?! ~ PROCRASTINATION ~ !?

As I have mentioned before, there are many things that are preventives to living victoriously.  Procrastination and a very BIG ONE.  Why?  Because, all of us procrastinate at one time or another.  However, for some of us, it has become a plague in our lives and has prevented us from accomplishing goals that we desire.  For some of us, it is a state of mind.

The modern word "PROCRASTINATION" comes from pro- (forward) and crastinus (of tomorrow). In other words, “Why do today what you can put-off til tomorrow.”

Procrastination refers to the counterproductivity of putting tasks off to a later time. The behavior is often used for coping with anxiety associated with starting or completing any project or decision. There are 3 criteria for a behavior to be considered as procrastination: it must be 1-counterproductive, 2-needless, and 3-delaying.

Procrastination may result in stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, severe loss of personal productivity, as well as social and work issues for not meeting deadlines or accomplishing responsibilities or commitments. These feelings combined may promote further procrastination. While it is usually considered normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it prevents normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological disorder.

I’d like to share a spongebob story with you: It is a little bit silly and extreme, BUT, it is relevant and makes my point.

Spongebob square pants Episode 37a: Procrastination, on November 30, 2001 by Walt Dohrn, Paul Tibbitt, and Mr. Lawrence.

SpongeBob is sitting in Mrs. Puff’s class, and he is excited to hear that they are getting an essay assignment as homework. The assignment is an 800-word essay on what not to do at a stoplight. SpongeBob rushes home to immediately start writing his essay, even though it is a beautiful day outside. He pulls up a chair at his desk and prepares to write what he says will be the greatest essay ever written. All he writes is his name and title, but three hours pass and SpongeBob is still staring at the piece of paper — encountering a major case of writer’s block.

He then looks out the window and sees everybody is having fun, and Patrick encourages him to come outside and enjoy the day. Unfortunately, he must stay inside and write his essay. He says he has plenty of time since it’s only 6:00, but he has no idea what to write. In order to boost his energy, he starts exercising but soon gets easily distracted, even by the rhythmic squeaking of his chair. Gary then comes in the room, and SpongeBob is very persistent in feeding Gary to take up time, even though he says he’s not hungry. After Gary eats, SpongeBob says that he can’t write his essay with a dirty kitchen, and he proceeds to clean the entire kitchen — even his dirty garbage can. (Pause:  Procrastination!  Does this sound like you?) After that’s done, he is shocked to see that it is now 10:00, and his essay hasn't even been started. He then writes on his essay, but in actuality, all he writes is the word “the” and then says it’s time for a break with only 799 words to go on his essay. He takes a break to call Patrick who is sleeping, but Patrick says that he knows that he was just called as a distraction so SpongeBob wouldn’t have to write his essay. Every little thing distracts SpongeBob from writing his essay, including the eraser shavings on his paper and his sudden hunger. Although it’s late at night, a package is delivered, and SpongeBob proceeds to talk to the mailman, who then asks if SpongeBob should be writing his paper. SpongeBob walks back to his house and watches TV, and sees that the story of his procrastination has even made it into the news. Confused and shocked, SpongeBob destroys his TV. (Pause: Can everyone say “STRESS”!)

SpongeBob then starts hallucinating as midnight approaches. He imagines his couch talking to him, and that his pants have run away. Trying to catch his pants, he leaves his house and gets locked out of it. Then, his house suddenly starts burning down in flames. His house then starts yelling at SpongeBob for wasting time and not writing his paper. (Pause: Can everyone say “GUILT”!) SpongeBob then sees an anthropomorphic flame in his house burn his essay into ashes as a means of torturing SpongeBob. It says with a grim smile "Only 799 words to go!!", and then it cackles as the house is burned down.

SpongeBob suddenly wakes up from these hallucinations. But he sees that it’s 8:55 in the morning, and class starts in five minutes. (Pause: Can everyone say “CRISIS”!) He then gets a surge of ideas for his essay on what not to do at a stoplight, such as feeding your snail, making a sandwich, and all the other things he dreamt of that night instead of writing his essay. He rushes to class to excitingly give his essay to Mrs. Puff, but the classroom is empty. Mrs. Puff arrives to say that class was canceled for the day and so was the assignment — stating that they were just going to take a field trip to a stoplight instead. SpongeBob rips his paper in half, as well as ripping himself in half. (Can everyone say “PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER”!).

