I Have A Problem....And It Is Me...

My name is Lisa and I have a procrastination problem. And a problem starting projects that never get finished. I have been thinking a lot about these problems these last few weeks and think I have figured out part of my issues. I'm a perfectionist. Perfectionists can be paralyzed by fear - fear of failure, fear of less than perfection, fear of inadequacy...these fears can cause a person to not act at all because no action is better than trying and failing. Perfectionism also causes a person to expect the first try to be perfect...if it's not, the project/activity is deemed to be a failure and is abandoned. That's pretty much me to a T.

I'm working very hard at starting things and finishing them. I'm working very hard at finishing things I've abandoned. I'm working very hard on breaking up big, overwhelming projects into smaller, more manageable mini-projects.

I started and finished the master bath curtains in one day. I've started the master bedroom curtains and hope to finish them this week.

Bigger projects...like hanging up all the pictures left to hang up in the new house, losing weight, keeping up with cleaning the house, catching up on scrapbooking...I've decided to take baby steps every day. Instead of saying I have to hang up all the pictures and since I have only 15 minutes today I can't do anything, I'll see what I can do in 15 minutes. Instead of starting a major diet and exercise program, I've decided to walk the kids to and from school everyday and add at least 15 minutes of exercise daily...it would be better to do an hour and have it structured, but 15 minutes is better than none. Instead of waiting until I have a huge block of time to do some major cleaning, I'll take 15 minutes and clean all the mirrors in the house. Instead of spending a week-end scrapbooking, I'll spend 15 minutes labeling digital pictures while I watch t.v. at night. It may take me longer, but progress is progress, and I may surprise myself with how much I can get done in small increments of time.

I hope to beat this procrastination problem and get some things done so I can move on to other, more exciting adventures. We'll see how that goes!