Ling Zhang
- Jun 5, 2022
- 4 min read

Stopping Procrastination and Excuses

Updated: Jun 11, 2022

Go Beyond Good - Conquer Internal Barriers (5)

Sluggards do not plow in season so at harvest time they look but find nothing - Proverbs 20:4

Recently when I invited someone to attended a career webinar, he said “I have no time.”

I HAVE NO TIME!

How many times you said that or you heard that. We all have 24 hours a day and seven days a week equally. We always have no time for everything but we always have time for something. Do you understand the difference?

I HAVE NO TIME! The excuse is often used by a procrastinator and sound completely reasonable to people who do not know what is important in life and lack of a sense of urgency.

Steve Jobs lived his life with a sense of urgency. Every day, he would stand in front of the mirror and asked himself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do?” In this way, he discovered what is important and he was actually passionate about it. Not only did the passion help him overcome his procrastination, but it also let him stop all excuses.

You are on the journey to grow to your fullest, Step 2, conquering oneself series 5. In the last four blogs, we discussed how to die to our ego, the secret weapon to driver away fears, and overcome complacency. Today let’s discuss stopping procrastination and excuses so we will not waste our potentials and grow to our fullest.

Procrastination results in a life that is fruitless; it piles things up randomly and leads to a lousy spiritual, emotional, and physical state. It wastes time and kills people’s potential. The Bible says, “Sluggards do not plow in season so at harvest time they look but find nothing” (Proverbs 20:4).

What is the root cause of procrastination? The reasons seem far and wide, but it all comes down to one thing: a lack of decision. People procrastinate because they don’t have the sense of urgency to get something done. In his book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill said that when people procrastinate, they are in a state of “un-decision.” On one hand, they know the task they should do; on the other hand, they lack the desire to do it immediately and thus put it off.

Why are people in a state of indecision? They lack a clear vision for life. They do not know their purpose, so they lose the sense of urgency to live out each minute. Without a vision, people do not know what they should achieve in life, or they lose the passion. The cure for procrastination is to find their divine calling, which goes back to Step 1. How to find your signature vision

>> you use Find your signature vision questionnaires document to find your life calling

We cannot utterly get rid of procrastination or sluggishness until we find our divine calling in our lives. Once we find this divine calling, we sense the urgency of life with each passing second. We start to live a purpose driven life by prioritizing the right events and activities. We become excited about the things we choose to do according to our calling.

Steve Schreiber, a pilot for American Airlines, made a commitment to seek, trust, and glorify God through humble service and continual prayer. He wanted to raise up qualified disciples as quickly as possible. But he did not truly live this with the intensity until after September 11th.

Steve was originally scheduled to be the co-pilot on American Airlines Flight 11, the very first airplane hijacked that flew into the first World Trade Center. He saw his name appear on the schedule for that flight in the computer. As usual, his wife prepared all the things he needed to travel before he went to bed on September 10th. Usually, a crew responsible for the scheduling at American Airlines would call him in advance to confirm his duty, but this time he never got the call. It was later in the day when he put all the pieces together that he figured out somebody else had bumped him off of that flight. Someone else died in his place. The event affected him profoundly just as he said in the video, In My Seat, “September 11 took my life objective that I already had it intensified it for me. The fire gets hotter as I get older.”

Before the event, he was putting off his life objective. Since the significant event, he became inspired to live every day with urgency and wanted to make sure he can make the most of it. With this sense of urgency, he and his wife started a ministry called Character Health, characterhealth.com, to equip parents to train a new generation of courageous Christ-like children. Now, he and his wife travel around the world to tell the message they gained from the event: the days are getting shorter and shorter and thus we need to live like we’re living on borrowed time. We need to stop with the mentality of ‘I’ll get to it tomorrow.’ Today is the day to act. Whatever it is that God wants you to do with your life, it’s time to get on with it.

What are you procrastinating or what excuses are you making? You say, “I have no time and will do it tomorrow.” You may not have tomorrow so the best time you work on your goals is now.

You can put things off for tomorrow, but you can never have today’s moment ever again.

In the next post, we will start Step 3, Break through External Obstacles series to help you grow to your fullest!

If you want to have a group of people to support so you can share your roadmap, goals, celebrate your wins together; please join Grow to Your Fullest Circle.

*** Please send email to growtoyourfullest@gmail.com for a free copy of PDF, Seven Effective Steps to Draw Closer to God: Gain inner strength and live a life to the full

*** Please DOWLOAD the FREE document, Find your signature vision questionnaires so you use it to help you find your life vision and mission.