Join me this week as we delve into the many causes and cures for procrastination and how it truly is a state of mind.

Handling Temptations Part #3

We know that the temptations that we experience is because of what is desirable to us, that is why it is tempting sometimes ONLY to us. We must realize that we have strength in us to overcome temptations, but only if we choose to overcome. Whatever you WILL to overcome, you CAN overcome by power that is put in you. Then, once we have victory over the temptations, we must live in that victory and not become a slave to it any longer. Avoid places, peoples, pleasures, habits, or things that are going to cause you to slide backwards in your victory so that your victory will be a complete and utter victory.

Below, I have included the original Twelve Steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous, I found that these are very relevant for any tempation, addiction, obstacle, etc... Where the word alcohol was, I placed the word “temptation”.  As you read this, place the temptation, or obstacle that is preventing you, in the place of temptation.

        1. Admit that you are powerless over “temptation”—that your
            life has become unmanageable.

        2. Come to believe that a Power greater than yourself could
            restore you to sanity.

        3. Make a decision to turn your will and your life over to the
            care of God as you understand Him.

        4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself.

        5. Admit to God, to yourself, and to another human being the
            exact nature of your temptations.

        6. Be entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of
            character from you.

        7. Humbly ask Him to remove your shortcomings.

        8. Make a list of all persons you have harmed because of this
            temptaion & be willing to make amends to all.

        9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible,

            except when to do so would injure them or others.

      10. Continued to take personal inventory and when you are 
            wrong promptly admit it.

      11. Seek through prayer & meditation to improve your conscious
            contact with God as you understand Him, praying only for
            knowledge of His will for you & the POWER to carry that out.

      12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps,
            try to carry this message to others who are slaves to their
            temptations, & to practice these principles in all your affairs.

Again, once you overcome these temptations and obstacles, you must then continue to live victoriously by avoiding places, peoples, pleasures, habits, or things that are going to cause you to slide backwards into that obstacle or temptation that you have had victory over.  As you do these things, your victory will be a complete and utter victory.

As you conquer your own desires, temptations, addictions, and obstacles, you will not only change your own situation, you will also change your state of mind.  Cheers!

Handling Temptations #2

Temptations can also be things that are ok for others but not ok for you because of a negative impact. i.e.: Chocolate is a delicious treat when used in temperance.

                                     MY EXPERIENCE:

About 15 years ago, I was completed addicted to chocolate like an alcoholic is to alcohol.  I could not control the eating of it. I was a slave to it and I allowed it to control me.

I asked the Lord to deliver me from that addiction and within 2 months, I couldn’t even stand the smell of it, let alone the taste. I would have to be totally disgusted with chocolate and the addiction to chocolate in order to not eat it. To this day, I can’t stand the smell of it, nor the taste. It was a temptation and a stumbling block because it prevented me from reaching my goal in dealing with my weight and health. It was also a weakness in discipline that I needed overcome. Now, I have lived victoriously in overcoming it for almost 15 years.

However, that was only made possible when I admitted that I had the problem of chocolate addiction and when I desired to rid myself of that addiction.  YOU CAN DO IT TOO!

ANOTHER TEMPTATION:

Then there are the temptations that are wrong according to God’s word and His 10 commandments. They are also very relevant in dealing with living a victorious life because they deal with how you treat God and how you treat others.

As we overcome temptations and stumblingblocks, we form a new state of mind.  One that is strengthened in our ability to overcome.

Join me next time when we go over how to overcome these many temptations.

Handling Temptations

The next stumbling block to living life victoriously is "Temptation"

So often we have an “I want it now” attitude when it may not be good for us to have it right now because we are not ready.  However, we are tempted to get it now.  That is a stumbling block to living victoriously because if we get it now and we are not ready for it, we will ruin it completely.  But… if we are patient and wait and we allow “it” to develop into what it should be and we prepare ourselves be ready to receive “it” when it is ripe, then we have the full blessing of whatever “it” is meant to be.  We will also have the opportunity to develop a new state of mind that is not rushed but patient for the best.


Next time, we will cover another type of temptation that is not necessarily wrong.  I will give you my experience in dealing with temptation and how I overcame it.

