The Habit That Guarantees Failure

“Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters.”
- Nathaniel Emmons

Anywhere from 80 to 95% of our actions every day are controlled or partially based on our habits. Are your habits helping you…or hurting you?

You may already know this – you brush your teeth (or don’t!) out of habit, you likely react in similar ways to various situations based on your habits – and according to a cell phone tracking study I read, people consistently even go to the same locations at the same times week after week.

But which habits are helping you, and which are hurting you?

We all have a mixture of positive and negative habits – but there’s one habit that absolutely guarantees you will fail.

It has a 100% failure rate – if you fall victim this habit today, I guarantee you that you will fail today.

If this habit takes root today, then today you will fail to meet your goals, you will fail to make progress, and you will wake up tomorrow with absolutely nothing to show for today.

The Habit That Guarantees Failure

The habit is this:

Telling yourself “I will do it tomorrow.”

Every day you say that, you guarantee you will fail today.

You might succeed tomorrow (and I certainly hope you do) – but for today, procrastination 100% guarantees you will NOT succeed.

You won’t succeed, because by procrastinating, you’ve already decided not to even try. Not only will you not make progress – but you won’t even give yourself a chance to make progress.

Procrastination is not just work that is put off until tomorrow. It is the temporary acceptance of failure.

It is the opportunity of today cast aside, with the hope that the circumstances for our success will still be there in the near – but uncertain – future. A future where the availability of your time, your motivation, your desire and the possibilities are completely unknown.

And it is opportunity put off into a day that we are not even guaranteed to have.

Tomorrow Is Promised To No One

“When we know and understand completely that our time on this earth is limited, and that we have no way of knowing when it will be over, then we must live each day as if it were the only one we had.”
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

As sad as it is to think about, a number of people will pass away today and never have the tomorrow that we are putting so many things into.

In fact, a number of people passed away yesterday – and you and me, we are among the lucky ones that are here today. Today is not a day that we were promised – today is a day of possibility, and opportunity – and it is our privilege to live it.

Today Matters

So do not take this day for granted, and do not tell yourself it doesn’t matter.

Today does matter, and the time you waste today is the time you will regret and wish you could relive.

“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”
– Sydney J. Harris

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Final Thoughts: Habits

Remember too where we started this discussion: we are creatures of habit. The more more you procrastinate, the more likely you will be to procrastinate in the future. Procrastinating occasionally is not a problem – but chronically procrastinating is, because it’s a slippery slope.

If you struggle with procrastination, unless you change something it won’t get better.

Rather, without a change, if you procrastinate constantly it will only lead to one thing: cementing procrastination as a habit of yours. And the longer you wait to deal with it, the more serious the problem will become.

Procrastination is Manageable

The last key thought I want to share with you is that procrastination is manageable – and is actually easier to solve than you think.

I believe my time is valuable and that your time, your life is valuable – but I believe very often, due to misinformation and lack of access to proper technique, many people are not able to achieve their full potential or what they desire in their lives.

Some of the reasons for this include procrastination, uncertainty – or simply fear that they may not be good enough, or may not succeed.

And this frustrates me, because I know that there are simple, easy to apply techniques that I know can help you get the most out of your life – because I use them in my own life, and I’ve taught them to students and clients.

What’s Coming Soon

For that reason, I am going to share something very special with you in a few days.

I’m going to tell you about how you can get the most out of your life – not just every minute and every hour (though I will certainly share with you productivity techniques to do that).

No – I want to help you get the most out of your life – your entire life.

I want you to wake up every day excited, full of energy, full of joy and with a clear sense of what you want to do.

I want you to have the skills, ability and focus to achieve what you desire, while also having the time and freedom to enjoy simple pleasures everyday.

This something I’ve been working very hard on behind the scenes for the past few months – and I am going to give you the full details in just a couple days.

So watch your email for a note from me in the next few days. I’ll tell you more soon.

If you don’t already receive emails from me, please enter your address in the box below and I’ll be in touch.