A LETTER TO MY OCEAN: MY MOM

Your love is like an ocean, immensely deep and rich and I am the sandy shore which soaks your love. You are the waves which come and cool the sand which is burning under the heat of the sun, you take my worries away. You are the tide which hides the shore in its bosom safe from the world. The sand doesn’t know how deep the ocean is and what it hides in the depths of itself, it only sees the surface calm sometimes and fierce sometimes, but it doesn’t know that underneath the waves it’s always constant and calm. Sometimes the ocean throws its wave high and far on the shore and takes away filth and debris .Just like you mumma, when you scold us to wash away our wrongs. Some think you are briny sometimes but they don’t know why it is that way. Your unfulfilled dreams turned into salt and you took in the shore's salt as well, you bury your sadness within yourself and grieve in our pain. The sandy shore, after a while might think that it can do well all by itself because it feels thousands of feet cool the burning for a minute moment and mistakes it for the same cool the ocean provides it, but what it doesn’t realize is that a shore is nothing without the ocean, that the very reason a shore exists is because of the ocean itself. It stays with the shore no matter what happens, no matter how many feet come and go. It wipes away the the blemishes left behind by the feet.

One day I hope to be the ocean for you like you are for me, hope to surround you with warmth like you do, I hope to provide you support like you do for me, I hope to fulfill your dreams like you fulfilled mine because I come from you and so does my happiness.  All I can be is a river because I know I can’t love unconditionally like you. I could be a river which ends in the ocean.

THE UNBIDDEN GUEST: PROCRASTINATION

If you are here, it means either you are a procrastinator or a person you know is one.well pal, every person tends to procrastinate now and again, we all have to accept it, but some of  us are allured by it  more frequently than others are. So, today we are going to talk about types of procrastinators and how we can try to get rid of or at least make a better use of this quality.

Literally, procrastination means delaying or putting off something, but actually, it has a deeper sense hidden behind this simple meaning. Procrastination, according to me is a miserable habit which you know will be regrettable for you but you can't help leaning towards it once in a while or more often than it's appropriate. And getting rid of it can be a bothersome task, because procrastination is an awful yet a very fun guest to have. You know you shouldn't let yourself be influenced by its bad company but it lets you have so much fun that you just can't separate it from yourself.

Here is the reason why we do what we do.

Okay, so let me say in my fellow procrastinators defense that it just comes naturally, we don't ask for it. But how the habit progresses over time is totally up to us. Some of us make it a part of ourselves and let it control our minds and some know better and keep it at bay. What exactly does procrastination give us? It gives us instant happiness, lets us forget our responsibilities and problems for a while and it lets us have fun at the moment. Who does not want that? We feel there is always enough time to do what we should do, be it work, workout, chores, homework etc." its just for a minute" our brain cells sing to us and then minutes turn into hours and hours turn into days.

The consequences of procrastination.

The problem is, it does not provide a solution or make the problems go away, they are actually just piled away behind the future door. Concealed for a while, but the moment you open the door they flood their way out and overwhelm and smother you. Well congratulations! Now we have more troubles and responsibilities to lock away behind the door. So, the cycle continues till there is no space left in future and you have to either do the thing right now or give up. 
We all know what happens when we try to be the rabbit and dash towards the deadline at the last moment. Yes! We are left behind AND we are not able to show our true and full capability, since we try to do everything in the little time we have left for ourselves and end up with low quality performance even though we hold potential to do so much better. This, in the end leaves us feeling guilty and and leaves a negative impression on people who had hopes on you, they might hesitate to give us any new responsibilities and nobody wants that right? We all want people to keep the best of us in mind. and I don't even have to tell the consequences of not completing a task assigned to you or  not reaching the expectations set for you.

Types of procrastinators 

Broadly speaking, there are only 2 types of fellow procrastinators. The late is better than never procrastinators and the never will procrastinators [excuse me for the weird names.. couldn't think of anything  better].

 Late is better than never procrastinators- 

So these kind of procrastinators are the ones who might procrastination till they reach the boarder of the deadline but end up doing what they were meant to do before the time is up. I procrastinated writing an article on procrastination [Irony going deep] but in the end i ended up doing it, this is an example of late is better than never procrastination. these kind of procrastinators have a special quality which non procrastinators might not have, which is not breaking under pressure because everyone tends to panic when the deadline's too close and there is too much to do, but we procrastinators are pros at dealing with such situations, so our brains are capable of lifting that extra load of pressure. So, we should use this quality to our advantage.

The never will procrastinators-

This type of procrastination can be very troublesome so we all have be ware and should not let it spread its color in our brain. These type of procrastinators are those who procrastinate not only till the very end but even after that. It is the worst habit one can have. The only good that comes from this habit is the strength to face humiliation and critic since you get them in abundance if you fail to do something. We can make do with the first type of procrastination because it only reduces the quality of your work but this type of procrastination has to be removed no matter what because it just kills your talent and potential, continuing it wont do.

How can we get rid of this habit or at least fair better with it?

Realization and Acceptance

Firstly, we all need to realize that we are procrastinators. Most people don't accept it or some don't even realize it. The first step to overcome any problem is to realize and accept it, so don't feel shy to peep inside yourself and explore. You can even ask your close ones to observe and tell you if you have this habit or not.

Stop the blame game

We all have been there. When we put off doing something we tend to make excuses for not doing it, we try to justify our act, but the truth is we just procrastinated and deep down we know it. In the beginning this might convince you and the others around you, but after a while you realize how shallow and wrong the excuses are. You need to stop blaming things, people and situations in order to take a step towards leaving procrastination behind.

Understand why you are doing it

There might a reason why you are procrastinating. It could be anything, maybe you don't like the task you are given, or you have something which pulls your heart more than the task, for example- you have to do your homework but your favorite show is up on the T.V., so you decide to watch it instead of completing your homework. And for some people there might be no reason at all, maybe they are just too lazy to get to things right away. The reason could be anything, but you need to understand it so that you can rectify it.

Set priorities 

We need to get our thoughts and things in order. We need to decide the weightage of the things we have up our sleeves and attend to them first or last accordingly. Setting priorities can help us doing the things which matter more hence avoiding procrastination. If we don't know what needs to be done first we might delay it and do the other not so important things first, to avoid such mishap we need to prioritize. If we give weightage to works we might not procrastinate the necessary things. Even if we don't like it, the priority might help us get it done.

Set shorter deadlines

We all tend to relax when we know we have a lot of time in our hands to do a certain task and we end up procrastinating. Our mind keeps telling us "you have a lot of time! you can do it later, but look at that tempting novel waiting for you" and you cave in. Don't give your brain the time to manipulate you, keep the deadlines so short that you don't have the time to procrastinate.

Make yourself an offer you cant cant refuse ['God father' reference]

Do something which will force you to do your task on time. for example- if you keep procrastinating your work out take a membership at an expensive gym, you will have to go everyday or at least most of the days since you can't afford to waste your money. extreme situations demand extreme measures. This method might help you stop procrastinating.

Okay, I am done!

In the end I would like to say procrastination is not all bad and the villain we all think it to be as long as we don't let it get the better of us. Its okay till it is not effecting the things you hold close, be it work, family or anything else.