PROCRASTINATION???GET THROUGH!!!

Especially Meant for Students

I was here, in your grip

Damn you, let me slip

You’re an emotional cancer

Deadlier that a panzer

You made me so lame

And on me they blamed

My passion, you sucked up

My life, you screwd up

My time, terminating

My aims, hibernating

But now I see

Why you clutch me

I gave up my likes

To my dislikes

For somebody’s sake

N i couldn’t wake

Hence I wrote

N you began to rot

Twas what I liked

N helped thru dislikes

I still wake

4 somebody’s sake

Coz that’s lyf, often choice-less

But now you’re out, voiceless

            ‘Procrastination’, the dictionary defines it as – “defer action”. Wikipedia shows a plethora of examples and possible explanations for it. The insane fact is, you might never realize that you are under its grip while it goes on looting your life. I too had been subject to similar situation.

Have you been awfully bored with life? Felt meaningless?N always looked forward to 'tomorrow'??

 Relax; there could be a way out!

It mostly creeps in when you are made to do things that you weren’t cut out for... so there is a high chance that it comes to a lot of people blindly opting for popular streams like – engineering, merely because they were persuaded by it. The whole duration of the course might seem hectic and one would often end up a loser (no one would ever realize the fact that it was never you fault, you would simply be blamed for your conduct).

I suggest, do things you like and you’d be practically free from it. But yeah, I know life wouldn’t always allow to follow our hearts, we’ve got seeming responsibilities right? And we might also have to confine ourselves to the stream.

Procrastination is quite different from stress, the latter may be the outcome of over loaded work (even if a person does like it) and all it would take to overcome it would be a mere break. Procrastination, on the other hand comes with starting trouble and easy distractions where all sorts of motivation would wear off which would eventually make the task seem daunting. You would be tempted to take breaks often and end up feeling pity for yourself for the heavy distractions which diverges the entire plan, ending up in a state where you’ve wasted a lot of time for nothing. It could easily trigger depression and drain out all your confidence. The worst part is that your ‘hard work’ wouldn’t quite well pay off as your attitude for the same was negative.

Procrastination could also creep in like a snail-slow poison. For example, you’re doing a job that you don’t really admire but holding on because of financial security, or if you’re married to a bitch who is not synchronous to you mental/emotional wavelength but serves you exactly like a devoted spouse. In both the cases chances are that you would gradually grow into utter boredom and you would feel useless. But wait – if you found time, amidst your busy life to do the little things that you are really fond of, then you might very well have burned the snail and you could at least die with a sense of having achieved something (more or less). [note: I’ve never had hands on experience in the previous lines, I just happen to conclude it from the version of procrastination that I had been subjected to like many other helpless peers like me, being stuck in the grand INDIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.]

It is the fast paced short term version of procrastination that affects most students (including myself). I love my country, but it’s totally f**ked up higher education system is what raped me into procrastination. If your subject of study leads you to procrastination, it’s just because it is not really meant for you. But how often are we really left with a stubborn choice? In a highly competitive country like India, a basic degree is considered more important than the holy grail and most aspiring students, whether they like it or not falls into a tradition of acquiring one.

This so called ‘basic degree/career platform’ is what brings in the brutal twist. Be it science /B.tech /commerce, all of ‘em emphasis on force feeding the syllabi into the memory which would then be blindly vomited in to the answer sheet. Utter soaking in theory, completely neglecting the basic skill set required in industry/workplace. At the end of the course the victim is left with either a burned brain which might spiral into procrastination or an already procrastinated heart, left with shame and back-papers. Those nerdy assholes who are capable mugging get the f**king extra edge.

I’ve been through a phenomenon just like that, and thankfully I’ve not yet completed my degree while I was able to grasp the wisdom. I too had opted B.tech expecting exposure and practicality. The dramatic turn of events happened in my life too. No, my parents didn’t force me into it and hence I had to keep my commitment to them.

Talking about ‘parents’ I’ve seen many during college ‘patent-teacher’ meetings. I could see in some of their eyes, the same fear/doubt stating - “oh shit!! I shouldn’t have forced my son/daughter in to this”. Happiness in the eyes of THOSE whose child have scored high but bleakness in the eyes of the ‘topper child’ who sacrificed everything he/she liked to do to merely soak in stinking slurry of theory. Nobody is really content/satisfied except those students who manage to balance both under a fine string of harmony while most of their parents try to push them further under competitive persuasion. I’ve even seen a few students who take revenge on their parents by not studying to watch them burn during such meetings – “daddy! I told you I didn’t want to do this... now suffer”!!!(If you are one of the student who falls in to the last line – YOU R REALLY SCREWING YOUR LIFE... YOUR PARENTS HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE... U SELFISH MORON...)

The aim of my post is not persuade you to drop out. But to remind you of that power within you which can help overcome the state of procrastination. Like I mentioned earlier, procrastination mostly comes to those who are made to do things they dislike but never realized it until they took the leap.

First, acknowledge that fact without any humiliation. That would be a brave and smart step. Remember you are not alone, every year countless students enter in to this big bowl of shit. All that I need you to do is to hold on while enjoying with whatever means you can. Acknowledging is equivalent to scanning a PC for viruses and realizing its existence. It would help us to be careful.

Try to like what you do! (How can we like what we don’t like?) by finding time to do things that you actually like doing.(in my case it was writing bullshit posts like this and posting it up to this blog... whether anyone reads it or not, it transformed my dullness into confidence.) I am not a top scorer and neither am I satisfied with what I am taught (no! It’s never the fault of the teacher/faculty but the system as a whole). But I guess I found a way to sail just fine.

You could do it to...it’s quite simple, MAKE DEALS WITH TIME AND OBSTACLES FOT THE THINGS YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT , that’s all it would take.

 After all, these obstacles are meant to sharpen your (our) swords! May its sharpness cut through the God-given obstacles rather than your (our) soul.