Do It Now! Do It Today!

I am a master procrastinator. The champ. If there were any area of life where procrastination triumphed, mine would be a Rocky-level success story.

Unfortunately, this is planet Earth, and here, procrastination is debilitating. Today I re-read some things I wrote several years ago, around the same time my daughters were born.

Guess what I was talking about?

Yup. My weight issues. My money issues. My job issues. My school (or lack thereof) issues. The same nonsense I'm still dealing with. The same problems I blog about here day after day.

My younger self actually wrote, "Even if I got back in school today, I wouldn't be ready for a masters program until I was 30. 30! My life would be nearly half over."

I want to throttle that kid. You're barreling down on 30 now, man! It came even though you weren't in school. What were you waiting for?

He probably deserves some slack. Though he didn't know it, he was only a couple of months away from doctors finding a tumor in his newborn daughter's leg and having some of the hardest decisions of his life.

The guy that needs throttled is me--the one who came through all that and still hasn't learned. Who still can't do today what he can put off 'till tomorrow.

So part of my turnaround will be transforming from Erik, Royal High King of Postponement into Erik, Guy Who Does It As Soon As It Needs Done.

I'm going to change a couple of habits that, while I realize are only symptoms of the problem, will help me remember this change and give my positive self-talk some back-up.

From now on I will:

1. Refill the gas tank on half a tank, rather than waiting for it to empty.

2. I will take out the trash before the rim is reached, not once the pile above the rim is no longer architecturally capable of supporting more trash.

3. I will get anything that must be done before the end of the month done by the 17th of that month.