Successful People Don't Procrastinate

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Persons with comparatively moderate powers will accomplish much if they apply themselves wholly and indefatigably to one thing at a time.

- Samuel Smiles



Are you struggling with procrastination? In my personal journey, I have been subjected to this very destructive habit a countless times. I found out that oftentimes we take so many tasks, big and small, because we want make ourselves helpful to others or productive in our career. But on the process we tend to forget that we are no superman or wonder woman. We thus need to organize our tasks, our plans, and even our thoughts, in order for us to do the right things and things right at the right time and, yes, at the right place.

Brian Tracy’s book, Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, provides very practical and doable solutions to procrastination. All we got to do is apply each day, which requires discipline and sacrifice, those principles found in his powerful book.

Let me share to you the twelfth way (Take It One Oil Barrel at a Time) that Brian Tracy has offered:

THERE IS AN old saying that “By the yard, it’s hard; but inch by inch, anything’s a cinch!”

One of the best ways to overcome procrastination is for you to get your mind off the huge task in front of you and focus on a single action that you can take. One of the best ways to eat a large frog is for you to take it one bite at a time.

Confucius wrote, “A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. This a great strategy for overcoming procrastination and getting more things done faster.

Many years ago I crossed the heart of the Sahara Desert, the Tanezrouft, deep in modern-day Algeria. By that time, the desert had been abandoned by the French for years and the original refueling stations were empty and shattered.

The desert was 500 miles across in a single stretch, without water, food, a blade of grass, or even a fly. It was totally flat, like a broad, yellow, sand parking lot that stretched to the horizon in all directions.

More than 1,300 people had perished in the crossing of that stretch of the Sahara in previous years. Often, drifting sands had obliterated the track across the desert and the travelers had gotten lost in the night.

To counter the lack of features in the terrain, the French had marked the track with black, fifty-five-gallon oil drums, five kilometers apart, exactly the distance to the horizon, where the earth curved away as you crossed that flat wasteland.

Because of this, wherever we were in the daytime, we could see two oil barrels, the one we had just passed and the one five kilometers ahead. And that was enough.

All we had to do was to steer to the next oil barrel. As a result, we were able to cross the biggest desert in the world by simply taking it “one oil barrel at a time.”

In the same way, you can accomplish the biggest task in your life by disciplining yourself to take it just one step at a time. Your job is to go as far as you can see. You will then see far enough to go further.

To accomplish a great task, you must step out in faith and have complete confidence that your next step will soon become clear to you. Remember the wonderful advice “Leap – and the net will appear.”

A great life of a great career is built by performing one task at a time, quickly and well, and then going on to the next task.

Financial independence is achieved by saving a little money every single month, year after year. Health and fitness are accomplished by just eating a little less and exercising a little more, day after day, and month after month.

You can overcome procrastination and accomplish extraordinary things by just taking the first step, by getting started toward your goal and by then taking it one step, one oil barrel, at a time.

Yes, you can avoid procrastination. What you only need right now is to have the willingness to change. Embrace discipline and sacrifice as part of the process. It may be difficult at first, but you will see later that the benefit of adopting the right habit is unlimited. Start now! NICE BOOK CLUB

Discover more! You can borrow Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy and read it for free from Nice Book Club. Call, text or visit us now.

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