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Applying Techniques to Address Procrastination in the Workplace 159

dissertation, getting out of an abusive relationship, procrastination
on stopping procrastination, and so the list goes on. Over a nine-
year period, better than 90 percent achieved their objectives, as
measured by confirmable results. Was this easy for each to do?
Hardly. The students came away from the exercise with a deeper,
personal understanding of what it takes to make an important
personal change. I hoped that this personal experience would con-
tribute to a feeling of empathy for the clients they would help who
struggle with issues of personal change and development.
Why focus on one self-development challenge at a time? It
takes time and effort to start and continue with any lifestyle change.
Change is a process. As a species, we tend to be change-resistant
when it comes to modifying what we are used to doing or find
threatening. Developing skills in applying psychology principles
to a self-management challenge and in applying self-management
to help arrest a psychological challenge ordinarily takes time, re-
sources, and effort.

Action Planning

It is the night of December 31. The hour and minute hands turn
and meet for a fleeting moment at the number 12. With the sound
of the chime, the New Year begins.
You tell yourself that this year will be different. You’ll to to the
gym. You’ll turn over a new leaf on the job and get that coveted
salesperson of the year award. You have a list of home maintenance
tasks that are long overdue. They are now on your New Year’s list
of things to do. So, you give yourself a promissory note. Like so
many others with you and before you, the note goes overdue.
Now 365 days have passed. The old year merges into the new.
Not much has changed. Your sales performance was okay. You
followed the same routines you did the year before. Your wish for
a trophy whisked whimsically into the annals of irresolute resolu-
tions as you clapped when the trophy went to someone else. You
signed up and paid for the gym and then stayed away.