Keeping Things for Tomorrow

One of the things that I picked up, which I am not sure from where or when, was to keep things for tomorrow. There were numerous reasons for doing so, but one obvious one was that I couldn’t do everything today. So, tomorrow was the right time. The issue with this school of thought was that I would postpone even those chores (or work) that could be done today. It was becoming a habit, and I think I was growing accustomed to it.

The flipside of this habit is that not only the work, but also the results get postponed to tomorrow. Then tomorrow becomes the next day until neither the work nor the results come through. This wasn’t an ideal place to be, and the more I analyzed, the more I found that I was putting away things to the extent that I wasn’t doing much at all in a day.

At first, it appeared that I was postponing difficult tasks, things that I was frightened to tackle or things that would take more than a day to finish. However, I later realized that even absurdly easy or straightforward work was getting postponed. Like I mentioned before, it led to a situation where I wasn’t getting results. That caused me to sit up and take note.

Not Moving Is Not An Option | Stagnation Is Not Good

The habit of pushing things for tomorrow led to almost everything being pushed to tomorrow. Things weren’t getting done, and I was stagnating. It wasn’t a good place to be. I had to deal with the situation and my frame of mind.

I started with a prayer and some amount of introspection and could get down to a few thoughts. These were contributing to the postponement.

“I will burn out if I keep doing things non-stop.”

“I will not be able to finish things in one day if I pile up my day with work. I will be disappointed in not finishing.”

“It is unhealthy to be pushing myself to do multiple things in a day. It won’t be a good idea.”

It took me a little over three days to unearth these thoughts. These thoughts were lurking beneath my conscious mind and kept triggering me to postpone things without me being consciously aware of them. I saw myself delaying, but was unable to ascertain why for a long time. Until now.

These thoughts led me to the next realization - how wrong each one was. The problem with the first belief that I would burn out was the farthest from the truth. From my experience, when I do as much as I can, is when I feel the most energetic. In fact, the opposite was also true. The days I didn’t do much, I felt the most burnt out, low on energy, and generally disinterested. Besides, I had romanticized this idea of burnout a bit too much. When I work continuously, giving one hundred percent non-stop, I will only get tired (not burnt out). The solution for tiredness is rest. And taking rest and a break is a good thing. That’s what God did after creating for six days. He took rest on the seventh day. On the other hand, doing nothing leads to burnout. And burnout from doing nothing cannot be solved by resting, because that will cause even more burnout and mental fatigue. See my point?

The second and the third parts were another delusion, and I don’t know where I picked them up from. I went back to my childhood days, where I remembered coming home from school and not even changing my uniform until I finished my homework. I wanted to finish things “now”. And it worked well for me. Then why did I change? This younger “me” was still there. He wanted to show my older self that it was possible. I had done it before. I can do it again.

Also, there was nothing unhealthy or disappointing in not finishing what I set out to do in a day. It is likely there would be a spillover, but a focused six-day work will take care of things, including the ones spilled over. I knew it was possible, since I had done it before, and now I was subscribing back to those healthy ways of giving my all for six days a week. There is no way I could lose. It's also God’s way of creating in Genesis in the Bible. You can’t go wrong when you choose God’s path. 😉

Doing More | And Feeling Energized

The outcome of my introspection and mind-clearing activities was that I need to do more. The very thought of doing more is so energizing. I am going to try this out and will be back with more updates.

Doing more is possible, energizing, invigorating, and healthy!!

Image Courtesy: Half Moon from Wikimedia