Procrastination is nothing more than resistance to improvement.
There are more reasons to be distracted than ever. There are also more ways than ever to do creative work that we can be proud of. In every moment of every day, we get to decide which path we take between distraction and creation, between acquiescence and responsibility, between restraint and freedom.
There is a razor’s edge between choosing distraction, procrastination, and avoidance, and doing our best work. This edge, like a sword, can either be wielded with intention or it can cut us down where we stand. Creation is the choice to take hold of our lives, our attentions, and our actions, and to do work we are proud of instead of doing merely that which is put in front of us.
Every distraction we choose over creation is a manifestation of procrastination rooted in fear, the fear of facing, taking responsibility for, and becoming all that we are capable of. Procrastination is a means of withdrawing from our own power and potential and abdicating our freedom for the sake of someone else’s agenda. Our greatest work is waiting for us to turn away from distraction, to remember who we are, to discover what we are capable of, and to unleash ourselves from the things we do, or do not do, that hold us back.
Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.
Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Street art photo taken by Robert (artist unknown)
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