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What are you putting off? What bad things would happen if you stopped making excuses and tackled something today?
(Would you do it wrong? Would you fail to meet expectations? Would you have to do it even better next time?)
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I am so good at procrastinating! In college, whenever a big paper or project was due, I was always working away at the last minute. The pressure really forced me to focus. I still procrastinate now, but in different ways. I procrastinate when I have phone calls to make. I *hate* talking on the phone. With strangers. Really don't like it. I procrastinate at work when I have projects to do that I'm unsure of or that a history or not working. I don't like to fail. And when things don't work repeatedly, which is quite common in sciences, it's very easy to become discouraged. There's one thing though that I've been putting off for years. 3 years to be exact. Before we moved into our house, my husband owned a condo. I was in graduate school. And several years before that my parents moved, which meant all the belongings I had left at their home were boxed up and pretty much not unpacked. So, once we purchased our first home all of our belongings got moved into the same place. On top of that, both of our parents saw fit to bring over every childhood belonging of ours that *they* had saved. For us. Because OF COURSE we want all that stuff! Why wouldn't we?!? The necessities got unpacked quickly. Everything else got piled into our very spacious unfinished basement. Yeah... that basement is not looking so spacious anymore.
We've tried to clean it out a number of times. And have even made some progress! We now have a whole corner devoted to a workout area. We also purchased a chest freezer that lives down there. But mostly, there's just a lot of boxes and large rubbermaid containers. Every time I agree to clean it up I am faced with boxes of memories or at least things that seemed important at one time. Of course, I don't really *need* a box full of all my class projects from 1st through 5th grade. Or 100 Pez dispensers that my mom has purchased for me over the years. Or all of the crappy cookware and utensils that I accumulated during college. Or sets of twin extra-long sheets! Or... who the heck else knows what crap is down there. But I can't let it go. And this is after all the things that I *have* let go. I can't even tell you how many donations we have made to charity. There's obviously more to do. And, unfortunately, my husband is as much of a packrat as I am... he doesn't hold onto things for sentimental value of any sort really, but is more of a "collector" than I am.
I have been particularly brutal over the last week or so while we've been trying to put the house back in order post remodel. The entire first floor of our house is now neat and organized thanks to filling a lot of garbage bags and a very large donation to The Cancer Federation. That should be motivation enough for me. Before we get back to the basement project though, we need to survive the holiday chaos, including a party at our house! I am determined to get the basement in order though. It's just going to take a lot of time and a lot of brutality.
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