R. Mendel of Satanov:
"Find for yourself a regular activity, for the benefit of yourself or others, and don't waste one moment of your life."
Pen & Paper...
Procrastination
Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff
Everyone puts things off sometimes, but procrastinators chronically avoid difficult tasks and may deliberately look for distractions. Procrastination tends to reflect a person’s struggles with self-control. For habitual procrastinators, who represent approximately 20 percent of the population, "I don't feel like it" comes to take precedence over their goals or responsibilities, and can set them on a downward spiral of negative emotions that further deter future effort.
Procrastination also involves a degree of self-deception: At some level, procrastinators are aware of their actions and the consequences, but changing their habits requires even greater effort than completing the task in front of them.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/procrastination
Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff
Everyone puts things off sometimes, but procrastinators chronically avoid difficult tasks and may deliberately look for distractions. Procrastination tends to reflect a person’s struggles with self-control. For habitual procrastinators, who represent approximately 20 percent of the population, "I don't feel like it" comes to take precedence over their goals or responsibilities, and can set them on a downward spiral of negative emotions that further deter future effort.
Procrastination also involves a degree of self-deception: At some level, procrastinators are aware of their actions and the consequences, but changing their habits requires even greater effort than completing the task in front of them.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/procrastination
Cartoon by Brooke Bourgeois
- Spectrum: Procrastination -- Timeliness -- Decisiveness/Focus/Driven
- What conditions or feelings contribute to procrastination?
- Can procrastination serve any purpose?
Does procrastination serve any purpose?
Procrastination is a self-defeating behavior pattern, but it can be seen as serving a psychological purpose, especially for people with perfectionist tendencies, by protecting the individual against fear of failure, judgment by others, and self-condemnation. Avoiding unpleasant work by devoting energy to other tasks, like organizing or cleaning, also helps procrastinators avoid feeling unproductive, although they will have to pay the price for it later.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/procrastination
Procrastination is a self-defeating behavior pattern, but it can be seen as serving a psychological purpose, especially for people with perfectionist tendencies, by protecting the individual against fear of failure, judgment by others, and self-condemnation. Avoiding unpleasant work by devoting energy to other tasks, like organizing or cleaning, also helps procrastinators avoid feeling unproductive, although they will have to pay the price for it later.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/procrastination
R. Mendel of Satanov:
"The animal soul is satisfied with the flow of dreams or ideas and does not ever feel any disdain for a life of procrastination...the animal soul only acts in reaction to the blowing of the winds..."
In contrast:
"The intellectual soul...quickly feels disdain for procrastination and longs to return and work at any matter or task until the intellectual soul's energy is fully given..."
"And the matter or task at hand...gives the intellectual soul a reward for the effort, joy and satisfaction, or at the very least protection against troubles and loss."
"The animal soul is satisfied with the flow of dreams or ideas and does not ever feel any disdain for a life of procrastination...the animal soul only acts in reaction to the blowing of the winds..."
In contrast:
"The intellectual soul...quickly feels disdain for procrastination and longs to return and work at any matter or task until the intellectual soul's energy is fully given..."
"And the matter or task at hand...gives the intellectual soul a reward for the effort, joy and satisfaction, or at the very least protection against troubles and loss."
- We have two yetzarim - yetzer ha'tov, the good inclination and yetzer ha'ra, the evil inclincation
- R. Mendel teaches we must worship God with both
(ז) רַבִּי נַחְמָן בַּר שְׁמוּאֵל בַּר נַחְמָן בְּשֵׁם רַב שְׁמוּאֵל בַּר נַחְמָן אָמַר, הִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד, זֶה יֵצֶר טוֹב. וְהִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד, זֶה יֵצֶר רָע. וְכִי יֵצֶר הָרָע טוֹב מְאֹד, אֶתְמְהָא. אֶלָּא שֶׁאִלּוּלֵי יֵצֶר הָרָע לֹא בָּנָה אָדָם בַּיִת, וְלֹא נָשָׂא אִשָּׁה, וְלֹא הוֹלִיד, וְלֹא נָשָׂא וְנָתַן. וְכֵן שְׁלֹמֹה אוֹמֵר (קהלת ד, ד): כִּי הִיא קִנְאַת אִישׁ מֵרֵעֵהוּ.
