Time, fear and procrastination are the culprits.

When faced with a future problem that appears certain, people should logically act against the chances of it taking place. But this doesn’t always happen. That’s why people smoke cigarettes when they know the risks, or drink to excess when they know they shouldn’t, or fail to make provision for retirement when they know they should. What is it about us that causes illogical present behaviour when faced with the certainty of negative future consequences as a result of that behaviour?

In Australia we could blame some of our thinking on “She’ll be right, mate”. In other words, “No worries – it’ll all come good” (*see story below). This may be a simple answer, but having spoken to thousands of people who have faced decisions on their future and have then either acted or not, we think there are three key reasons for failing to take decisive action:

1) The false comfort of time

Retirement usually seems a long way away, 10 to 15 years or more. That’s a lot of time. Up to five and half thousand ‘sleeps’. It’s not pressing, and its effect is not right now. There’s enough time for the problem to sort itself out. We’ll save a bit more. We might inherit some money. The kids will be out of the house. I’ll get a promotion or work more overtime and earn more money. In other words, it’s too far away to worry about right now, and time will solve the problem.

2) Fear of failure

Big decisions and sacrifices are needed to avoid future funding problems. However, the bigger the (future) problem, the bigger the (present) decision needs to be. With big decisions comes risk, and with risk, fear. So our inner voice warns us and says,

• I’ll make a mistake – I’ll get caught out
• I’ll get ripped off
• I’ll lose money, when I’m actually trying to make some
• I can’t afford it right now – we can’t come out as it is
• I might lose my job
• I’ll look a fool if it all goes pear-shaped
• I’ve read so much about people who have invested and got it so wrong
• I’m not a smart investor – this is not for me

And so a decision is successfully avoided. We are too scared of making a mistake. We block out the evidence that says we need to do make a positive move, and instead let fear take over with resulting inaction.

3) Procrastination

This means putting off until tomorrow things that need to be done today. This is a widespread human failing. We learnt at school that, “Procrastination is the thief of time”. However, time means money, so putting off decisions means that it is the thief of money as well, which is why when decisions are put off for too long, it gets too late, and there’s no money, and no time left to earn it. So procrastination robs us of both time and money. It’s the price of indecision.

When these three factors act together, postponing life-changing decisions seems almost guaranteed. The solution is to be aware of these unhelpful thoughts and behaviours and to be resolute when all the evidence shows that decisive action is needed to avert a future problem. Tens of thousands have people have already done so. You can too.