Master Procrastinator

Something that's interesting to think about is the way that people will delay doing something that they don't want to. I don't think animals do this. I don't know if that's because they aren't sophisticated enough to dislike and reject instincts, or because they are sophisticated enough to just do things instead of putting them off. In any event, among the worst habits of humans is to let an issue get worse and worse because we can't handle the momentary discomfort of dealing with it. It ranges from the minor problems faced by so-called "every-day people", such as doing the dishes, to those which lay before world bodies, such as our domestic issue of immigration or the world's problem of climate change. Be it a slob like me in my apartment, or the allegedly august and wise US Senate on Capitol Hill, this is how we are.

Why is that? How do we endure the consequences unchanged? What do we do about it? This is one of those things I've thought long and hard about, determined to come up with an answer. For all of the thought I've given it, I must admit that I just don't know the answer. It's truly an inscrutable mystery of the universe that someone like me would think that the unpleasantness of taking care of the food situation at home will be somehow improved and not worsened for lack of effort on my part. It's utterly irrational to spend more money eating fast food meals because "it's easy", when less money and a single trip will secure me for much longer. It makes no sense to delay asking a girl out for fear of rejection when the certain pain of inaction so outweighs the potentially unfavorable outcome of action.

Actually, I shouldn't say that the exercise of writing sheds no light on the subject of procrastination. Some thoughts do come to mind. The common thread seems to be some ancient, lizard-brained idea of protecting oneself from pain. Unfortunately, the kind of protection that affords is like that which an irredeemable agoraphobic enjoys. Sure, the outside world will never hurt them, but at the cost of knowing nothing better than the horrible confines and limited possibilities of the home. One must reject the notion that pain and unpleasantness can be avoided. The cost of life is that much of it will hurt somehow, and all one can do is minimize it- first by doing things when their cost is least and benefits are most. 

How that is done I don't know. I'm worse about this than almost anyone. The publishing of this very post was itself delayed in favor of putting up others. The fix for procrastinating seems to be that at long last, you just do it. It's as inexplicable as watching a corn kernel finally pop, or the axiom that momentum is something you have until you don't have it anymore. What on earth took so long? It was the same as all the other kernels, and subjected to the same forces! God willing, we will all find the fortitude and will to finally be better than the corn kernel- then perhaps will we reach our potential once and for all.