Ever heard of the six deadly sins of productivity? Well, bad news. Most people commit them daily and what's worse is that they know they are committing them, but they slip on by.
Now, Am not claiming a saint, I do found myself slipping from time to time. But what's important is recognizing these “sins” and be bold enough to say, “hey what am I doing?” And definitely put a stop to it.
Is it as easy as it sounds? NO!
Well that's why I am sharing this with you. To open your mind to these sins. and how you can control and possible terminate them from your life.
WHAT ARE THESE SINS:
1.laziness
The greatest sin of productivity
Laziness in my opinion, is part mental, part physical and maybe a little on the emotional side. What do I mean by this? Whenever we feel lazy, our body feels sluggish. I bet thought like this pop up in our mind, “I feel soooo lazy right now, and I don't want to do anything!” Or “ I need to take a nap!”.
This is absolutely fine after a nice hearty meal, but when you have a deadline or a goal you have to finish. Do you let laziness get best of you?
Unfortunately, most of us let their lazy self dictate their action. But believe me, I've been there before! This actually refers to the physical and mental part I talked about from start. So what's the emotional aspect?
When we feel lazy, that's it! We “feel” it. It's almost uncontrollable urge to how we feel. If we feel angry, we act out in rage, and if we feel happy, we act out in kindness or silliness. But the gray area, such as laziness, isn't so easy to recognize. Why? Because we normally just “act” it out and do what is not right. (In laziness, we sleep it off or do something else we are not supposed to be doing. Right?)
now you might be thinking, how can I deal with laziness?
In order to prevent ourselves from becoming or feeling lazy, we have to be in all the three state of preparedness: physically, mentally and emotional prepared.
The most important part is to be physically active. The more fit and active you are physically, the more stamina and strength you have to perform any task.
You might ask why do soldiers go through such a brutal physical training in boot camp? Simple: to be active and ever ready for any combat!You can do the same. join a fitness club to work out those lazy bodies. This will boost your productivity in a very massive way. Both mentally and physically.
2. Fear
This sin can choke your hopes and dreams.
Fear is a formidable foe when it comes to becoming productive. When we are afraid of something, what do we usually do? We stay away from it. Right? But it's very important you recognise what you are afraid of before you can confront it or conquer it! You have to ask yourself whether your fears are really holding you back from reaching your goals. Let me be a little bit vulnerable and expose what use to be my fears. My two biggest fears are criticism and people I care about turning their back on me. This two has made me to compromise a lot and i must confess it's quite a mind draining and energy sucking. So i have to break loose. You might ask how?
Nelson Mandela once said,”the brave man is not the one who does not feel afraid, but the one who conquers his fear. I realized how this fear has Been holding me down. And I face it head on.
3.doubt
What is doubt and how does it prevent you from becoming productive?
Self doubt is more damaging than you think. Say you have doubt about something, whether it's passing an interview or accomplishing a particular task. Does it make you more worried when you starts second guessing your ability? That is doubt.
The More you doubt yourself the less confident you become in completing a job.
Now how do you deal with doubt?
The answer is practice, practice and practice! Yes, the more you practice the more competent you will become. A good example is driving. It's obvious you will doubt your driving skill if you don't know how to drive. But once you have perfected your driving skill, you feel more confident in yourself that you can drive.
Now instead of doubting yourself about something, why not spent that same energy to practice so you can feel more confident about yourself.
4. Procrastination
Popularly known as “thief of time”.
Procrastination comes in different forms such as excuses, laziness and being unmotivated. With the right motivation anyone can achieve whatever they set their mind on.
Now the million dollar question is:How can you prevent procrastination?
The answer is so simple. Find out the motivation behind that which you set out to do. But before that you need to first define your goal.
Here is an example, say I wanted to lose 7 pounds in 21days. That's the goal. How then do I motivate myself to achieve this?My motivation is to look good and feel great about myself. another motivation is to perfectly fit in all my lovely cloths.
Focus on what motivates you to take up a task and you can easily be committed to it. Whenever you feel like to procrastinate, ask yourself this questions:
Why did I need to do this in the first place?
What will be the consequences of not doing it now?
How will I feel if I did it now?
Sound easy, yes. easy to do? NO. You have to practice it.
5. Envy
Envy“why envy when you can do the same thing"
I really have problem with people who complained a lot but do very little. I hear, “why does so and so person always showing off their wealth” “ why does so and so feel like they are more better than others“? Why is it bothering you if i may ask. “If you are soo jealous of them, why don't you ask yourself how they got to where they are and may be learn something from them?”
Some are soo envious of other people that it prevent them from seeing their true self. Another reason why some people are envious is because they feel like they are the one who supposed have all the glory and not the other person.
Successful people work hard for all the luxury and good things they possessed. While some where born into luxury. We all cannot be born into wealth. But we can work hard to attain the success we secretly desire.(it all narrows down to whether we want it so bad enough)
6. Hate
This one comes with a heavy price
You may ask, how does hate comes on deadly sin of productivity. The answer is simple. If you hate the process of doing something and you hate the prospect of getting something or probably hate the people you are bound to work with, guess what? Nobody will like to work with you! And We all know that no one can do it all by them self. ( especially if you are in business or want to accomplish a Goal that requires a team).
If your heart is filled with hatred. You will find it very difficult getting along with people.
So the golden rule always applies here: treat people like you want to be treated.
Hate will definitely hinder your productivity. Until you acknowledge and appreciate people around you. This same people will also be glad to work with you.
Finally it's very easy to fall victim of these sin because they work on human weakness. But remember if you are not part of the solutions then you are part of the problem. It's up to you to let go of whatever that holding back you from becoming the best you can be
