Come Tomorrow

I'm guilty. I'm guilty of putting things off until the last minute. I've been this way my whole life. Procrastination, it feels like a weight bearing me down until I am almost crushed. But at the same time, I'm infused with a sense of responsibility and integrity. Procrastination and responsibility do not go hand in hand, in fact it's more like they are in constant conflict with one another. Why can it feel so impossible to begin, much less finish, a necessary task right now rather than tomorrow or the next day or the next until all of a sudden you're far behind and have to climb out of the hole you've dug for yourself? What would have been easy to do today becomes nigh impossible when you finally get around to it. It's not like I'm unintelligent, I'm fully aware of the argument for being timely with tasks I'm not so excited to accomplish. And yet, somehow I manage to convince myself time and time again that this time, it's not a big deal, I really can do the job tomorrow and be completely fine. I read a blog post today on Huffington Post written by Sadhguru, an Indian philosopher who founded the Isha Foundation which administers yoga centers around the world. He writes about the phenomenon of procrastination in a beautiful way that I never thought of before.
He remarks that people often put things off until tomorrow, but of course the next day is yet another today and tomorrow never comes. The cycle continues and you convince yourself that today you are too busy and after all, there's always tomorrow, right? He goes on to write:

"Most of your life and energies are spent on a tomorrow that never comes in your experience of life. Tomorrow is an idea for which we must plan, but we can never live it. Whatever you need to do and experience in your life, you can only experience it today. You never experience tomorrow; it is just your imagination, and yesterday is only your memory.
So exorcising this demon from your life is a spiritual process in that you begin to live your life, not just imagine your life."

What an illuminating way to put it, no? That all this procrastination results in you imagining your life and not actually living it. In my imaginary life, I practice yoga every day, pay my bills on time, have a perfectly clean house, market my business, make home-made ice cream, and call my family and friends frequently! Oh, what a lovely life that would be. Instead, my alarm rings and I often decide to roll back over in bed and practice yoga "tomorrow", pay my bills after I receive a late notice, watch my house get messier and messier, forego ice cream (though, that's not necessarily a bad thing!), and become more and more distant from my loved ones, sigh. I recently saw a quote by J.M. Powers: "If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up." What a simple truth, and yet how difficult it can be!

So, that's it, here's my manifesto or commitment or promise to myself. From this moment onwards, I will strive to LIVE my life and not just imagine it! I'll wake up from my dreams and make them a reality! Who's with me?! So, friends, wish me luck and encouragement and take a moment to think about how much of your life your imagining and how much you're actually living.

PS. I should have also added that in my imaginary life, I write blog posts weekly...