Anger, Bitterness, and Resentment – Part 3 - End

1. Admit that you are angry. Be honest to yourself and with God. Don’t try to hide your genuine feelings. Heb. 4:13; Eph. 4:26


2. Discover why you are angry. (This may require you to look into your past or speak with a counselor.) Gen. 4:6

3. Although it is ok to be angry for a good reason, don’t let your emotions control you. (Prov. 16:32; Eccl. 7:9; Prov. 14:29)

4. Give your anger to God. Remember angry words stir up anger in others. (Prov. 15:1; Ps. 37:7, 8).


5. Forgive others who have wronged you, even if they haven’t asked for forgiveness, nor apologized. Because the purpose of the forgiveness is for your sake not theirs. Since God has forgiven you for what you have done to Him, ask Him to give you forgiveness for what others have done to you. (Eph. 4:32; Lk. 11:4; Col. 3:13)

6. Forgive yourself for things you have done and for being angry. (1 Jn. 1:9)

7. Deal with anger quickly. Don’t let it accumulate. If you need to ask someone’s forgiveness, do it. (Eph. 4:26)

Now, while we know that there is nothing wrong with being angry for a good reason, it is the holding on to anger that gives us the trouble and isn’t good according to Eph 4:29-32. You see, anger progresses into resentment and resentment progresses into bitterness. So, if we avoid holding onto the anger, the other 2 will take care of themselves. These things cause us not to be able to move on in our lives. It holds us back from accomplishing our plans and goals and even more so is a stumbling block from fulfilling what God has planned for us. Let's have a new state of mind, one that is free from such vices.  Let’s stop the devil in his tracks today by letting go of any anger, resentment, and bitterness thus allowing ourselves to live life victoriously.

Anger, Bitterness, and Resentment - Part 2

Anger – The basic emotion of extreme displeasure or exasperation in reaction to a person, a situation, or an object. The synonyms to anger are annoyance, irritation, fury, rage, antagonism, resentment, incense, inflame, madden, ire, outrage, steam up, tick off… there are so many definitions for it. I wanted to list a good amount so that you understand that “Anger” comes under many names.

Bitterness – marked by intensity or severity; accompanied by severe pain or suffering; exhibiting intense animosity; harshly reproachful; marked by cynicism and rancor; expressive of severe pain, grief, or regret. Synonyms of bitterness are: acrid, acrimonious, embittered, hard, rancorous, resentful, and sore.

Resentment – a feeling of indignant displeasure or persistent ill will at something regarded as a wrong, insult, or injury. Synonyms of resentment are: grievance, grudge, or keeping score.

When we are angry, be it for a good reason or not, for a long or short period of time, it effects us, mentally, physically, spiritually, and of course, emotionally. Anger can cause negative reactions and situations in a relationship when expressed unconstructively. So, we want to learn how to get rid of our anger, whether it has plagued us for all of our lives or is a sudden issue. As we learn these techniques,  our state of mind will also change thus allowing us to overcome even more.  Tomorrow, we will cover the 7 steps that should be taken to deliver us from anger, resentment, and bitterness.

Dealing with Anger, Bitterness, or Resentment Part 1

ANGER, BITTERNESS, & RESENTMENT

Part 1

Well, since my blog is dealing with assisting individuals how to live life undefeated, I think that it is best to realize that the only way we can live life undefeated is first by believing in the someone who already has given us the victory over all things… That someone is Jesus Christ our Lord and our Saviour. Lord, because He is the Someone that we choose to follow and obey… Saviour, because He died in my place, in your place… where we are guilty of death, he died that death for us so that we can live. As I write these posts, they will almost always relate to a relationship with God and His Word, the Bible and where it doesn’t, please acknowledge what was mentioned at first that it is only by that relationship that we can overcome all things.

When I say living life defeated, I mean allowing the cares of this world to decide what kind of person you will be and what your actions will entail, what you think, and what you desire. Allowing the bad and ugly in this life to beat you down to where you stay down and choose not to get up again. That is living a defeated life, giving up, and surrendering.

Now, there are many things that can cause us to live a defeated life: anger, bitterness, and resentment, unconquered temptations, low self esteem, fear, loneliness, depression, childhood hurts, addictions, and many more. We are going to cover many of these items in the following posts. Our first set will be Anger, Bitterness, and Resentment. As we learn to conquer our anger, bitterness, and resentment, we build a new state of mind for ourselves.  

Join me again for that post and please feel free to comment.