Procrastination: The enemy of purpose

byClydeB

1.8K followers

Updated 9 years ago

At the foot of the mountain of purpose lurks the monstrosity called procrastination. It lurks in the recesses of the darkness, it is a beast with tentacles,waiting for you to approach the path of your destiny.

If you look for it you will not see it because one of its greatest weapons is stealth. You cant' quite see it because it camouflages itself as "tomorrow", "soon", and "later" , luring you away from the mountain with a plan to execute your assignment tomorrow, whispering in your ears encouragement that you will get it done,....... "but". "But" its not time yet, you are not ready, not old enough, not young enough, not experienced enough, not anointed enough, not enough finances, not enough help, vision, strength, talent,.........anything to cause you to pause from progress, or retreat, so long as you do not climb that mountain!

If you find the will and the focus to overcome it at the foot of the mountain procrastination re-organizes it battle strategy and races ahead of you up the mountain where it lurks just above you, it's silhouette barely noticeable, waiting for you to rest and celebrate how far you have come.

When you are halfway up the mountain, and as humans do, you begin to celebrate your journey thus far, procrastination now deploys it's tentacle of rest. It convinces you that you need to "rest" and celebrate all you have done so far, because the mountain top is only one hike away. When you rest from purpose procrastination shifts your attention to look down the mountain where you see people who havent made it as far as you have.

The mountain is littered with the struggling, those who have lost their, will, vision, and of course, the foot of the mountain is littered with the dead, those who never started.

From your perspective of rest, you feel proud to have come so far and others are still struggling or didnt start. Procrastination then deploys another tentacle, "celebration" Procrastination uses this effective weapon because nothing gets done while there is celebration and there is always something about you to celebrate if you look hard enough. So while you rest and celebrate yourself, time passes, and passes.

Sometime later, you realize that you have an assignment to complete and you are able to wrestle yourself free from that tentacle so you rise to complete your journey, and you look up...... the mountain top is just a grasp away, but procrastination, in a desperate attempt to stop you, comes out of the shadow and blocks the path to the top,.......and you finally see it for what it is, a dark, abstract, monstrosity, but as its face comes from the darkness to the light, you fall to your knees and gasp for breath in utter shock,....... because it is YOUR FACE!

In bewilderment you run through this illusion and reach the top of the mountain where you notice that there is someone standing with their back to you, at the same time as if by magic, a book appears in your hand. You look at the front cover of it and almost instantly your heart wrenches in a mixture of pain and excitement because it is your book that you were supposed to finish ten years ago, but you procrastinated.

The person with their back turned to you begins to turn and as they face you, you fall to your knees in awe and sorrow because it is your father who had passed on ten years ago, you wanted him to read the book but he died before you could finish it. It seemed like you were both worlds apart as you raced towards him, book clutched in your hand.

As you reach him, you break down in childish agonizing tears reaching out to him with desperate anticipation as a son separated from the father. But as you reach, your hand passes through him because he is no longer of this world. As you realize this you try to share the good news "look pops, I finished the book!" He looks at you through eyes of pain, wisdom, and love, and says to you "son, I cant read the book now, I am no longer with you, but I died waiting on you to finish it" His words cut you like a knife, and you desperately search for the right words to say because you notice that he is slowly fading away. "Im sorry pops, I was supposed to finish it" He replies in fading "its ok son, I love you and I know you tried, but dont ever forget, you are your own procrastination" and he disappears leaving you weeping uncontrollably, "don't leave me again pops!"

You spring up in your bed from your dream, drenched in sweat, weeping. You quickly realize that your father is still dead but your book is two chapters from completion. Your feet hit the ground and you walk quickly and purposely to your study where your unfinished manuscript lies. Today procrastination will die and purpose will live! But you wonder to yourself, what else is on that mountain top?