The List

I'm still on the subject of procrastination, so if anyone reading this has the same issue, please help me out with some comments.   One of my progress points this past week has been to make a list of important things I need to make part of my life, daily if possible.  It's a really good list.  However, it is also very intimidating.  My friend Marilyn is a great list-maker, as is my husband.  Marilyn once told me that if I find a "To-Do List" too intimidating, that I should make a "Done-This List" instead.  I'm still working on that also.  I thought, though, that if I make a list of things to do, I could be like a kid again, and get check marks (or stars?!) for the things that I have accomplished, and in that way, have a way of making myself proud!  I'd like to have the simplicity of a child again, so perhaps this is still a good idea.  Tomorrow I may get around to using the list, and if so, I'll let you know how it works.  In the meantime, your suggestions will be very welcome!

Procrastination Prevention

I'd like to be able to take a vitamin guaranteed to prevent procrastination.  I'm sure that such a thing does not exist. This is a typical way of thinking for me, that I'm so often looking for an outside source to fix an inside problem.  "It would be so easy if . . . "   pops up in my mind on a weekly, if not a daily basis.

In my last post, I said that intervention and assistance can come (even) from ourselves. Have you ever wanted to stay up to watch a late movie, but then told yourself "No, you need to get up early tomorrow, so you'd better not."? Have you ever "helped yourself" to a piece of pie in someone's kitchen (after they'd told you to help yourself, of course)?  So, there you have it; you can intervene and you can assist you.  What it requires to do that is something called mindfulness.  Another way of saying that is to be conscious and thoughtful of what you do, and even what you think.  Have you ever eaten something and an hour later not remembered what you ate?  If so, that is definitely an example of not using mindfulness, and is also a probably cause of my being overweight!

Lest I leave you totally overwhelmed and thinking that you might as well not even bother with what seems impossible, I have another thought to share.  Please keep in mind that I am speaking to myself here, as well as any of you reading this.  In fact, I am probably speaking mostly to myself, since I don't know you, but I do know me, so I know who needs this information.  Although intervention and assistance can come from ourselves, it can also come from another source.  He who created you, knows you.  He knows what you need, where you feel lacking.  He has said many times in many places in the Bible, "I am with you", and "I will help you".  "Call on Me and I will answer" God says.  Is anything too hard for God?  I believe not, but I also believe He is waiting for me to ask. 

Does this mean that procrastination can be "fixed"?  I think so.  However, it is a process that I have not yet mastered, and it begins with setting priorities.  My first priority needs to be a conversation with God, and then He can show the way.  This is something I really need to work on, and perhaps you do as well.  This is a starting point.  Let's start.

Intervention

Today's post is a continuation of the previous post where I gave a peek into the thinking of a procrastinor.  Rather than thinking of a plan for the day, I said I preferred "What is your strategy for the day?"

When I think of "strategy", I think of the military.  You would never guess it from observing me, but my son is a Captain in the USMC.  I sometimes dream of having a group of Marines come to clean and organize my house.  I'd like to keep my son with me to keep it in shape.  In my dark moments, I think that there's no way I can ever get my house cleaned and organized without military intervention!

Ah, intervention!  That's an awe-inspiring word for me, and also a frightening one.  I'm not in the category labeled "hoarders" or in need of "intervention" as in the current television programs with those names.  Medically speaking, I am not in need of "assisted living" either.  However, I do (slightly) hoard things simply because I can't decide what to do with them, and I do need intervention and assistance. Do you?

Believe it or not, intervention can come from ourselves. Assistance can even come from ourselves.  Take time to think about that.  Just think.

(to be continued, perhaps)