About Procrastination:

Handy tool to have in our personalities: don’t want to do something, just put it off!

Anchor that weighs us down: deep inside want to do something, but just don’t think you can, put it off forever!

Seen by some as laziness.

Tool that frees us up from the mundane to do the things we REALLY want to do.

BUT PROCRASTINATION SEEMS TO BE QUITE SKILLED AT REMAINING FIRMLY ENTRENCHED IN THE PRIME REAL ESTATE OF OUR MINDS.

I don’t remember procrastinating much as a child or teenager because I was never required to do much at home. Mom, although perfect in most other areas, failed miserably at teaching us to do things. So, at home, I never became used to doing anything. OOPS. I just wrote a truth that, on reflection, was only a half-truth. I did procrastinate on cleaning my room: once it was so out of control and messy, it overwhelmed me. Dad would threaten me with major consequences; my teenage rebellion would kick in (didn’t have a lot of it); Mom would clean up my room to prevent the consequences. (And I am sure if my husband could have gone back in time, he would have done his BEST to convince her to let me learn from the consequences!!) But other than when it got really messy like that, I wasn’t consciously procrastinating, but just out playing and reading and having fun learning; my room was the farthest thing from my mind. That is why I say it was a half-truth, I rarely procrastinated consciously.

I loved reading and learning and was extremely shy, so the combination worked well at getting school work done. Pencil and paper felt good, felt right. Working math problems or outlining Civics notes was who I was at the time. (I know it wasn’t “who I was”, but it felt like it.) I prided myself on getting excellent grades, and for the most part, learning came easy to me. It was those few times that it didn’t that I procrastinated, but the papers got turned in - except one year - and that was another story and really had nothing to do with procrastination.

But as an adult, having to do things I was not used to doing and didn’t want to do, Procrastination did not just rear its ugly head, but moved in, crowded my good intentions into a tiny studio space, and quick-claimed the rest of me. Now that Procrastination had such a stake in my real estate, it recruited Shyness to stay on. Although Shyness must have been exhausted from all its previous efforts, its foothold in my neighborhood is slipping. Shyness still makes a concerted effort during critical situations to increase its control once again, but so far I am winning that portion of my neighborhood back. There are other property owners that have sided with Procrastination, but I have a few on my team, and Procrastination is finding its holdings weakening, just a tad bit. This week, however, with guests distracting me, Procrastination has regained a bit of turf.

This blog entry however is PROOF that I am winning the battle this morning.

TAKE THAT, PROCRASTINATION!