By Jim Tune
Sometimes I struggle with the tendency to live by the motto, “Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.” Mark Twain took things a step further when he said, “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do day after tomorrow just as well.”
There is both humor and truth in Twain”s axiom.
On a more serious note, I think Dan Carruth captured the truth about procrastination when he wrote, “The biggest lie we tell ourselves in the area of action is, I”ll do it later.”
The interesting thing about “later” is it can”t easily be refuted. No one can ever reproach us or hold us accountable. If confronted we can always say, “I said I”d do it later, and I will!” By doing this, we can put things off almost indefinitely.
When I procrastinate, there are usually some observable reasons why. Sometimes it”s nothing more than indecision. Sometimes. On the whole, I consider myself a rather decisive person. A more likely cause is my struggle with perfectionism. Most procrastinators are actually closet perfectionists. A perfectionist might worry about what others think of their work, their art, their results, or decisions. Approval and people pleasing lie thinly concealed beneath a veil of paralyzing procrastination.
Richard Rohr discusses the various schemata of outgrowing perfectionism. The less at ease we are in our own skin, the more likely we are to accept the following three lies.
The first lie whispers that my body and self-image are who I am.
The second lie says my external behavior is who I am. This is about the need to look good outside and to hide or disguise any contrary evidence. Some of us become so practiced at this that the evidence is eventually hidden from ourselves as well.
Rohr says a third temptation, or lie, is to believe or project the idea that our thoughts and feelings are who we are. This allows us to control others. Our procrastination is perceived as a virtue””a sign of wisdom or caution or thoughtfulness.
Freedom comes, Rohr suggests, when we are willing to accept that we are human and it is enough to be who we are””no window dressing necessary. He writes in The Naked Now: “This is the most radical critique of religion possible, because now you know religion is just a finger pointing to the moon, but not the moon itself. There is no need to appear to be anything but who I really am. Fully detached from self-image and living in God”s image of you””which includes and loves both the good and the bad.”
I imagine there are other issues at work when we procrastinate””including plain old laziness. As a recovering procrastinator, I”m beginning to own the idea, for all the reasons mentioned, that procrastination is nothing more than spiritual laziness, relational laziness, and occasionally physical laziness.
Ouch! I need to think about this some more. Maybe tomorrow.
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