Procrastination

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The dreaded big “P” that hinders the accomplishment of a lot of things. A lot of people admit to procrastinating now and then. Why? Different people have different reasons and this often include: fear (of failure or of success), uncertainty about a certain goal, lack of determination, lack of motivation, or it has become a habit to put things off.

What if you really want to overcome the habit of procrastination?

Zig Ziglar once said,  “If you need to wake up in the morning and eat a live frog, you wouldn’t want to look at that sucker for too long!” Brian Tracy on the other hand took inspiration from Mark Twain who said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

What’s with the frogs and what do they have to do with procrastination? The frogs are what we tend to put off or postpone doing due to different reasons we tend to associate with the task, it’s hard, impossible, it can be done later, there is so much time to do it and other similar excuses. Swallowing the frog first thing in the morning gets more things done and allows us to achieve our goals.

How do you swallow the frog? The following points are taken from Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog (21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time):

1. Set the table
2. Plan every day in advance
3. Apply the 80/20 rule to everything
4. Consider the consequences
5. Practice the ABCDE method continually
6. Focus on key result areas
7. Obey the law of forced efficiency
8. Prepare thoroughly before you begin
9. Do your homework
10. Leverage your special talents
11. Identify your key constraints
12. Take it one oil barrel at a time
13. Put the pressure on yourself
14. Maximize your personal power
15. Motivate yourself into action
16. Practice creative procrastination
17. Do the most difficult task first
18. Slice and dice the task
19. Create large chunks of time
20. Develop a sense of urgency
21. Single handle every task

Stopping procrastination does not happen overnight, it takes dedication and determination to overcome it. Praying about it will definitely help a lot.

Unlimited Happiness

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Prior to learning about Raja Yoga, I am one of those people whose concept of yoga is about the different poses or sutras; but perhaps it was really meant to happen that I find the path to this yoga. The search for a yoga instructor started when stress started to creep in due to a subject in school that cannot be considered as a wonderful learning experience, rather the opposite.

I have learned that the response or reaction (e.g. feeling stressed) to stimuli (e.g. subject in school) is the choice of the creator of the thought (the person facing the stimuli). The stimuli have no control over a person for there is always a choice; the same stimulus can get different responses from different people, the way they react is their own choice. Each person reacts differently because thoughts and feelings are within the hands of the person and not dictated by the stimulus itself.

People can choose happiness and be completely stress-free once the negative-emotions-are-caused-by-objects-or-the-lack-thereof (e.g. things, achievements) mentality has been eliminated.

Raja Yoga emphasizes the following:

• Happiness is NOT dependent on physical objects.
• Objects, possessions, gadgets are designed to give us physical comfort.
• Physical comfort is different from emotional comfort. Happiness is a feeling.
• Happiness is our internal creation and can be created irrespective of external comforts.
• We use objects as stimulus to create a response, but the response is our choice.
• Different people create different responses, using the same stimulus.

There is always a choice, so choose to be happy! 🙂

Om Shanti.

 

(Note: The bulleted texts are lessons from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dNPNtdaMWY&feature=related )

Lessons From Raja Yoga

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Raja Yoga is not a form of physical workout, rather it is a kind of yoga that intends to bring balance to the mind and soul by connecting with the Supreme Soul.

One of the most profound lessons imparted by a Raja Yoga Instructor during one session is about the way people should react to negativity:

Every single person has a specific role.  There are those whose role is to make life harder for other people; those who taunt, criticize and discriminate; those who provoke negativity, cynicism, anger and other reactions that are not worth spending so much energy.  The person at the receiving end of those actions or words cannot control the mind of the person initiating such negativity because that is his/her role.  BUT the good thing is, people have control over the way they react to a certain situation or a stimuli.  A person can choose to be positive, to entertain only good reactions, positive values, thoughts and emotions.

Choosing the response to an external stimuli creates a big difference.  As former American professional baseball third baseman player, Wade Anthony Boggs puts it, “A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results.”