Today I will let go of procrastination. I will take a look at why I put off responsibilities and how I can change this behavior.
Do I feel that I won't do certain tasks well enough or that they're too overwhelming? Do I set specific standards for myself and then fail because I've set them too high? Do I expect perfection from myself and then put off what I fear will be imperfect? As long as I accomplish my tasks to the best of my ability, I will succeed. I can jump in with both feet when necessary and feel proud that I at least started what I needed to do. Nothing can ever be completed without starting it first.
When I procrastinate, I will never get where I need to go, and eventually I will become overwhelmed and buried underneath all the things I refused to start.
Today I will let go of the desire to put off what needs to be done now.
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss
Read a passage out of the 12x12 last night that really began to hit home, goes along with your post. Step Eight Every AA has found he can make little headway in this new adventure of living until he first backtracks and really accurate and unsparing survey of the human wreckage he has left in his wake.
I notice those words 'every aa has found'. Experience. Finding myself described tells me that the action prescribed might be good medicine. Feel like I've been in a state of perpetual reflection, lot of stuff veeerrryyy slowly sinking in. And of course, when the time to get moving gets to arriving, i'm comfortable where i'm at. So slowly I have began to "find" the truth in this passage. Told my sponsor once, I sure wish I could LEARN to learn from other peoples experience. Learning from my own is killing me. heh. Thats what this is all about.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Heard in a meeting once, A normal person gets stuck in a rut, they get a push and get out, go on their way. A drunk gets stuck, we move furniture in. Ryan
Being at a standstill or in a rut definitely is a regular affliction for me. Knowing this about myself, I have designated certain close women in the program who are in my neighborhood to come by and 'pull me' either out of the house or out of my poop-pile when necessary. And I give them that same courtesy.
I used to walk every day, and I had gotten out of the habit, and into one of those 'ruts'. A girlfriend in the program came by recentlyand said, "Get your shoes on. We are walking and that is not a request!!" I am glad I have people who will hold me accountable when I'm down, and they will also insist that I am doing what I NEED to be doing to get out of it, if at all possible. My close frioendships in the program are like a partnership. And being the sick alkies that we are, we sometimes have to put 'convention' aside, and be real with eachother. No one wants to see the other suffer. I am grateful for relationships such as these. I like the saying, "Buddies will pat your A$$... a true friend will save your A$$."
So I guess what I am trying to say is that this 'freezing up", and procrastination or 'staying stuck' is often a product of my alcoholic tendency to isolate and take half-measures. For me, it helps to have that face-to-face encouragement that I so very much need. I am the Queen of procrastination. But I don't ever have to do this alone, and for that I am grateful.
Truer words were never written! May I add "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." If we don't look at the thousand-mile journey and only concentrate on the next step, it's a breeze. We just have to take the first step. And then the next,.. each in it's own due time...Tim
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"We posess the eyes through which the universe gazes with wonder upon its own majesty."
Wow, this is just exactly what I needed to read this morning, so thank you so much for putting it in "Black and White".
I am working on this issue daily, and what I have noticed the most, is the ENERGY that goes into the putting off, is so much Greater than the ENERGY to just do it. I used to have a book by Jerry Ruben, titled "Just Do It!!!" where he had Apache paint on his face, and a wild headband, and after reading the book, I had it on the end of my Books for years, just so I could see the energy in his face and the effort of going FORWARD with that action of just Doing it!
For myself, I have noticed executing such a task, any task, that there really is No thought process going on, all my energy is going into the task at hand. So for me, I have the formula of "Don't think, Just Do!!" Also, so many articles I am reading these days on the Stress of Procrastination, many of these articles point to the fact, that more Stress is in the Put-Off List of things to do, that are rated at a much high scale, say than something that might be really important, like say a 4 hour visit to the Dentist, which is something I am going to do this Wednesday. That the worry about the Dental visit, is far less Stressful that say some nagging Little thing, that I am (UGH, here's goes the hard part) INTENTIONALLY PUTTING off.
Paperwork is my number one downfall, and I am currently trying to create a formula for putting one afternoon aside, dedicating that to weekly paperwork, why am I putting it off, TRUTH, because I DON'T LIKE to do it. Putting that confession here in Black and White, I can see the Self Centerness of it all. Yicks!!!
A new commitment to myself, when I write up a daily list of things to get done, which I do almost every day, that I will add the reason for why it might not get done, and if I can put the reason down, as I Don't Like it!, then maybe it will help me to make some headway, Not wanting to do something, is NO excuse, in fact it is extremely childish, when I look at it from that prespective.
Didn't mean to ramble on about me and my stuff, other than to say, if the Post, in Black and White, helps, then writing my own childessness about it helped me to see What the BIG Problem is.
I was gonna start a things to do list, once, never got around to it. Better put that on my list while i've got a monday afternoon off. Now what was I doing again? Oh yeah.. nap time. Enjoy the rest of my weekend. If it was important, I'll remember monday.
haha