Procrastination

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Some years back, I showed the Five Tibetans to Scott, and the first thing he did was deconstruct them. Apparently he applied the idea of moving in all six basic planes from a discipline called Shadow Yoga (and I wouldn't be surprised if he had input from other sources as well) and put the Tibetans in a re-arranged sequence, changed the protocol and added some missing motion (side to side and twisting) and created FlowFit. Extracted from FlowFit, the concept of Six Degrees of Freedom, something central to the CST approach, began to appear in his other work: Prasara, TacFit, and more. Now Coaches Steer and Murdoch over at "Bodyweight Exercise Revolution" have created a six-part program centering on the abdominal muscles, and they're giving it away for free over at bodyweightexerciserevolution.com

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If you have grown beyond the basic Tibetans, I would strongly suggest that you check these guys out. Twelve minutes of work that improved endurance, burns fat, and trains the abdominal core as well as working your body through all six planes of motion? THAT is efficiency. Here's an idea: do five minutes of Turkish Get-Ups, followed by twelve minutes of this routine...you'll be totally trashed in 17 minutes flat. You've probably never seen most of these exercises, and that means big fun for us kinesthetic masochists. Good times.

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Tananarive came back last night (thank goodness) and we stayed up watching "Dexter." I'm delighted that my Favorite Serial Killer finally made a mistake in judgement, and killed the wrong person. This is critical, because without that it is too easy to forget he is a monster. He may be a charming, brilliant, funny monster who TRIES to do good...but he is a monster, nonetheless. That makes the show far more fun. And poignant. Don't we all struggle against our self-perceived monstrosity at times?

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Procrastination came up repeatedly as a negative personality trait with a positive intent. Now, some procrastination might not even be bad...it depends on whether we get the job done. If so, that's just our personal style. Here is the most important question: DO YOU KEEP YOUR WORD TO YOURSELF?

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In other words, if you promise yourself that you're going to spend an hour a day doing something, and instead you spend seven hours on Sunday, at the last minute, and still get it done...cool. BUT...next time, did you promise yourself you were going to spend an hour a day, and break your promise to yourself AGAIN? Or did you shrug, realize you like doing things at the last minute, and go with the flow?

In the first, word-breaking case, you have a problem.

1) you lied to yourself. You had information clearly indicating the "hour a day" pattern was not in alignment with your nature. Why did you set a goal you already knew you wouldn't keep? Dangerous.

2) You broke your promise to yourself. Bad. I promise that if you have a habit of breaking your promises to yourself, you won't be able to control where and when it pops up.

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Does your pattern of action allow you to create what you want, in a manner that pleases you? Then it's just your pattern. What others perceive as Procrastination might just be your style. But if, on the other hand, you put off balancing your checkbook, or exercising, or having "that talk" and constantly end up blowing it entirely, that is another matter altogether.

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So the first thing to decide is: is this habit pattern in alignment with your goals, values, and emotional charges? If you continue to behave in this fashion, will you make the impact on the world that you desire? What will happen in a year? Three years? Five years?

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If the answer is: "awww...I get it done." Then fine. If the answer is: "I'm going to be stuck in a rut" that's different. At that point, we have to start asking what motivates the Procratination, how it distorts your reality, and how you lie to protect it. And you have to learn to differentiate between eccentricity and self-destruction. Ask:

1) Will my life remain in balance if I do this?

2) Will I keep my commitments if I do this?

3) Can I do this and be honest with myself and others?

4) Will this behavior produce more pleasure than pain for myself, my family, and my community?

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If the procrastination is a dream-killer, you have an obligation to correct the situation. Either change your habits, or change your dreams. Otherwise you are leaking critical psychic energy.