Are You a Procrastinator?

When my professors in college assigned a term paper, I would begin doing the research and writing it a little at a time until it was finished. I knew I would worry and panic if I waited until the last minute.

©AnnaLee Conti

My boyfriend, who is now my husband, however, had a different style. He would mull it over in his mind until the last minute and then pull an all nighter. His term papers were certainly fresh! His father, pictured left, apparently took the same approach to studying in college.

I thrive on studying and writing. On the other hand, some tasks are so distasteful to me that I put them off until I don't dare wait any longer. If I would just get them done, though, I wouldn't spend so much time dreading them.

Some people act as though avoiding problems is easier than facing them. Avoiders ignore problems until they either go away or get worse and have to be faced. Of course, we all know that problems usually have a way of getting bigger and more painful. They don't just go away; they must be addressed.

Those who avoid problems and the emotional pain that accompanies them usually end up with more pain in the long run. Those who face their problems save themselves a great deal of unnecessary suffering. When we believe our problems will go away if we avoid them, we are fooling ourselves and risking more pain.

As parents, we must be careful about rescuing our children from their problems and depriving them of the opportunity to learn the appropriate skills for coping with life and its unavoidable problems. One of the reasons so many young adults cannot face life and are still dependent on their parents is because Mommy and Daddy, in misguided love, made excuses for them and bailed them out instead of teaching them how to stand on their own two feet and take responsibility for solving their own problems.

Are you a procrastinator? Are you a problem avoider or a problem facer? The Apostle Paul was certainly not a procrastinator. He didn't avoid problems. He didn't wait until conditions were perfect before he strained to reach his goal. In his missionary journeys he stepped out in faith in spite of many problems and severe persecution (see 2 Corinthians 11:23-12:10). He let nothing stand in the way of preaching the gospel, not his past nor his present circumstances nor the threat of persecution nor the dangers of the journey. He continually "pressed toward the goal":

Courtesy Google.com

Are you a problem avoider or a problem facer? Next time I find myself procrastinating, I'm going to remind myself that I will suffer less if I tackle it right away! How about you?

What do you do to motivate yourself to achieve your goals? I'd love to hear about it.

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