You ever notice that things work best when we are not aware of them? For example, you don’t feel the best fitting clothing when you wear it. If something feels tight or abrasive, it isn’t functioning as it should. Another example: if you supervise workers, you’ll know that things are going best when you aren’t noticing any problems. A house is functioning well when its occupants don’t notice problems: there is hot water, the roof is not leaking, and there is no vermin. Unawareness is what you want in so many situations in life. I have often said that a problem is only a problem when you think about it.
Unawareness isn’t always best though. Someone was telling me today about a gal that was evicted from her apartment for non-payment of rent. The authorities showed up and gave her until the end of that day. The police got involved to make it happen. The woman was surprised, probably not that it would happen, but that it would happen that day. I am sure she had lots of warning, but she closed her eyes to the problem. There are some problems that simply do not go away just because we don’t think about them. Yeah, they might not be problems in the moment, but by ignoring them --- by kicking the can down the road --- we allow the problems to get bigger and to gather momentum so that when the chickens finally do come home to roost, the situation is much more problematic than if it had been resolved early.
I like procrastinating doing what I do not enjoy. And guess what? I have found that sometimes procrastination pays off. I find that often what I delay doing, until it’s too late to do it, never really needed doing in the first place. Yet, procrastination is to be used cautiously.
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