Putting the Pro in Procrastination
You may or may not know that I’m a pro. I don’t like to brag much about it – usually I put-off bragging about it. You see, that’s the problem…I’m a Pro-crastinator. A member of the group that believes, “Why do today what can be put-off until tomorrow?”
Actually, I don’t feel like bragging about it because it’s a little embarrassing. You know what I mean. It’s like walking out of the bathroom with tissue paper stuck to your foot. Giving a presentation only to discover you had spinach stuck in your teeth the whole time. Or accidentally setting your neighbor's house on fire while playing with a 100,000 BTU flame thrower. Embarrassing.
Before we look at the nitty-gritty details of the problem, let’s consider the origins of the word procrastination. Now, I’m too lazy to do to much research here (a problem we’ll look at in another blog) so let’s just use common-sense. “Pro” generally means “in favor of” in the english language. “Castinate” must be a derivative of the word “castanet” which are the little clicking percussion-thingies belly-dancers use. We can logically follow that ancient people – especially men – preferred watching these belly-dancers instead of doing what they should have been doing. Voilà! You have the origin of procrastinator…er…those in favor of watching belly-dancers…yeah.
The real problem is focus. We live in a society where gazillions of distractions vie for our attention. Movies, sports, cartoons, catchy jingles that rattle in your head over and over and over and over again - they won’t stop until you buy that car, that wonderful car and the music just keeps playing and playing in your head.
How do we focus on solving the problem? The Patriots just called a time-out and the Broncos defense just has me on the edge of my seat. Wait - staying focused. Brian Tracy, motivational speaker, business consultant, author, and guy with really white teeth has addressed this problem in his book “Eat That Frog” so read it.
Someday I’ll get over this procrastination problem. In fact, sharing this with you has taken a load off my chest. I feel free. I feel energized. I’m going to make a vow to always do what needs to be done immediately. No more putting-off! No more letting tasks languish. No! I promise that I’m going to tackle this procrastination problem HEAD-ON!
I’ll start first thing tomorrow.
Actually, I don’t feel like bragging about it because it’s a little embarrassing. You know what I mean. It’s like walking out of the bathroom with tissue paper stuck to your foot. Giving a presentation only to discover you had spinach stuck in your teeth the whole time. Or accidentally setting your neighbor's house on fire while playing with a 100,000 BTU flame thrower. Embarrassing.
Before we look at the nitty-gritty details of the problem, let’s consider the origins of the word procrastination. Now, I’m too lazy to do to much research here (a problem we’ll look at in another blog) so let’s just use common-sense. “Pro” generally means “in favor of” in the english language. “Castinate” must be a derivative of the word “castanet” which are the little clicking percussion-thingies belly-dancers use. We can logically follow that ancient people – especially men – preferred watching these belly-dancers instead of doing what they should have been doing. Voilà! You have the origin of procrastinator…er…those in favor of watching belly-dancers…yeah.
The real problem is focus. We live in a society where gazillions of distractions vie for our attention. Movies, sports, cartoons, catchy jingles that rattle in your head over and over and over and over again - they won’t stop until you buy that car, that wonderful car and the music just keeps playing and playing in your head.
How do we focus on solving the problem? The Patriots just called a time-out and the Broncos defense just has me on the edge of my seat. Wait - staying focused. Brian Tracy, motivational speaker, business consultant, author, and guy with really white teeth has addressed this problem in his book “Eat That Frog” so read it.
Someday I’ll get over this procrastination problem. In fact, sharing this with you has taken a load off my chest. I feel free. I feel energized. I’m going to make a vow to always do what needs to be done immediately. No more putting-off! No more letting tasks languish. No! I promise that I’m going to tackle this procrastination problem HEAD-ON!
I’ll start first thing tomorrow.
posted by James C. at 9:28 PM
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