes, and go do something more important and Carpe Punctum!
Yours in growth,
Travis Wright
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I like your sentence “Do in this moment that in which is most important, and your life will be better than you could possibly imagine.”
Procrastination is a huge problem for many people… sometimes it can be beneficial to have a list of tasks needing to be done and set yourself a realistic block of time (e.g. 5 — 10 minutes) where you will focus only on that task. I know most tasks take longer than that to complete, but if you commit yourself to focus on it for a short period of time you can get into a more positive habit of focus.
Jeanne
Jeanne May’s last blog post..Life Little Lessons — inspiration in a video!
Travis:
I agree with you wholeheartedly about the power of now. In my Leadership Garden metaphor I called that trash - weeds. I just posted Lies & Integrity as part of my Big WHY? blog series that also addresses the power of now that my new granddaughter Makenna is teaching me.
We should talk. Sounds like we have very common visions.
Sprouting Greatness,
Debra
Debra J. Slover’s last blog post..The Big Why? Lie & Integrity
I so enjoyed your gentle reminder to be in the now. I’ve read many of Dan Millman’s books and also find them a great tool for understanding how precious each moment is. Thank you for sharing!
I enjoyed a lot this short but very powerful article. I saw the movie you are referring to many years ago. It is a great movie of course, but the phrase “Carpe Diem” is really what is left in one’s memory for a long time. And now with your “Carpe Punctum” I could not agree more.
Reminds me of a quote from the TV series Heroes:
“To live a life of happyness, one must live in the moment, to live a life of meaning, one is cursed to worry about the future and obsess about the past”.
Whether this turns out to be true remains to be seen.
Carpe Punctum - I LIKE that. If I’m thinking of “seizing the day” I can procrastinate until the afternoon, or maybe even until the evening, but “Seize the moment” really applies pressure and demands action now. Good one!
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Ah, great article, and so true. The movie was fantastic as well — the bit about the poetry being the essence of life was simply gorgeous.
So much truth in your words. Whatever you focus on you will achieve. If you use your knowledge from the past to better your future, you will achieve success. But if you dwell on the failures from your past, you’ll continue to fail.
Barbe Ratcliffe’s last blog post..From Past Life Regression to Life Change
It can also be overwhelming to choose how to spend ‘now’ when there are so many things competing for our attention. I’ve seen the book ‘Peaceful Warrior’ and I’ve always wanted to read it. Perhaps I can spend ‘now’ getting a copy and reading it!
I like that advice. It reminds me of the old saying about money - if you take care of the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves. The same is true of time.
So….Carpe Punctum it is!
Great advice and timely. I look forward to more communication like this… pertinent material for challenging times.
David J. Parnell
Communication Expert
Great article! Procratination is a big problem for a lot of people. The power of now is an important concept for people to get.
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I like the concept and the phrase - Carpe Punctum - well done.
In my experience it’s also important to figure out and addresssome of the “mental blocks” which cause procrastination. Sometimes an unwarranted fear or level of discomfort with the task being put off - or sometimes just an unrealistic view of how much time is left to achieve it.
Ian
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A thought provoking post indeed
Reminds me of a quote:
May we remember to measure beauty and joy in our lives by brilliance and not by size or length of time — many times, great beauty and joy are found in very small things and in very brief moments
Great read! I am going to come back often and check and see what you are working on. Do you ever do any seminars or training sessions? I would be interested in attending.
I’ll tell you what, the lesson Im learning is that you need to take consistent action. When you procrastinate, the time clicks by and the seeds you should have planted never get to grow into seedlings and then big trees. Im learning that the things I missed out most are the things that could have developed greatly had I just planted those seeds and let them age with me!
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The present moment is where all power resides. When we step outside of the present moment we loose the power that resides in the now.
+Baker
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