About a month ago, we were notified by a mail that a part on my husband’s car needs to be replaced.  The recall notice has been sitting on his desk at work and has been at the top of his to-do list for this exact length of time.  He only just called on Friday, to make an appointment at the dealership, because I about flipped my lid Thursday night.

On that same note, my son’s third birthday was a month ago, and I have failed to mail out a single thank-you note.  My internal Ms. Manners is shaking her head with a “tsk-tsk,” and I want to cover my face like that monkey emoji. 🙈  At this point, I’m worried that I have forgotten all of the gifts he received, because as he tore open his super-hero presents with a Hulk-like force, I failed to write down anything.

And if I’m really being truthful here, I have to admit that in an effort to inspire my students for their upcoming oral presentations, I showed them a TED talk titled Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator.  In this TED talk, Tim Urban explained why people procrastinate, and what ultimately scares them into productivity.  The talk was hilarious, perfect for middle school students, and dead on…for me, too.

If you have fourteen minutes to spare, or would like to push aside a less desirable task for the next quarter of an hour, I urge you to watch his speech.  As lighthearted as he is at the beginning, he leaves listeners with one lingering thought: what is that one thing that we are procrastinating?

Now I’m not accusing anyone of laziness here.  I assume that as one of our readers, you too fill your days with work, duties, requirements, and tasks that leave you utterly exhausted by 8:30 pm.  However, I do agree with Mr. Urban.  We are all putting something in life on hold.

Though some tasks are short-term, like going grocery shopping, folding that mountain of laundry, or grading book-reports, other undertakings are just the opposite.

Eventually, our growling stomachs will force us to buy food. 🍗  🍤 🍳 🍔 🍟 🍕 🍝  🍲 🍣 🍢 🍧🍦 🍰 🎂 🍮 🍬 🍭 🍩 🍪  Our empty drawers will, at some point, coerce us into wearing the wrinkled clothes.👚 👕 👖 👔 👗 👙

But no one is going to make us do the really hard things.

Therefore, my question to you, this Sunday, is what burden is weighing on your heart? 💗It’s not going to disappear. 🙇  We can go shopping, binge watch Netflix, or distract ourselves with one of the twenty other projects in our lives that are festering with incompletion, but that one thing will still be there.  And so, if you can allow yourself, really think on it this week, and find a way to see it through.  I’ll get started if you will…

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.” -Amelia Earhart

~Think on These Things~

Natalie