It is one thing to have never had an idea, vision or dream that you believed in and have wanted to pursue and another to reach the end of your life annoyed and depressed because you know that you did nothing about them.

Procrastination, quite simply then is a the passive state of frustration when someone can clearly envisage a possibility: a business idea perhaps, a career move or perhaps a house move but all they do is talk about it, think about it, maybe even research it a bit but then fail to action anything concrete to make it a reality. You might well be reading this and thinking this is me? How then can you overcome the barrier of procrastination?

Stop daydreaming. A little escape is good for the soul and let's face it: the imagination is a powerful tool. We actually believe strongly that one of the reasons we have it is to enable us to bring about changes. However to do nothing other than dream of the future state is actually lazy and ultimately leads to a great deal of confusion. A healthy mind needs to be focused on actually engaging in life, not in dreams. Start to employ your imagination into assessing what needs to be done and whether or not your ideas are worth pursuing in reality.

Start planning. Put aside some planning time. Your idea isn’t going to self-organise for you or arrive ready prepared as a successful outcome. You have to do the work. Start to break down what you need to do. Make a list, think about who you need to discuss things with, think about the things that can go wrong - thing is perfect.

Commit to action. You are better off forgetting an idea if you are not going to take some action on it. From your more organised planning thought processes you should be able to start identifying the various steps that need to be taken. Agree a time frame with yourself and stick to it. Do a bit at a time and identify what you want to achieve at each stage. This will lead to ultimate success.

Be prepared to flex your goals. As you begin to break down your objectives, you will come to realise things that you hadn’t thought about when you were stuck in your “happy land” day dreaming state. This is perfectly OK and you should remain open to modification.

Remember: procrastination is ultimately a rather negative state. People get bored listening to someone’s constant ideas when there is nothing done to progress them. The procrastinator can end up more confused and inactive as the mind becomes tied up in the inactivity of dreaming.