When you think of the word "overdue", typically past-due bills, library books and delayed Amazon Prime packages come to mind. When you add the word "long" to the phrase, as in "long overdue", it is an indication that something was expected to have happened by now and after a prolonged period of time, it still has not happened. Just this week, there were two things reported in the news as being "long overdue." One was the Albany, NY story about a World War Two veteran, Albany native Joseph Szary, who died at the age of 35. He had served as a Sergeant during the war in the Army Air Corps and his daughter, Jane Weber, noticed that her father's grave was missing a military marker. Jane tried for years to get this wrong righted but with no success. She had been told each time "it's too late." Finally, after years of fighting for the 60-year long overdue honor for her Dad, the military marker was placed on his gravestone this week. Another honor that many feel is long overdue is that The Moody Blues are finally heading to Cleveland, Ohio. Nearly three decades after they first became eligible in 1989 for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the English progressive-rock band will finally be inducted in 2018 alongside other famous rockers, the band Bon Jovi and the late jazz icon Nina Simone.
Do you have anything on your "long overdue" list? I don't mean your library books or your cable bill. What have you been wanting or hoping to do and you have not yet gotten around to doing? Do you have the "I'll do it tomorrow" disease? I am here to tell you that procrastination is a disease that can be cured.
It is a very valuable personal life skill to be able to make yourself sit down and do something that you have been avoiding for awhile. It could actually change your life. Have you gotten really good at making excuses for your long overdue items? We all make deals with ourselves every day like, “I’ll declutter that drawer after I clean this room.” The next thing you know you have cleaned the whole house, which by the way, took a lot longer than it would have to clean out the dreaded junk drawer. What about a phone call you are not looking forward to making, the pile of bills you have put off looking at or the gym membership that you are paying for but not using?
We tend to put off the things which make us feel uncomfortable, upset or anxious. We would rather do anything than face our anxieties head on. What we are overlooking is that, in most cases, doing the actual thing we have put off will end up taking up much less time and mental space than postponing it will. By avoiding and procrastinating, the long overdue item looms over our heads larger than it actually is.
The weight of procrastination exacts an ever-enlarging toll on our bodies, minds and souls. We end up being driven by negative consequences like being pestered for something that’s been promised, losing opportunities due to missed deadlines, or feeling so much guilt that we don’t respond to messages from people we would love to connect with. Avoidance and procrastination just keep on costing us more in our relationships with people who count on us, in addition to robbing us of our peace of mind.
Yesterday, I took care of organizing a baking supplies drawer in my kitchen that that I have been avoiding for a long time. The whole project took all of ten minutes! Why had I been putting this off for years? The feeling of relief that organizing that drawer gave me lasted the entire day and inspired me to write this post.
We should really be asking ourselves why we have so many simple tasks lingering on our to-do lists. How long have your overdue items been on your list? For weeks? Months? Years? Have they been nagging at you the entire time? We do ourselves so much harm by putting easy things off this way.
I am introducing to you a new personal mantra - one that I am adapting for myself and I hope you decide to embrace as your own: Do It Now! The Do It Now rule is the cure to that pesky and contagious viral disease called Procrastination. As I make up my Daily To-Do lists each day, I am going to add one Do It Now item to the list. It may be "make up a pitcher of Detox Water", "call and make my mammogram appointment", "use the Pilates Chair I bought from QVC", or "renew and pick up my multivitamin prescription". Whatever it is, it is something that I am going to tell myself to take care of NOW (and feel better for doing it) instead of pushing it to the back burner.
Because of this new rule, there is finally hope for all of the things that I have been avoiding. Getting just one thing completed from your overdue list will not only make you feel better, you may actually look forward to the next day’s DO IT NOW item, knowing that another burden will be lifted and one more layer of anxiety will be removed from your life. By deciding to commit to a daily practice of taking care of just one thing that is long overdue and nagging at you, you could end up with a personal reward system, instead of punishing yourself with missed opportunities, added stress and the consequences of waiting until the last minute to do something.
Speaking of rewards, my husband rewarded me with a few gifts to "encourage" me to start my own business. Several Christmases ago he gave me a laptop computer with the sentiment "you can use this to help get your business started." Then when that failed to work, he nonchalantly gave me a Nike t-shirt with the famous slogan "Just Do It" emblazoned across the front. He said, "wear this every day as you are working on getting your business started." He obviously knew that I needed the extra push. It is great to know you have someone that will push you when you need it the most.
With my new mantra, which isn't very original yet can be extremely effective, I am motivated to tackle the things on my "long overdue" list and move them to my "DO IT NOW" list. Ironically, getting this blog post written was one of those items. I felt like I was out of new ideas and did not have anything to inspire myself, let alone you, my faithful reader. I have a notebook filled with blog post ideas, but I could not find the words to write about any of them. Just like that baking supplies drawer in my kitchen, once I started writing, it become a much easier task than the one in which I had spent so much time dreading.
I am really looking forward to living the DO IT NOW way. I think that instead of putting things off that mock my mental status each and every day, I will be living a more fulfilled life doing the things that I value and that warrant my attention and focus. As soon as I am done writing this, I am going to put together a list of DO IT NOWS, with the goal (no, I mean the RULE) of adding one every day to my list of things to do. I may even put on my "Just Do It" t-shirt and a Moody Blues album while I am making the list! Do you need a push to get your long overdue things done? I am here for you.