Do It Now!

When I was a kid, one of our nicknames for our dad was "do it now." I never knew him to put anything off until tomorrow. Most of the time, we affectionately tolerated his insistence on seizing the moment. Sometimes, we found it seriously aggravating. Most of us have at least some corners of our lives where we avoid and postpone, but if my dad had those corners, I never ever saw them.

My mom, although less insistent about it, was also very much in the "do it now" camp. She too seemed to be completely lacking any hidden corners of procrastination. So where in the world did I develop my finely honed skill for "waiting for just the right time" to get certain things done?

About a year ago, I made a commitment to totally revamp the web site of a non-profit where I'm a board member. The look and feel needed modernizing. The information needed reorganizing and updating. It needed to be easier for the staff to maintain. I felt very qualified to do almost all of that, but woefully unqualified to make the fundamental decision about what platform to use and where to host the site. I read, I researched, I queried friends and colleagues. I felt uncharacteristically paralyzed by indecision. So basically I procrastinated.

And then one day, in a completely different meeting, I casually mentioned my dilemma to two web-guru colleagues. They both said "Wordpress, WP Engine, Woothemes." I don't know if that was the optimal choice but it was definitely a good choice. And it got me past my roadblock. Now, my non-profit has a great new web site that everyone loves, and I'm liberated from day-to-day responsibility for maintaining it because it's so easy. As one of my favorite authors, bloggers, and podcasters Gretchen Rubin is found of saying, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

This blog is another case in point. I started out shortly after I retired 5 years ago. I tried to post regularly but fizzled after awhile. Since then, resuming has been a regular inhabitant of my "should" list. I enjoy writing and it's a muscle I need to exercise. But I felt embarrassed by the blog archive that showed such huge gaps in posting. I experimented with creating an entirely new blog. But finally, I convinced myself to just suck it up, start posting again, and put up with the embarrassment of a spotty past. 

So in honor of the memory of both my parents, I vow to try harder to "do it now!"