Procrastination Quotes

Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be [Book]

Book Overview: Are you losing your “war of art”? Are you being defeated by a tendency to procrastination, self-doubt, fear, distraction, and perfectionism? Are you self-sabotaging your loftiest artistic entrepreneurial dreams? The antidote is in nine words: Put your ass where your heart wants to be. Can you shift your artistic identity—your “ass”—from the shallow, fearful, superficial ego to the wise, loving, fearless self? Can you commit to your dream for the long haul and for keeps? In this book, best-selling author Steven Pressfield delivers the tough-love inspiration to help you make this life-altering transformation.

Expensive.

“If you do anything at the last minute that takes more than a minute, you’re not organizing your project properly. The last minute is not a buffer zone, nor is it the moment to double-check your work. The last minute is simply sixty seconds to enjoy and to remind yourself that you successfully planned ahead.”
Seth Godin

“Procrastination comes naturally, so apply it to bad things. ‘I want to hurt myself right now. I’ll do it in an hour.’ ‘I want a smoke now, so in half an hour I’ll go have a smoke.’ Then repeat. Much like our good plans fall apart while we delay them, so can our bad plans.”
Ideopunk, LessWrong

Martin Luther King Jr. Quote on Taking Action and How There Is Such A Thing As Being Too Late

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there “is” such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

Beyond the Quote (Day 383)

There is such a time as too late. Just as quickly as yesterday has already come and gone—so, too, will today soon fade away. Procrastination is a very real and deceitful combatant that is waging war on our most precious commodity—time. And if we continue to align with apathy and complacency—procrastination will surely win and leave us with nothing behind except a head full of ideas and regret.

“When we procrastinate, it’s because we have an urge to run from the difficult, uncomfortable task. We don’t want to do the hard work, or be in confusion, or fail at something, so we get the urge to run. It stems from the fear of failure, of not being good enough. The urge comes up, and we follow it! But we don’t need to follow it. We can watch the urge to procrastinate, like a cloud, but not act on it. We can just let it float by, and get to work. Let the cloud float away, because it doesn’t control you. The cloud isn’t you. It’s just a passing phenomenon, one that arises and floats away.” ~ Leo Babauta, Essential Zen Habits (Page 87)

“Obviously, meditation can sometimes be difficult. We may want to run away from practice, run from the cushion, even run from the word ‘meditation.’ We can run as far as we like, but what we’ll discover is that there is no better environment than meditation in which to build the stability, clarity, and strength of our mind. At the same time, the difficulty of making it to the cushion, the difficulty of staying with the technique, the difficulty of abandoning discursiveness, isn’t going to disappear. In procrastinating, we’re avoiding the one thing that really is going to make a difference in our lives. Meditation stabilizes us in our inherent power as humans. It introduces the possibility of living our lives in a continually conscious, confident, and balanced state of mind.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 91)

Remember that one time when you said you’d do that one thing?

Prioritize and procrastinate accordingly.

“The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed. Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny.” ~ Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

“Look in your own heart. Unless I’m crazy, right now a still small voice is piping up, telling you as it has ten thousand times, the calling that is yours and yours alone. You know it. No one has to tell you. And unless I’m crazy, you’re no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or will be tomorrow. You think Resistance isn’t real? Resistance will bury you.” ~ Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

“Is it really so difficult to do what must be done? It’s not difficult at all, when you stop fighting against it. One little step will get you started, and once you’re started, you become interested and invested. Once you’re started, momentum begins to give you a push that becomes stronger with each effort. Instead of putting off what you know must be done, what if you could somehow get yourself to be positively enthusiastic about it? You absolutely can, because you can choose how you wish to feel about anything.The genuine satisfaction in your life comes when you know you’re making a difference. And whatever it is in your world that must be done is your opportunity to make that difference. Go beyond intending, go beyond planning, go beyond wishing, and go beyond saying you need to get it done. Dive in, go to work, make something happen and be the positive, dynamic difference that makes you feel alive.” ~ Ralph Marston

“Step by step, you make your way forward. That’s why practices such as daily writing exercises or keeping a daily blog can be so helpful. You see yourself do the work, which shows you that you can do the work. Progress is reassuring and inspiring; panic and then despair set in when you find yourself getting nothing done day after day. One of the painful ironies of work life is that the anxiety of procrastination often makes people even less likely to buckle down in the future.” ~ Gretchen Rubin

“It’s the task that’s never started that’s more tiresome.” ~ Gretchen Rubin

“A procrastinator is a thief of his or her own time.” ~ Jhoon Rhee

“The pain of discipline weighs ounces whereas the pain of regret weighs tons.” ~ Jim Rohn

“Remember, it’s more mentally tiring to think about what has to be done, and all the things that might go wrong, than it is to physically do the job.” ~ Jack Canfield

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Bill Gates, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” ~ Unknown

“Waiting to develop courage is just another form of procrastination. The most successful people take action while they’re afraid!” ~ Unknown‎