What’s a fifteen letter word for a thing that ruins your life?

P R O C R A S T I N A T I O N

Bad habits are hard to break.  I’ve got a bunch of them and they are seriously annoying the shit out of me. Rather, I’m extremely annoyed with myself. (I must take ownership!)  Admitting the problem is the first step to recovery, right?

Bad Habit #1.  I’ll do it later….Procrastinating wreaks all kinds of havoc in my life, but it did help get the closets cleaned out.  On Saturday, I had all kinds of time to study for World History.  I knew the test was this week and that test covers three whole chapters on the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic World and Saharan Africa.  That’s A LOT of material.  What did I do??  I cleaned out three closets.  I worked on my husband’s project with him. We went out and ran errands together. What should I have been doing with at least part of that time??  STUDYING!  Now the test deadline is tomorrow, I have no idea what it’s about and I have about 24 hours to cram it all in (5 more of which I’m supposed to be working.)  Why do I do this to myself??  Argh!

Bad Habit #2. Failure to plan ahead….Flying by the seat of your pants is closely related to procrastination. It’s like procrastination’s fraternal twin, and they are both ugly suckers.  I did an analysis of my last 30 days expenditures and what did I discover?? I have gobbled up a whopping 12% of my total income by eating out. That’s grabbing a Starbucks occasionally, snaking through the fast-food line at lunch, and ordering up something really yummy for dinner when I could really PLAN AHEAD.  Do a little strategic grocery shopping. Cook (duh!). Brew my own coffee. Take my lunch to work.  What a novel idea!! I could still have an appetizer and drinks with my friends sometimes, but all this last minute, “I’M STARVING and didn’t plan ahead so I’d have something to eat” has really put a hole in my pocketbook.  Listen, when my blood sugar drops I turn into Attilla the Hun and I’ve really got to eat something to cram that monster back in it’s box. It’s ridiculous! I know this. I totally need to stick some trail mix in my desk and be prepared!

Bad Habit #3.  Laziness….Lack of physical exercise is making me feel like crap-ola. I have a zillion excuses about why I can’t exercise.  Some of them have a slight bit of merit (you know, asthma that’s not asthma but something undefined), but mostly I’m just lazy.  Bad Habit #1 and Bad Habit #2 also come into play here, but it boils down to pure laziness. I need to get my a$$ up out of the bed an hour early and go walk the dog, take a jog in the evening, walk around campus, use the freakin’ stairs.  I know I’ll feel better if I do. I just have to DO IT!!

There, I have admitted my bad habits to the world.  I’m counting on shame, mortification and peer pressure to motivate me to make a change.  Will you please help hold me accountable? Don’t procrastinate - do it now!