How can I overcome procrastinating tendency?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, my biggest resentment is procrastination. There is a slight ambiguity in the question.
Are you saying regret is procrastination or resentment is procrastination? Because the two are different things. Regret means, I wish I was not procrastinating. But resentment means, I hate myself because I procrastinated.
So, resentment is a very strong negative feeling of hatred. So, basically, is it that you resent yourself or you just regret that you are procrastinating? Yeah, it’s regret. So, yes, in general, the mind always chooses the path of least resistance.
That is the normal tendency of the mind. So, if there is something which is difficult to do or which the mind feels is difficult to do, the mind tries to put it off. And that is a normal human tendency to put off unpalatable things.
And that’s how we tend to procrastinate that which is difficult or which we feel is difficult. So, there are two basic strategies we could say to overcome procrastination. One is personal, the other is social.
Personally, we need to strengthen our intellectual conviction. About why, not that this is important, why this is also urgent. See, what happens is the mind is very cunning.
Initially, when we are not philosophically at all attuned, at that time, we think, okay, we don’t think God very important. But once we start understanding the philosophy, we understand Krishna is important. Krishna Bhakti is important.
But at that time, Maya shifts the strategies. Krishna is important, but this is urgent. Yes, that is important, but this is urgent.
And then again, now this is urgent, now this is urgent, this is urgent. And that way, Maya doesn’t allow us to focus on Krishna. So, that’s why, now it is true that in life there can be urgent situations.
But it’s not that 24 hours a day everything that we are doing is urgent. So, we can make time for that which is important and urgent also. So, we need to reinforce our intellectual conviction by regularly studying scripture and not just general philosophy, but specifically those sections of scripture, maybe certain verses, certain classes, certain quotes, which remind us of the urgency of practicing Krishna consciousness.
And then keep that ready with us. Maybe write down those quotes, write down those passages, those points, and whenever the tendency, whenever we have to do something which we encounter some resistance for, at that time we can, see there is resistance and there is persistence. So, resistance comes from within.
Then we need persistence to overcome the resistance. That persistence will come from our intellectual conviction. That’s why, whichever is our tendency to procrastinate, we need specific, specifically compose intellectual reflections to persist within that.
Secondly, it is, if we could make a social commitment to something. Social commitment means we announce that I am going to do this every day. Not in a show-off sense, but just in a sense that we get the help of others by that.
So, if I have to do something, then say, if I want to memorize shlokas, then I decide, you know, I decide to meet with a friend and decide, you know, every week we’ll memorize one shloka or every day we’ll memorize one shloka. And then we decide we’ll meet every day, five minutes on Skype or on phone, we’ll talk and we will decide, recite the shloka. Now, what happens as soon as we have some, this is the term which is, this is basically satsang, in a sense, good association, not just in terms of someone with whom we hear lectures, but equal with whom we can share.
So, in modern psychology, the word that is used for this is accountability partner. Now, I want to be accountable and I need a partner to whom I can be accountable. So, if there is something which we tend, which we want to do, but we tend to put off, then we make a commitment with someone else.
Ideally, if they are also making a similar commitment, that’s wonderful. Say, we want to study Shastra. And then we decide, both of us, even if we don’t study together, but we’ll study every day 15 minutes.
Or in a week, I was going to study 3 hours or 6 hours, whatever it is. And then we meet together. So, actually making a commitment is one of the most effective ways of overcoming the mind’s tendency for procrastination.
Because once something we make a commitment to, then somehow or other we find a way to do that. Now, the key difference between material life and spiritual life is that in material life, the commitments we take up, we understand that they are irrevocable. I may not feel like doing my job.
I may want to procrastinate that also. But you know, I have to earn my living. Otherwise, where will I stay? What will I eat? So, in our conditions, in our stage, our material life and its obligations seem mandatory.
Our spiritual life and its obligations don’t seem so mandatory. That’s why we have to create a commitment in some way. If we create a commitment, then we’ll find that conviction and commitment together will help us to overcome the tendency for procrastination.
Does that answer your question? Thank you.