(7) Rabbi Nahman said in Rabbi Samuel's name: 'Behold, it was good' refers to the Good Desire; 'And behold, it was very good' refers to the Evil Desire. (It only says 'very good' after humanity was created with both the good and bad inclinations, in all other cases it only says 'and God saw that it was good') Can then the Evil Desire be very good? That would be extraordinary! But without the Evil Desire, however, nobody would build a house, take a partner and raise children; and thus said Solomon: 'Again, I considered all labour and all excelling in work, that it is one's rivalry with one's neighbor.' (Ecclesiastes 4:4).
All of a person's actions, both good and bad, are motivated by instinctive urges which characterize the world of under the sun. Jealousy can be channeled into the development of great skill, into thievery, into scholarship and perhaps even into philanthropy. However, the perspective of what is done under the sun only sees that these instinctive urges (yetzer ha'rah) are the source of futile and destructive actions, that every good action is contaminated by its venal motivation. However, there is another perspective which recognizes that without jealousy, greed, ambition, or desire for fame, not very much would get done. The urgent pressure of hunger, cold, fear or desire for recognition can also motivate a person to accomplish worthwhile objectives.
-Footnotes to Kohelet, Bruce Heitler
-Footnotes to Kohelet, Bruce Heitler
The Evil Urge. How so? They say that for the first thirteen years [of a person’s life] the Evil Urge is greater than the Good Urge. There in one's mother’s womb, a person’s Evil Urge grows within themselves. [After they emerge into the world,] they start breaking the Sabbath, and nothing is there to stop them; [killing people, and nothing is there to stop them; going out to sin, and nothing is there to stop them.]
After thirteen years, the Good Urge is born. Then when they break the Sabbath, it says to them: Empty one! Isn’t it written (Exodus 31:14), “One who breaks it will surely die”? When they kill, it says to him: Empty one! Isn’t it written (Genesis 9:6), “One who spills the blood of a person, one's own blood will be spilled”? When one goes out to sin, it says to them: Empty one! Isn’t it written (Leviticus 20:16), “Both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death”?
Avot De'Rabbi Natan, 16:2
After thirteen years, the Good Urge is born. Then when they break the Sabbath, it says to them: Empty one! Isn’t it written (Exodus 31:14), “One who breaks it will surely die”? When they kill, it says to him: Empty one! Isn’t it written (Genesis 9:6), “One who spills the blood of a person, one's own blood will be spilled”? When one goes out to sin, it says to them: Empty one! Isn’t it written (Leviticus 20:16), “Both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death”?
Avot De'Rabbi Natan, 16:2
R. Mendel:
"We don't have to go so far as to say [people] are completely idle, in which case they fall into boredom or end up [letting go so much] they die..."
"We don't have to go so far as to say [people] are completely idle, in which case they fall into boredom or end up [letting go so much] they die..."
Rabbi Yosei HaGalili would say: A person dies only because of idleness, as it says (Genesis 49:33), “And he expired [or: exhausted himself], and so was gathered to his people.”
"...rather, even a small amount of time a person enjoys the yetzer ha'ra more than is necessary for heavenly purposes is called a 'life of idleness' (procrastination)...
"The middah of zerizut comes to cure anyone who has become accustomed to an inclination toward a life of idleness/procrastination..."
"The middah of zerizut comes to cure anyone who has become accustomed to an inclination toward a life of idleness/procrastination..."
Exercise:
- What are your top 3 life priorities at the moment?
- Of the 3, which one most often do we procrastinate on?
- Top procrastination reason and/or method...
- Divide up into groups and lets share with each other & see if we can suggest some helpful ways to be more active, decisive, assertive on our priorities!