Goal of the Day – January 3rd
Get It Done – Anti-Procrastination
I have so many things that I’ve been putting off these past few months:
(1) Install the address marker (it was a Mother’s Day gift to my wife!)
(2) Put the pigeon repellant on the roof (amazing how annoying those pigeons can be)
(3) Get an oil change (I have 207,000 miles on the car and I’m 1,000 miles overdue – it’s not good to run long between changes)
(4) Clean out the front of the garage (I’d show you a picture, but I’m too embarassed)
(5) Remove the tumbleweeds from around the house (amazing what 60 hour winds can throw into your yard)
(6) Go through the stacked up mail that’s “my stuff” (it’s at least one full paper grocery bag full – 4 months worth – certainly hope there weren’t any tax audit notices in the pile – “past due” taxes were in the pile one year)
My son is fond of saying “procrastination is my friend”. He even waited till the very last minute in the middle of the night before a paper was due to write that paper on procrastination. I think he got an “A” on the paper in that particular college English course. I chastise him for his procrastination and yet I’m leading him down the path of procrastination by example. Maybe I can change that!
January 2nd – Assessment
I put in the middle of my desk a piece of paper with the following words in big letters on it – “STOP – THINK” and “SPEAK SLOWLY”. I heard the STOP-THINK idea at church one Sunday, and I got the SPEAK SLOWLY comment from several people who said I need to breathe when I’m aggressively responding to anyone. As I participated in the numerous calls I had yesterday, my eyes kept going back to that piece of paper and those words, and I must admit, I paused before responding and then at least a couple times, the issue was resolved without me jumping in at all.
I still have a lot to learn to eradicate my “foot in mouth” disease. It may not be possible to completely erase it from my life. As Eric said in his comment on that last posting, it’s not just verbal communications that can get us in trouble, but email now as well. Or Facebook, or any other means of interaction.Â
My Mom reminded me yesterday of how frustrated I would get with my Dad because he would always think before answering…sometimes for hours…always an annoyingly long time. He optimized the STOP-THINK strategy, and even today, he is incredibly thoughtful before responding to just about anything. I need to learn from him in order to improve in my own life. I just may not go to the extremes he goes in waiting to respond!