Flaws

I know that most people would disagree with me on this point, but I'm going to level with you: I have a lot of flaws. I know, I know, most of you (if there are any of you reading this crappy [crabby?] blog) just thought, "What? Flaws? What on earth is this crazy talk!? Is he feeling OK?"

And yet it's true. I do have many flaws. The biggest problem that I have is that I don't really ever seem to get around to addressing my flaws to improve myself, no matter how much I want to.

Which brings me to my (probably) single-most self-frustrating flaw: I am a procrastinator. Why is it that procrastination has to be so easy for me? I've been meaning to write a post about procrastination for a long time, but I just never got around to it. *smirk*

According to the dictionary, procrastiation is simply to defer action. I think the frustrating thing about this is that when I have something else to try to improve on, my procrastination kicks in and I put off starting on it. In other words, I don't take any action to make the improvements. I find myself putting things off until it is either too late, or at least almost too late. Rhoda hates it. Truth be told, I hate it. But I just let it happen anyway. What's up with that?

I've recently read these quotes about procrastination, and they resonate with me:

To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing. ~Eva Young

I love this one because this is too often my problem. I like to do things in the "best", "most efficient" way I possibly can. This results in my analyzing it to death to figure out what way that is. So to save myself 10 minutes on a task, I might have analyzed it for 20 minutes. Doesn't really make sense when you look at it like that.

Procrastination is the thief of time. ~Edward Young

How many times have I just not had time to do something the way it should be done, or had to cut corners or had to make bigger-than-necessary sacrifices to do something because I put it off?

Procrastination is opportunity's assassin. ~Victor Kiam

This one rings very true for me. How many opportunities have I missed because I put something off? It could be small, unimportant things, like going to see a movie that I really want to see in the theater because it was out of theaters before I ever found time to go. Or it could be huge costly things, like not returning something or getting something fixed before the warranty expires, even though it broke before.

Procrastination usually results in sorrowful regret. ~Ida Scott Taylor

This one kills me. I think about the opportunities I may have missed because of procrastination, such as spending time with Rhoda. Or my kids. Or the fact that I'm a crappy home teacher because I never get around to making those darn appointments. Or missing a deadline. And the problem is that all of those things don't affect just me. Rhoda, the kids, my home teaching families -- they all lose out on that too. And that's something that I definitely regret.

So I'm thinking that in my journey to better myself, the first thing I need to do is improve on this thing. In other words, DON'T PUT IT OFF!

So what is the solution? How exactly does one go about kicking the habit of procrastinating? Or is it even possible?

I'll look into that later.