Jordan Peterson - The Cost of Procrastinating & Wasting Half Your Life

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[youbetyourwrasse]

It's not the "money lost" that gets me, it's the time I could have spent reading, thinking, practicing, and learning. It equates to minutes, hours, days, years of lost life. If you are young, think carefully about what you are doing. don't put it off because life seems long. It is, but it only moves in one direction. Do not get "old" and experience the terror of realizing how much of your life you chose to waste. You never get that time back, you'll not have a "second chance" to do things differently. While this may be an obvious statement to make, no horror compares to the agony and sense of doom when you wake up and see your time left can be measured in dog years, and too much of life has been flitted away. Time is not just to be "enjoyed, " it is to be wisely invested. If done well, you will have both.

[RealRaslu]

This is so accurate. I really just want to say to hell with it all. Mostly because I am so incompetent most of the time that I can't stand myself. It scares me to realise how hard it is to conquer yourself.

[adamcummings]

I procrastinate by watching videos about why procrastination is bad

[zaynumar]

I wasted so much mother fucking time and I feel fucking physically ill / sick thinking about it

[Justsomeoneyoucouldhaveknown]

6 months off of 30.
No job.
No marketable skills.
No education on paper.
Pushed friends away.
Estranged family.
I broke up with her.
Can't say no to spending.
Piss poor budgeting skills.
Failing health.
Teeth on the verge of falling out.
Self-esteem, confidence or worth. What are those?
Looking at 15 years just to get back to "baseline".
No one tho blame but myself
Fucked up so much it's not even a question of how to get back on the horse but what's the point....

Don't push help away. Don't burn bridges between friends and family. And don't give up....or else your going to be very miserable with the success you are able to achieve and will never really be "happy"

[ryanturner]

For those failing to get the point, he isn't talking in absolutes. He's defining the problem, using an example for a visual reference, and explaining the negatives of wasting time. The problem is you guys who aren't necessarily in that category of people he is referencing, so when you apply that scenario of idea to your life, you may have already have a good balance in your life.

His whole talking point is for you to realize the power of time, and apply that to any part of your life that may need help in terms of time management. Like a review of your habits and rituals.

[jamais]

I just sat around watching old DBZ clips for over 5 hours on YouTube...

[Scarletraven]

The comment section is split into depressed belivers and skeptic distrust.
Find a way in the middle.
Fun IS the purpose of life, yes, but you don't need 8 hours of it each day. You don't want perfection, you want better than now.
And people change over years of effort, so don't fuckin spread your defeatism by pretending nothing can be done.

[thehighest]

I’m stuck in a loop that I can’t seem to escape.
The loop being me, my perspective on life. It’s been two years since my attempt to permanently escape this world.
See I thought my life would get better but it hasn’t. I’ve been in the bed for 4 weeks and have only taken a shower once, once my depression was light enough for me to do so.

Everytime I think about doing something other than surf the web with the covers pulled over my head, the depression talks me out of it.
Me: I should go take a shower
Depression : what for, there’s no point all you do is lay in bed all day, you’ll just be wasting water
Me: ____
I lie about going to therapy even when I know I need it, I lie to my parents about taking showers even when I know I need to. I curl into the fetal position staring at the dirt underneath my finger nails. I feel like a waste of a human being, I feel like a waste of life. I have no hobbies, no friends, no online friends, I am a jail cell. I waste every second of every day that I’ve been alive for the past two years‍.
I don’t know anything
, I can’t stick to the schedules I set for myself
I kill every idea I have, before it gets a chance to grow to get out of the downward spiraling loop
, I can’t should just drive off a bridge and end it all

[booperdee]

Im almost 30, and im going through a rough time at the moment, and all i can think of is that i wish i learned how to drive, to get a job, to have more money, to get my own place, to have done everything sooner. While i can pointlessly wallow in that feeling of wasting, i should be moving in such a way that when im 40 i can look back to now and say "thank you" to myself.

[QuiteTheBrianD]

I get where he's coming from from a logical pov but it's much easier said than done.. I simply don't care and find everything meaningless.. I have no motivation to get stuff done, just apathy

[Mr.Honest]

You know, it's actually a paradox. If you don't waste time and work your ass off, you have no free time and don't know how to have fun. And if you procrastinate too much, you feel like you're wasting your life away. Either direction you lose...I guess the answer would be balance?

[TheChamp]

I remember once hearing, "The only time you TRULY hate yourself is when you sit on the couch all day."

[Skulltroxx]

Hitting the gym I've realised the importance of daily/regular effort. The amount of hours I've wasted procrastinating every single day, had I put even a fraction of it in learning something or doing something useful, I'd have been way more knowledgeable right now. Or atleast would've gained useful experience in things I don't know much of now.

[painless]

This realization was amazing at first then the dread kind of set in and I had spent my middle school and basically all of my high school career in my own head. It limited me socially and made me way less confident in my abilities for sports and academic’s. I always managed to get work done, but I was never satisfied and always felt like it was for nothing there was no change for so long that I didn’t even think I could change for a long time. My dad passed around this time and it all began from there. You really don’t know how much you appreciate the things you have until they are gone and there’s no going back. I could of put so much more work in, but I always told myself what was the point? That’s why I was so average at everything I was so scared to take it to the next level and go the extra mile to unlock that true potential although I’m 18 and basically a week from graduation it has been a long hard and amazing journey that I’ve had, I hope to run in college in track and field to fulfill my ambitions to become a competitive runner! Best of luck on all of your journeys!

[CombraStudios]

While it's not desirable to always be productive and never waste a minute it's still better to seek productivity because it has better impact on your life, you don't remember anything from your procrastinated time but you remember your active times and at least they moved you forward whether they were fun or tough.

[christopher]

Stop wasting your time by worrying about wasted time. Just live the moment!

[aidand.]

I don't know what to do with that time. What am I supposed to do with that time in order not to waste it? I dont know really what to do with my life, and I don't know really how to live. I feel kinda paralyzed by the idea of not knowing what I should do

[tanishansari]

Time is not just to be "enjoyed, " it is to be wisely invested. If done well, you will have both.

[AdorableOdyssey]

I didn't wake up until I was 29. It wasn't time completely wasted, since I (insert bragging about the list of accomplishments), but I could have done more. I'm just thankful that I actually woke up for now and I have my 30's to accomplish all the amazing things that I want to do. This will probably sound really strange or even insane, but especially for the past 6 months, it feels like I've been gaining a new stage of enlightenment which is roughly once a week on average. sometimes it consecutively day after day, sometimes I have to wait a whole month to reach that next level of enlightenment. when you take the time and effort to work yourself, you feel a deep sense of fulfillment and understanding about the world, yourself, and people come with that as a bonus.

also, think about it this way, would you rather deal with the pain doing what you need to do and feel gratified later or would you rather procrastinate now and feel semi-good about it for the moment and then feel horrible later? The pain of regret is much stronger in my experience. alright, enough crazy insane rambling youtube talk where I'm basically talking to myself since no one reads these things anyway.