Dear Me

Dear Me,

It is a dark and stormy night--or so the weather forecast says, though I haven't noticed anything especially stormy about it to date.

It looks as if the trees outside my living room window have a light coating of ice on them, and the weather forecast DOES sound more than a little strange to me.

I mean, what's all this about the temperatures being several degrees below freezing (which, under normal circumstances, would mean that anything falling from the sky should be in the form of snow), but there is still freezing drizzle, rain, sleet, and ice in the forecast!?!

Anyway, Me (that's you), Myself, and I have lived here in the central part of the state of Indiana for all of our lives, so we realize that too much ice collecting on the wires (and it doesn't really matter whether this is taking place under normal or not so normal conditions) is a very good recipe for a power outage--this being especially so with the help of a strong enough wind (which--Surprise! Surprise!--is also in the forecast).

Now, what do you suppose would happen should there be one of those power outages within, say, the next half hour?

Let me tell you what would happen!

No power would mean no electricity.

No electricity would mean no juice for my computer.

No juice for my computer would mean no Internet connection.

No Internet connection would mean no access to Writing.com.

No access to Writing.com would mean no way to finish this letter to you until the power gets restored--and I have serious doubts re: whether any power outage could be fixed in time for Me, Myself, and I to both finish this letter AND enter it in the Dear Me Contest before the deadline of the very same 11:59 p.m. that will be arriving here in less than two hours!

Now, Me, I could still write a letter to you--and, likely, would--but wouldn't it be a whole lot more fun to have it done in time to enter it in a contest? And, of course, those prizes that will be presented to the winners of said contest don't sound too shabby, either.

So, hopefully, if there just HAS to be one of those power outages (and, hopefully, this won't happen at all), I, for one, certainly hope that it will at least hold off until I finish this letter to you and to get it entered in the contest.

That, my Dear Me, is why I think that we really need to have a nice, long discussion about the issue of procrastination.

Let's say, for instance, that I had started writing this letter to you even so much as a few hours earlier. Then, there wouldn't be this rush to get it done tonight--not to mention the threat of that ice storm being thrown into the situation we have now for good measure.

So, Dear Me, what should we do about this?

Should we just make up a strict rule that says:

Me, Myself, and I

will never procrastinate again!

Hmmmmmmm. . .Kinda unrealistic, isn't it--like one of those resolutions to lose fifty pounds in a week. . .

Perhaps, it might be a better idea to make this resolution instead:

Me, Myself, and I resolve to do a study of the issue of procrastination so that we can better understand it and even harness its power to be used in productive ways.

Dear Me, I don't know about you, but I think that the ideal time to start doing this is right now and right here in this letter.

First off, let's think about what causes procrastination.

Is it really a sign of laziness and/or the inability to properly organize one's life?

This really can't be answered with an absolute yes or no.

Sometimes, we miss deadlines simply because we've ended up dawdling and not paying attention to the time.

For example,playing favorite online games like Bubble Popp and Family Feud over at Facebook and/or watching videos of the contents of zits squiggling and popping out of hiding places in a person's skin are okay activities to do when there's no looming deadline.

However, when there IS some time schedule involved that has to be followed or else you're going to miss out on something important, this really is the time to get and stay on-task!

Me, Dear, I would really advise you to not get distracted by things like this during those times when it's going to be the difference between grabbing the brass ring of opportunity and letting it slip out of your grasp.

However, I would also advise you to never lose sight of the big kid inside of you, because, without that big kid, you might end up becoming a very dull writer.

Remember, too, Dear Me, how procrastination can even work to your advantage.

Let's take how the writing of this letter got put off until the last minute (so to speak). Had this not happened, it would have, likely, been an entirely different letter.

Would this have been good or bad?

I don't know.

I would say that it would have been different but still good.

However, it has taken this particular situation to bring me to where I'm writing this particular letter. Since I like this letter and you will, surely, like it too, I would say that this writing project has been very successful!

If the judges like it, it will be even more successful!

Procrastination will often happen through no fault of our own. It just happens sometimes because life happens. It's like the late, great John Lennon once said in song: that life is what happens to us while we're busy making other plans.

I would, for instance, like to say to myself that the book I've been writing for so long--the one that I'd planned on having finished years ago--will be finished and "out there" before spring.

That would be nice.

However, the various thises and thats of life have ended up postponing the finishing of my book--and I would come to find out that, during the delays, I ended up learning more in ways that would make whatever book I end up finishing a much better one than the one I would have finished even a year or two ago.

The book will be ready in its good time.

Procrastination, in cases like this, turns out to be simply a matter of God's adjusting our timing to match His best plan for our lives!

As I'm wrapping this letter up, I notice that I have only about thirty minutes to finish it.

So far, the weather has been kind to Me, Myself, and I during the writing of this letter, and I have very little doubt that it will continue to do so for at least the duration of the finishing and posting of the same.

In summary. . .

It's now nearing the end of the last day of the first month of 2011.

At this time, I have a contest entry that I'm about to finish and send on its way.

I have a book that will, hopefully be finished and "out there" before spring.

Besides that, I have a new website that is already presentable and some new parts I want to add to it well before the end of 2011.

These are just some of the writing projects on which I'm working--projects that I plan to complete in minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months but all during 2011.

I also have some non-writing-related goals such as losing weight and getting my physical living space more organized.

Dear Me!!! Some of this might seem like a pretty tall order at times, but I know that, with God's help, I can get done what most needs to get done--and I also know that, perhaps, not all of it was meant to be finished in 2011.

And, speaking of that. . .I think this letter to Me is now done!

AJ Looking On The Bright Side


Word Count: 1330