Last week was a classic part one, introducing the problem in all its messiness. This week, I hope to bring it all together with a life lesson not easily learned or forgotten.

Here is the problem we are focused on: we business folk have found procrastination guilty of trying to ruin our lives, while the real culprit roams free.

Countless books have been written (written very well) telling us that the only thing standing in between us and greatness is our (lazy and uncreative) selves.

Which assumes that the solution is just “getting out of our way”, so that our (good) self can bypass and outgrow our (bad) self. Which puts the battle right between our ears, our self the prosecutor and our self the defendant. Which is why the vast majority of personal growth literature is either so schizophrenic it exacerbates the heartburn, or so ethereal it doesn’t land.

But can we really assume that there is a veritable tidal wave of potential locked inside of us that we need to just let out? Are laziness and apathy the culprits?

If the problem is ourselves, can we really pop our hoods and fix—us?

I think it’s clear where I’m headed.

Here is the secret. The solution must come from outside ourselves.

In other words, we’ve got the wrong guy in the dock.

But, before we go full Perry Mason and dredge up the evidence, let’s reorient ourselves. We (business thinkers) all assume a few things: the goal of life is success, the way to achieve that is productivity, and the obstacle is procrastination and laziness—may be oversimplified, but it’s not inaccurate.

In that narrative, the antidote is precisely what our market is flooded by: motivation. We have motivational literature, motivational videos, speeches, and even music. 

The enemy is procrastination and the solution is motivation.

Get excited!

Get motivated!

Immerse yourself in positivity and junk food content!

But motivation is a very cheap and ridiculous substitute for Passion, and I relish the idea of everyone figuring this out and unashamedly declaring that the emperor hath no clothes. What a day that will be!

Gut level, I think what’s happened is we have de-fanged Passion in all her glorious potential by focusing on goals not worthy of her, so we scrounge around for crumbs of motivation as she lay dying.

If you live in a world where procrastination is the enemy, then your only hope is to overcome it with fresh motivation (good luck keeping up with that voracious appetite and need for conferences and events and excitement to keep you propped up; it’s a vicious cycle!) But if your world is fully rounded, the enemy is outside of you and the only solution is outside of you.

In that world everything is different.

The goal isn’t personal success, it’s meaning, and the way to achieve that isn’t through productivity but through obedience, and the obstacle isn’t procrastination, it’s the darkness.

Boy can you imagine this as a book in the business section…selling like hot cakes!

We were all created with a purpose and it is our greatest Passion in life to fulfill that purpose, to hear and obey the voice that calls us out of the darkness.

The enemy is darkness that shrouds meaning and purpose and makes us question the value of our lives, time, and work. Procrastination be damned. 

In that world, the best life is lived by those who are captured by this vision of light that dispels the darkness, and who control themselves as a captain controls a ship. 

The enemy isn’t personal laziness or lack of motivation, but darkness, a shroud covering the clarity of purpose and meaning in life which runs like a freight train through every obstacle it contacts. 

The truly successful person has infinite Passion at his fingertips and uses the clarity of his vision to keep both powers in check, subduing both Passion and Resistance as he obeys the call of His Maker. 

Life is meant to be spent in the service of the greater objective: the objective of living for a higher power, for someone whose greatest obsession is in sharing His goodness with others.

What does it look like to live in this world, this Kingdom?

Come back next week.