HOW PROCRASTINATION AND EXCUSES ALMOST RUINED ME.

I literally didn’t know how far procrastination had eaten me up, how much damage it had done to me until few months ago.

It all started when memories of my early teenage years flashed through my mind as if they were being played on the television, so clear and short, but precise. They were precious and sweet memories but could have been much better if I had stopped procrastinating almost every single action that I took; I had no idea that procrastination was eating me up then.

First thing I remembered,

I had passion for drawing, I drew almost any Tom and Jerry movie carton I came across. I remembered I had two other friends who also loved drawing like me and we would challenge ourselves to draw a whole design page of the Tom and Jerry. We also drew the Avengers:Civil Wars and it was lovely, though mine was almost perfect (maybe 90%).

My parents decided that I should learn more about art from any of the prestigious art shop where I lived then, I chose the art shop I wanted. I was still in secondary school so, I always leave school around 3pm to resume art back then; I only worked when there’s competition or challenge amongst we the apprentice. Forward to 2018, I gave up artwork because the location of the art shop wasn’t comfortable any longer, plus my parent couldn’t afford more expensive art tools because I had improved a lot within one year (expensive art tools enhances the quality of artworks).

Till date, I haven’t told my parents the exact reason why I stopped going to the art shop ( the reason was because my dad complained a lot about how I asked for money to get new art tools, I always feel too bad then, so, I stopped).

The second is this,

A year later, 2019, I was earning around 14,000 naira ($20) as a teacher in a small primary school where I lived. I decided to sponsor myself to learn how to play the bass guitar and I was paying 3,000 naira monthly. I usually go to the music school after I close from work; my teacher, Gabriel, was a skilled multi-instrumentalist so I learned well and was able to catch up with the basics.

I'm the first guy from the left😂😂. This picture was taken 2019 when I was learning how to play the guitar (we were sitting outside the music class).

Fast-forward to about five months later, I stopped rehearsing just because I was at the intermediate level which requires a lot of practices and theory; and my close friend was getting better at it. Thank God I found my way back to playing the bass guitar, I still play the bass guitar.

The third,

November 2021, I started learning graphic design because I needed to have a digital skill since the world is revolving and advancing in its use of technology. So I started with Canva; I preferred creating designs at midnight and would stay awake till around 4 a.m. I stopped a month later when I felt like my designs were not as good as my tutor's designs it’s impossible for such to happen in short time right?... Lame excuses!. I later found out about Pixellab app, which seemed complex at first but I got better at graphic design after some months of daily practices.... actually, I skipped designing for some days too.

These three memories came back to me fresh, though I had other parts of my life where I gave lame excuses and didn’t know how messed up I was until I realized that I won't achieve anything unless I'm diligent and intentional about every single decision I make. I also procrastinated some few things this year like, early reading for my last semester's exam, creating new graphic designs every day, watching new tutorials online, connecting with like-minded people, learning how to write well, learning a new skill and maybe listening to music.

I am grateful to God 🙏 that I now know how far procrastination and lame excuses can ruin a man’s life.

Gradually, I am overcoming and I know I can do better. I still give lame excuses but it’s not as worse as it were then, and I know how hard it was to convince myself to sit down, brainstorm and write this post.

I am sure I will get better soon because no change comes sudden and no one becomes perfect overnight.

Thank you for reading guys