Well, you gotta start somewhere

For months, ok, for years, I’ve wanted to start ‘blogging’ – whatever that meant. Now I know. But one thing stopped me, held me back, refusing to let me go. I pulled and pried, but it held me at the waist and tugged back with greater force. Procrastination. Yes, I am a procrastinator. My laundry pile will have to spill over into my bedroom before I decide to hook up the machine. The deadline has to loom dangerously close above my head before I can start writing. And true passion fuelled by intense boredom at work, while waiting for pages or inspiration, must occur to result in this blog. Or well, watching reruns of Sex and the City.

We all procrastinate, don’t we? I think it’s one of those traits God created us with. Like curiosity. Remember the Adam and the apple? We begin procrastinating the moment we start our day – by snoozing the alarm. We tell friends we’ll call them when we get free, but wait till the weekend. We tell parents that we will go see the doctor for that nagging pain, but we won’t till we’re doubled over. We tell ourselves that we must talk and iron things out with our significant other, but we’d rather wait till all hell breaks loose and the only thing left to do is to walk out.

What ever happened to acting on instincts? Jumping at opportunities thrown at us? Taking the world by storm? Is it sheer laziness (cos, let’s face it, that’s where the fancy term procrastination stems from)? Or is it a lack of confidence, the fear of failure? Do we not want to get out of bed every morning because we’re afraid of having a bad day at work? Do we not call our friends because we’re too tired to talk about our own problems and not really interested in theirs? Do we not go to the doctor because we fear that we may have cancer (yes, I have some hypochondriac friends who think like this)? Do we not talk to the ones we love about what is bothering us lest they stop loving us, lest they stop caring? Is it worth it, given that sooner or later both of you go your own ways anyway?

I don’t mean to be preachy. This post, I think, is more for me than anything else. It’s time to seize the day. Stop procrastinating – learn how to drive, take a salsa class, meet those friends I haven’t in months, tell the person I love how I feel or, on the other hand, let him go and be happy – for the sake of the both of us. Start a blog. Oh wait, at least one thing on the list is done. I’m now a little less of a procrastinator than I was an hour ago. Amen.