In May 2009 abroad learning Arabic I met countless students who like myself had joined the summer intensive program.
They had this energy about them. One would say these next two months I’m gonna get really busy on my Arabic.
I’m gonna do this and that I’m gonna work like mad memorize the dictionary. Unfortunately this person after 3 weeks went back home saying it’s too hot now I’ll come back another time.
In Get Fluent In Arabic I talk about stopping ourselves from saying I’m gonna do such and such. Saying I’m gonna is one of the first steps to procrastination.
There’s an old Chinese saying I mention in my book how to be productive and achieve your dreams under my pen name Kevin Miles it goes talk doesn’t cook rice.
The second category of people I met are the people who I call the waiters. They’re the people waiting around for a million things to happen and fall in place before they get on with working on their Arabic or anything else in their life.
They say things such as
I’ll wait for the weather to improve then I’ll start working on…
I’ll watch this soccer match then I’ll start working on…
I’ll drop the kids off to school then I’ll really start working hard.
I’ll wait for my laptop to get fixed,
I’ll wait for my broadband to get fixed,
I’ll just relax for a bit
I’ll wait for the economy or the political situation to improve.
We need to stop waiting for things and just get on with doing things.
Our situation in the outside world will never change til we change our inner world.
“God does not change the condition of a people til they change what is within themselves.” (Al Qur’an)
The condition of your Arabic will not change til you change your inner world.
We all procrastinate from time to time but it needs to be controlled and limited.
When we procrastinate and leave things for tomorrow we are only giving ourselves more to do and more stress. That’s what leaving things to the last minute is about.
getfluentinarabic 