We had my son’s parent teacher interviews at school the other day. He had 100% success rate but not the kind you really want. His success? He managed to have every one of his teachers say, “You’re a pleasure to have in the classroom BUT stop all your procrastinating and get your work handed in, or you’ll fail.” He was shocked and afraid.
You see, he’s a typical 16-year-old boy and his world revolves around having a good time. In his young, teenage boy’s mind the future is something that comes later and it’ll all work out perfectly. Plenty of time, right? And his schooling up to now has been quite easy for him because he’s been able to draw on his natural ability. But there comes a time when you can’t simply do what you’ve always done because that’s not sufficient anymore. Sometimes you have to actually put in a bit of effort and heaven forbid…a bit of extra work!
And so his procrastination eventually came and bit him where it hurts the most…it took away his freedom! He has to do school work while all his friends are on vacation for the next two weeks and having a good time. He’s sitting at his desk catching up on overdue assignments and doing the other work that needs to be done before he goes back to school. And I’m proud to say that he’s made that choice himself; I didn’t tell him he had to. He got enough of a wake-up call and came to the realization that success wasn’t going to simply come to him…he has to MAKE IT HAPPEN. Short-term pain for long-term gain!
Why Am I Telling You This?
Well, we are all guilty of the same attitude sometimes. We have high hopes and expectations in our life but often we sit back and wait for success to come to us, instead of doing the work needed to MAKE IT HAPPEN. And when we are trying to get our life back on track, it’s super important we recognize this. We think that the way we always did it will still work, without realizing that perhaps it’s time to do things differently. We don’t put in the effort required, or we start and then don’t finish. It’s like you got half way through your school assignment but then never quite got around to completing it or handing it in. But as the teachers said, “If you don’t finish the job, you fail.”
Perhaps we should think of our life in more finite terms, like we do our school years. Instead of seeing an endless path stretching out for the next 75 years and falsely believing there’s plenty of time to ‘get around to it’, maybe we need more deadlines.
But if YOU don’t set those deadlines, then Life has no choice but to shock you into action.
- You get ill…so you start taking better care of your health.
- Someone dies…so you appreciate being alive.
- Disaster happens…so you reassess how you’re living and make some changes.
Life sometimes feels unfair and cruel, and we can’t control every situation or event that happens to us. But we certainly influence so much of what happens to us…we just need to open our eyes to how our actions have created our current reality.
What Do You Want In YOUR Life?
Are you happy to wait around and see if it will happen or are you going to MAKE IT HAPPEN? Remember…you can’t always rely on what you’ve done in the past and sometimes you are the one that has to put in a bit of extra effort.
- Someone you need to say something to?
- Something you need to do?
- Something you’ve been meaning to start?
- Something you’ve been wanting to try?
- Somewhere you want to go?
- Time to make a few changes?
Don’t get bitten where it hurts you the most — do what needs to be done now BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!
Image Copyright: zetwe / 123RF Stock Photo
