You, the reader of this article, let me ask you this – do you often procrastinate? There’s a good chance that you may say yes. Everyone procrastinates when it comes to something or the other. We may think that procrastination is mostly associated with difficult and boring tasks – like filing taxes, or cleaning your garage. But do you know that more often than not, we procrastinate on the fun things as well? Like your own hobbies – the hobbies that make you happy about doing them, but we somehow end up putting it away for later and end up never doing it at all? Do you wish there was a way to get out of that procrastination?

When it comes to hobbies the motivation to do it is intrinsic – it comes from the inside, nobody else expects you to do it, you do it because it makes you feel happy from within. But one downside of this is that you are the complete owner of this motivation and if you are a procrastinator like me then you may end up not doing it at all. The idea here is to somehow outsource a part of this motivation to the external world, so that you get a constant reminder to work on your favorite activities. But how exactly?

This is where the power of social media comes in. People out there are consuming content all the time – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and many more. What if we take this social media and turn it into a motivation tool and use it to push us out of our procrastination and to get better at our hobbies or skills? How do we do it? Let me give an example of art. Maybe you are interested in painting and wanted to improve your painting skills from a long time. You see a random friend post a photo of their own painting. Here’s the first step – notice how you feel about that painting and take a moment to assess where you think your skills are w.r.t. that painting. Let’s take the two extremes – if that painting is fabulous and beyond your own skill level then it evokes a feeling in you that inspires you to attempt something that like yourself someday, it would push you to take the first step towards that. On the other side if that painting is not really impressive then you would think that – hey, probably I can do a better job at this, if this person can make a painting then I definitely should try something myself! Now mind you, this is not to belittle the other person’s skills because everyone is trying, and you should never ever discourage someone who puts efforts toward bettering their skills. But if you get a feeling that maybe you are better than someone at something, go use that feeling to push yourself out of inaction. Essentially whether that painting is brilliant or mediocre – either way it could push you a little more towards attempting it yourself. With that, the second step is go out and create something of your own – maybe throw some colors on the canvas, or scribble some thoughts into an article, or make a food recipe video.

Now here is the final and the most effective step of all once you created your content, go ahead and publish it on social media. Let your friends, acquaintances and even strangers see it. Remember, ‘good or bad, it’s all just fine; but make sure that you post it online’. This has multiple advantages. Firstly, it lets you share your creation with a large audience where getting instant feedback is as easy as the click of a ‘like’ button. No matter how good it is there are always people who encourage you with a simple ‘like’. Some people even say – “Hey I didn’t know that you paint too! That was really a good one that you posted, keep painting more!”. Now that really makes you feel positive about your skills and motivate you to do more of it. Also, your post can help you find a lot of like-minded people in your own social circle. And that could open up new opportunities for you – let’s say you posted a scratch recording of you playing the guitar on a social media site, someone could come up to you and say – “hey, we are an amateur music band and all we are missing is a guitarist, would be interested in joining?”. Now that would be the beginning of a lot of new opportunities – getting new gigs which push you to get better at your skills.  Another point – let’s say you did a wonderful job with this painting and you feel satisfied – now you have set a high bar for yourself, publicly. Now the next time you paint you would want to make something that’s better or at least on par with the previous one. Or if you did a mediocre job at your first one and you know you can be better, now you really have a motivation to prove to people and yourself that you can be better by posting something better the next time. Either way, your own perception of the quality of your content pushes you to get better at your skills. And what about others’ perception about the quality of your content? Now this is the best part – let’s say that your painting is fabulous. Now looking at that someone else would feel that probably they should also aim to become as good as you someday and that could inspire them to take a step towards it. But if they feel that your painting sucks then they would think – “hey I can do a better job than this guy – if he can post this online then I should definitely create something and post it too!”. Either way, you have inspired others to come out of inaction and take a step forward in the right direction. You have started a ripple effect, or an inspiration chain – which brings out the best out of you and out of others.

I conclude this article with not just the proposal, but with a call for action. This weekend identify one hobby that you wished you did more and create some content out of that – you like art? make a painting; you love to dance? make a video; you’re into music? record a song cover on your phone; you love cooking? create your own culinary delight and share the recipe; you like to speak? sign up for a speech at the nearest Toastmasters club. And remember – “good or bad, it’s all just fine; but make sure that you post online!”