Is putting it off until tomorrow your m.o. when faced with a dreaded task?
Keep in mind the wisdom of the old saying; never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
My Story
In two of my recent newsletters, I recounted the events of bringing my mom to live near us and the epic fail that it ended up being.
In preparation of her coming, I fully stocked the refrigerator where she would be living.
After she left, we shut off the electricity with no thought to the contents of the refrigerator.
Only after about a week did it occur to me that when the electricity was shut off, there had been milk and bacon in the refrigerator.
The wise thing would have been to immediately clean the refrigerator.
Alas, I did not choose to do the wise thing.
Instead, for the next week, my imagination went wild.
I imagined the mess, the stench, the possibility of maggots, and an impossibly long cleanup.
In my mind, it was such an epic catastrophe that I simply couldn’t face it.
Finally, accepting that the refrigerator was not going to clean itself, I donned rubber gloves and cleaning supplies to face the dreaded task.
Upon opening the refrigerator, surprise! Basically, nothing.
The bacon had been precooked (which I had forgotten), the milk had never been opened, therefore there was no smell, and everything else I had stocked was ok without being refrigerated.
Cleanup took me about 15 minutes.
All that anxiety for nothing!
I was reminded of the wisdom of an old saying handed down from my mom; never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
Old words of wisdom have been passed from generation to generation for a reason. They really do have merit.
And this saying in particular is one worth committing to memory.
Thinking about the refrigerator experience alone provides some very valid reasons for rethinking putting off a dreaded task.
No matter how long you wait, it is not going to go away.
If the task you are facing is yours, and yours alone, ignoring it is not going to make it go away.
Yes, I could have asked Brian to clean out the refrigerator. I didn’t have the heart to do it. He worked for weeks getting everything ready only to have it fall apart in less than twenty-four hours. To ask him to clean out what I assumed was a nasty refrigerator would have almost been cruel.
Out of sight is not out of mind.
Simply thinking about needing to do something, instead of taking the step and getting it done, provides all kinds of mental clutter.
No one needs additional mental clutter and anxiety taking up space in their mind.
Waiting too long could make the situation worse.
I’m all for thinking things through and having a plan, but waiting too long has the potential to make a situation worse.
If there had been maggots in the refrigerator, it’s a guarantee that the extra week of waiting would have made the situation so much worse.
It’s also possible that it won’t be as bad as you think.
Our imaginations tend to make things a whole lot worse than they actually are. At least mine does.
Once faced, it’s possible the task won’t be nearly as bad as you anticipated.
For better or worse, once you face a task and deal with it, you can move on.
Maybe it will be as awful as you’ve imagined.
Perhaps it won’t.
However, getting it done and over with will at least give you the peace that it’s over and allow you to move on.
Is putting it off until tomorrow your m.o. when faced with a dreaded task?
Commit to memory the wisdom of Nana; Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
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