Regular readers will be aware that creating this page is usually the last thing I do before we send a new magazine off to Ali Poole, our graphic designer…
I have often given the very plausible reason for this as “so that it is as up to date, and fresh as it can be.” But I will now confess that it is only when I have no other alternative, or excuse not to do it that I get to do it. I am a practitioner of a discipline called Neuro-Linguis – Programming NLP for short.
Simply put NLP is a way of understanding what we do and why we do it; the causes of our behaviours and how our beliefs and our subconscious minds affect what we do. Furthermore, what we say and how we say it can affect how we behave, especially at a subconscious level.
So, unless my lazy little subconscious brain hears the word DEADLINE, I know I can get away with a skive, a distraction, or doing something easier. And I do. You see, the clue is in the word itself DEAD LINE … my conniving little mind can’t hide from the line that must not be crossed on pain of death! But it dallies dangerously close, almost taunting the line, taking it to the limit, sticking a tongue out and pulling a face kind of thing; because our subconscious mind is a simple, tricky system that was mostly formed and powerfully influenced when we were a child.
About eight or so years ago one of our advertisers, who has since become a friend, asked me to help her write her book I have helped a few folk along the way with their writing and so Paula Reed and I met on a fortnightly basis for a few months, and words began to fill pages. We’d pick a topic each me and discuss it to death and then, off she would go and put pen to paper. Of all the sessions we had, one stands out by far as the most memorable; the one we did on Procrastination! It was the best laugh we’d had for a long while, and I know we achieved very little from that session other than hone our skills on how to make humour out of skiving! I shouldn’t laugh really, it took Paula another 5 years to grind that book out and get it into print. And, the principle reason it got into print at all, I believe, is because Paula set a deadline date, booked a launch venue and forced us both on pain of death to stick at it and get it done. That book, Onion Therapy was published on 6th May 2019. It is about her life’s work and I know she is very proud of her achievements, and I am inordinately pleased to have helped her.
Therefore, with the aid of deadlines, I manage to do most that I need to, and tend not to sweat the small stuff when there’s no deadline. (To be honest, I sometimes find it hard to even reach the starting point without a deadline.) I don’t have a problem paying bills, food shopping or getting the magazine to print for example, as all have painful repercussions if they aren’t done. But if I don’t sort out my cupboards and shelves or get round to taking my unwanted items to the charity shop, well, it was only me it was bothering anyway. Although – and forgive me for using this month’s le er as a confessional – it really bothers me every time I see that folder on my book shelf which has my notes in it for my half written memoir.
I’ve now accepted that I’ll never be J.K. Rowling, but that folder sittng there reminds me of all the time I’ve spent thinking I eventually would be that prized author, and so it continues to taunt me. I’m told that serial procrastinators need to accept that even if they can do everything themselves, they won’t. So, instead of letting those tasks that I won’t do bother me, not even after six months of ducking and diving, best if I pick up the phone and ask somebody else to do it. That’s a little job even I can manage. .. Except, I have a deadline to meet and it’s Sunday afternoon already!
Blummin Deadlines!!
Steve
