Have you been procrastinating? We suggest you face your fear, get off your Mommy Butt, and GO FOR IT with our foolproof guide to how to stop procrastinating.
This post contains affiliate links.
How to Stop Procrastinating and Get off Your Mommy Butt and GO FOR IT!
Ah, procrastination, don’t we know it? Over the years of being Mommy I’ve noticed that I can slip into a plane of excuses, where I am too busy, too needed, too involved with family members to do what I want to do, for me!
Even before I had kids, procrastination was often my mode. But it took until now for me to see it a bit differently… to realize that being a Mommy, which actually does encompass large chunks of our beings, allowed me to have a handy excuse ready at all times to avoid ANYTHING I wanted to avoid, for whatever reason, but one that usually had something to do with fear.
Stop Procrastinating – And Go For It!
It’s not that I’ve been a total slacker because of it, since I’ve done lots of extracurricular things like books for friends, cookbooks for relatives, raising money for good causes, advising about just about anything, and organizing the Party of the Millennium. Just sayin’. But there have been those other times too. I know you know it too…those times when exhaustion from the Mommy job trumps excitement in the other spheres of our life! But how much more exhausting is it actually, to NOT do what you love? And that hesitation right there can be called fear. Fear of failing? Sometimes it’s even fear of trying.
So today’s post is something I don’t need to belabor with you Mamas out there. (We Mamas all know what labor is, in more ways than one.) Today I’m gonna just go for the gusto. Today I want you to get off your Mommy butt, stop making excuses for why you don’t (fill in the blank here), and GO FOR IT!
True, it’s a little easier for me since my kids are in their twenties, though my house and heart are still filled with their traces. But I sense that following your dreams or your passions is not something you should wait for, regardless of your age or the age of your children or the reasons you are afraid of it.
It hit me a few weeks ago (Reminder Number 21 Billion!), when I looked longingly at the kayakers on the Allegheny River as I was leaving PNC Baseball Park. While my passion for the Pittsburgh Pirates has been smoldering hot even over the twenty years of losing seasons, I thought about how long I’d been asking people to come down to the Point to kayak with me. Um…ten years? Or MORE?! To no avail! And that realization kicked me in the butt, at last!
Our Editor Deborah and her Rubber Ducky friend at the river…want to join in?
The next day I was on the phone with Venture Outdoors. I became a member, though membership is optional to participate, and signed up for the Beginner Kayaking session, which I just completed one recent July evening. While I have kayaked before, I wanted some folks along with me before attempting a river as grand as the Allegheny and a class to instruct me in how to handle currents and barges and crew teams doing their workouts. I found not only that, but some companionship and encouragement as well. I got it all, that beautiful evening on our beautiful river in front of our beautiful city, and more. Most especially, I got the satisfaction of COMPLETING all four miles, even though I was offered the chance to quit at mile three, with my determination cajoling my tired hips and elbows to pretty please soldier on.)
I also gained the understanding on the river that I always feel better when I get off my Mommy Butt and GO FOR IT, regardless of what the “IT” may be. I was totally exhausted afterwards, but this exhaustion was not of boredom or of tedium or of restlessness, but from wonderful, beautiful effort!
A few days later, I was at an all-day writing workshop in Ligonier, where I found myself pushing to hold my own as a beginner in a roomful of dazzling poets. Beginner? So what?! I wrote FIVE POEMS. And even read them out loud, with courage.
How do YOU break out of Mommy fear and remember yourself?
Fashionably yours,
Deborah
Not only you did a lot, but you also had a lot of fun…great post!
Thanks, Marina. It was fun writing this one, too!
Guess what?! One of those 5 rookie poems I wrote about in this piece is being published!!! How’s that for facing fear down?! 🙂
Update: One of the 5 poems that I reference in the above post was published!!! Yes, published in a BOOK! A literary journal, no less! Voices from the Attic, 2015 by Carlow University! So ladies, take it from me, great things can happen if you push yourself out of your comfort zone a little!
<3 Deborah