~ “Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.” (Anonymous) ~
How does procrastination affect your fate? Well, I believe the only thing affecting your fate is the decisions you make, and those around you who influence your decisions. And, because there are many different decisions made in a single day, one’s fate can never be certain. The only exception I think falls into that statement is procrastination. This is the decision, or some may consider it to be a lack of making a decision, to not do something or to put it off. The reason I think procrastination is an exception to being able to predict one’s fate, is because it shows the kind of person you are. If you are someone who procrastinates everything until the last possible minute, you are likely to fall behind in life and fail at accomplishing any sort of goal or dream you have set before yourself. The problem is, procrastination is like a disease, it becomes easier to turn to… and sometimes the last possible moment is no longer available.
Of course, there are different severity’s of this “disease”, procrastination. Things can be put off in anything you do in a day- finishing an assignment, making supper, having a shower, reading a book, calling your friends… you get the idea. Most of these every day tasks seem pretty simple and meaningless. But, if procrastination becomes a habit, it starts to affect more important decisions, such as finding a dress for grad, studying for an important final, renewing a license, etc. Sometimes things in life start to pile up, and due dates get pushed farther away. I am definitely guilty of doing this! It’s easy to think to myself, “I still have a long time to go,” or, “I’ll do some of it this weekend.” I find myself putting off finishing my Calculus assignments, because it comes secondary to my other school homework and extra curricular activities. Just recently I realized I don’t have very much time to finish it if I want to be done by the time I’m out of high school! For this subject, procrastination has definitely hurt me. I will be struggling to get everything in at the end of the school year, when I should have been doing little bits and pieces throughout this last semester.
Procrastination is also a favourite for writers to use when making scripts for movies or for writing books. Of course, for there to be anything interesting in a film or novel, one or more of the characters must be faced with a difficult decision. Most of the time, this character puts off making that hard choice until the last possible minute. By doing this, writers create suspense and more conflict. In the clip below, of a portion of an episode of Friends, Phoebe has to make a choice between her ex-boyfriend, David, and her new boyfriend, Mike. Instead of telling one of them that she can no longer see him, she decides to try and date both of them at the same time. This clip is not long enough, but Mike ends up catching her with David, creating a bigger problem than what she started with. This age old “date two guys at once without having to pick between the two” is a type of procrastination that has shown up in countless movies and stories.
There are a lot of different types of procrastination that can affect your fate. I recognize at least two within my own life. One is putting things off by coming up with excuses of other things to do. For example, instead of working on writing a blog, I would search youtube for a cool video, then maybe decide I was hungry and make myself something to eat, then realize I have something else to do, then find a mess to clean up, and finally realize I don’t have any more time that day to work on anything else. Another type of procrastination I do is over-thinking something. For example, if I have to call someone that I find awkward to talk to, I will go over ways in my head to initiate the conversation. Then I will try to come up with topics I have to cover within my talk, manipulating them so that they run in a sequence. Then I might decide to memorize all the things I want to say, so I don’t have to use a sheet. I will find a million things to do to prepare for the phone call, but I will never actually initiate the action.
An interesting thought is how procrastination might not be such a bad thing. It could affect your fate in a positive way. Confused? Read more about it by following this link!
Below is a great video of some more types of procrastination. I liked watching how each picture melted into the next picture, and then next one after that. It is also interesting how the tone of the person’s voice changes with each sentence. I especially enjoyed how he ended the video, because it fit with the topic.
I’m sure everyone has procrastinated at one point in their life, but I know I haven’t really thought about how that affects my life. The truth is, every decision, small or large, has a different outcome on your future. I remember Mr. Burnett talking about a theory that there are infinite alternate universes out there that show the different outcomes of your life. Say, for example, you decide to skip breakfast tomorrow. There would be an alternate universe where you actually chose to eat cereal, another where you made toast, etc. This means there would be millions of different universes of yourself created within just a span of a minute of your life! Hopefully this puts making good decisions and not putting them off into perspective. Procrastination, as well as any other choice you make in life can create a tidal wave of change on your future.
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oh well!)
