“From 1^st January of blah-blah year, I’m going to follow this or that!”  I used to end up last week of almost every year, with the same thoughts.

I started making timetables since Sr. Secondary, when more than you, it’s your relatives who are concerned about getting updates of your board exam preparations, the most awaited exam in every Indian student’s life. This is the time when you and your family are treated no less than a celebrity. It’s all a scandal of course! People are so interested in knowing every bits of your life and giving you lessons, it might make one feel that not scoring 90% could be worse than dying of a natural calamity.

So, after knowing that not scoring 90% would probably ruin my life, during the initial period of Sr. Secondary I started taking my studies seriously, in fact I started making time tables to save myself from the biggest storm that I was about to face in a few months. I literally made a time table every week but I was never able to work on any of them. However I still passed my class 10th with good marks, not with 90% but I got enough marks that made me and my parents happy and trust me I still had a happy life with that score.

We are human beings, we seek perfection, we all somewhere want to be perfect and hence even after so many failed attempts at following time tables, I never really stopped making them, even after I got into med school. I guess that’s the case with most of us.

Here, I’m not only talking about time tables related to our studies, I’m talking about all the things that we know we want to achieve and we know not being able to achieve that is going to affect us in many ways but we still overlook them and procrastinate every now and then!

Each one of us wants to do well in life, become successful and be happy eventually. What we fail to realize is that in order to be happy, we need to work on the things that satisfy our mind and give contentment. The main reason behind happiness of anybody is him being contented with the people, the place and the situation around him, and such contentment comes when we learn to accept that everything that comes in our way, be it good or bad, is a result of the efforts we put, to make it happen.

Let me give you an example about myself first. There are two things that I desperately want in life: First, I want to become a great doctor and second, I want to be happy. As they say happiness is a state of mind. Yes it is, it’s all in our mind. Our dreams, our hopes and our expectations all keep running in our mind continuously and as these things are fulfilled we become happy. We need some kind of a stimulus to stay happy. Likewise, in order to be happy I need to do something that triggers my mind every now and then, that is I need to work hard to become a great doctor and once I’ll achieve it, I can’t even imagine the amount of happiness I’ll get.

We all give ourselves a reason to be happy either by setting a goal and achieving it or helping others or anything else. We human beings are happiness seeking creatures and in order to be happy, we give ourselves some targets, work towards them and achieving them makes us happy.

I have a friend who weighs more than his ideal weight and wants to reduce it. Every night before sleeping, he decides to wake up on time and exercise and almost every day he fails to do so! But once in a blue moon when he exercises, it makes him feel positive, it makes him happy.
Same is the case with most of us, we decide to do something, we fail, we decide again and when after number of failed attempts we do it, words are not enough to describe that feeling, even if it is for that moment!

To accelerate our growth, to hit the goal, we must stop procrastinating and trust me it is not that difficult. Now I can say this, because over the time, I’ve changed, thankfully for good. It took me years, but yeah I did!

I’m not against making timetables or following any management mantra. What I personally feel is that in order to avoid procrastination, we must not waste our time in over analyzing and overthinking about how much is to be achieved and in what time. Instead we should get into the action without wasting a second because every second you work is the second you save for your future.

Once you master applying your physical and mental energies working towards your goal rather than making timetables that never really work (instead they end up wasting lots of paper), you’ll one day find yourself at the point where you exactly wanted to be all this while, a point which was only awaiting for your actions to come in front and then you will get a feeling of supreme joy that your soul always deserved.

I know to find the right track,
It took you too long,
But trust me mate, it doesn’t make you wrong.

I know, you are bone-tired walking on a wrong track,
But with another sprig of hope,
Move forward to never look back.

For achieving your goals take diligent action,
And never let yourself get caught again in the chains of procrastination.

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