Recently, a friend made this observation: “Procrastination is an evil temptress. Her goal is to destroy your dreams with her siren songs of “Someday,” “Gonna,” and “Later.” Your protector is the Warrior Princess Now, and her sword, ‘Immediate Action.'”
That metaphor started my mental gears turning. After considering her observation, it occurred to me that even people who don’t consider themselves procrastinators face an equally powerful temptress: Procrastination’s evil sister, Distraction. Make no mistake–although Distraction is evil, she is by no means ugly. To the contrary, Distraction is quite attractive, and she intuitively knows your hobbies, your personal pastimes, and all the little things you find interesting. Then, when you’re striding down the path toward your daily goals, Distraction steps into your path with a smile and says, “Want to see something cool?” Step by step, she guides you away from the path of ambitions and goals by dangling her bait in front of your eyes.
What bait does she use? Distraction adapts her lure according to each person. If you enjoy web surfing, Distraction smiles and reaches for your hand, for she commands a never-ending supply of links to hinder you from your goals. Why, Facebook alone can fritter away hours at a time as you catch up with others with humor, selfies, and personal news. For another person, Distraction offers sports. Or seemingly eternal TV news (or “news”) and commentaries. Interested in politics? Pull up a chair; you ain’t goin’ anywhere, bub! And so it goes until, much later, you surface from this sea of trivia realize, “Oh no! I was planning to accomplish some really good things today!”
In your heart, you tell yourself, “Tomorrow will be different. Tomorrow I’ll buckle down and do twice as much.” But Distraction smiles, then turns to her sister Procrastination and gives her yet another high-five!