Perfect Procrastination

I’m a procrastinator. If I can put it off, I will. Now is never the time for me to do it. Later is always better. I never understood this about myself until a friend asked me, “Amanda, are you a perfectionist?” Puzzled by the question, I responded, “Yeah, why do you ask?” He went on to explain that perfectionist put off things because they know they can’t do it perfectly. WOW! What a revelation! He was so right. I don’t want to do things “now” because I don’t have the right amount of time to do them perfectly. Or perhaps, I don’t have all the tools I need to make it just right. If there is any reason at all why I can’t do it completely and perfectly, I don’t do it. Therefore, I have a pile of filing in my living room that hasn’t been touched in a year. I have not written my 10 minutes a day for the last 3 weeks. I have not touched my scrapbook (the one I started in 1995) in 4 months. I have put off all these things because I cannot do them perfectly the first time. But when I think about it, it’s absolutely ABSURD! I don’t do the project because I can’t do it perfectly? But then it doesn’t get done at all! How crazy is that? All this accomplishes is that I have perfected one thing. I have perfect procrastination!

So, once again I am picking up the challenge to “write 10 minutes per day.” I am going to disregard my perfectionism and write. So, there might be slight grammatical errors or perhaps I’m not always as eloquent as I could be. But the important thing for me to do is to WRITE!

Challenge: What reasons or personality quirks are keeping you from doing what you need to do? What will it take for you to dedicate just 10 minutes a day to that project? Do it now! Do not wait! It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does need to get done!