It took one of my relatives an hour and a half to simply be moved from one room in the doctor's office to another room.

This wasn't because her foot was injured in a car crash, though that was the reason she was there for treatment. It took this long because of the physician's utter disregard for the value of his patients' time.

Typically, he keeps everyone waiting to be seen, sometimes for two and a half hours at a stretch.

Anticipating long delays, who among us is eager to book that next appointment, irrespective of how ill he or she is? Let's say you do schedule a visit, when the time arrives, are you going to procrastinate a little before you trek over to the medical suite?

You have to be thinking, "Heck, he's going to make me wait, anyway, so what good is it to be on time?"

Procrastinators are criticized endlessly, and in many cases they chastise themselves because they put things off. But at the base of the criticism is the tacit belief that THEY control their time.

Not true.

You might be perfectly ready, willing and able to get something done, but it is other people and their calendars that slow you down so much that on some level you wonder, "Why bother?"

Let's say you need to get your car serviced, but the dealer won't let you bring your car in, by appointment, until several days later. Is it your fault that you set and then forgot about that distant date?

There are countless "aversive conditioning agents" at work in everyone's life that reinforce procrastination behavior.

Knowing your boss is a poor listener who cuts you off in mid-sentence, how likely are you to set and then to keep a meeting to discuss some time-off or a long overdue, but once promised raise in pay?

If you anticipate a rough time, you'll probably postpone the pain by putting off the day of reckoning.

But take heart. Blaming yourself about the delay, is misplaced.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top speaker, negotiation consultant, attorney, real estate broker, TV and radio commentator and the best-selling author of 12 books, including SIX-FIGURE CONSULTING: HOW TO HAVE A GREAT SECOND CAREER. He is the creator of Nightingale-Conant's successful audio seminar: THE LAW OF LARGE NUMBERS: HOW TO MAKE SUCCESS INEVITABLE. He conducts seminars and convention presentations around the world and can be reached at: gary(at)customersatisfaction.com

His original class, "Best Practices in Negotiation," is offered at UCLA & UC Berkeley Extension and at a number of other fine universities and organizations. See: https://www.uclaextension.edu/r/Course.aspx?reg=U8637