“All procrastinators put off things they have to do. Structured procrastination is the art of making this negative trait work for you. The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing. Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, such as gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it. Why does the procrastinator do these things? Because they are a way of not doing something more important. If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him to do it. The procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely, and important tasks, however, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.” – John R. Perry
I have had such an amazing summer! To begin with, the weather has been spectacular (probably going down as one of the hottest summers in recent history!) The sun shone down on every event that I planned or attended from the retirement party, Geocaching birthday surprises, the Docktails party and planned golf dates. Most of the two months were spent enjoying our amazing new cottage – hosting many guests (53 to be exact), eating spectacular meals and enjoying over 60 days of happy hours which included – besides the wine, beer and my new favourite “Radlers”- charcuterie boards latent with decadent cheeses and spreads PLUS many other tasty hors d’curves (hence my recent weight gain)! I felt as though the summer was over as I packed up to return home Sunday – knowing I wouldn’t be to Muskoka for Labour Day this year. I always feel nostalgic on Labour Day, even more so than New Year’s Eve. It is my new beginning – a fresh slate, a new school year. I thought of most of my teacher friends who would be revving up, making class lists, planning, perusing Pinterest for “Back to School” bulletin board ideas…full of excitement and anticipation and as I was driving down I realized that I was returning to none of that! While I thought I was doing so well adjusting to retirement, I was, in fact, enjoying my summer – like I always have every year while working. I was so busy enjoying the summer, I have completely ignored the fact that I have retired and that I need to move forward! I have been so busy – I forgot that I yet to figure out my life plan! In essence, as the quote above focuses on… I need to sharpen my pencils! I have kept very busy avoiding my next step! Yesterday I was so out of sorts! Everything was wrong and I didn’t seem to have the energy to fix it! I walked the puppy 4 times and both of us felt exhausted! This morning I woke up and said “ENOUGH” – me and me alone is in charge of my life, my own happiness! As we tell Andrew, you are the driver of your own bus! I can sit and stew in this place or I can move forward. SO today – I registered for classes for Bella and I, I moved up my date for my Life Coaching Class to September and I sent out a lot of Gala follow up emails AND I posted a blog entry (which was really a warm-up for my writing on a bigger scale) Today I am done procrastinating and I am sharpening pencils my friends! I need sharpened pencils because today I will write the next chapter of my life!
