Personality vs. Character
I'm a procrastinator. I always have been. In 8th grade I wrote an entire semester's research paper in one night. In college I pulled more all-nighters than I can even remember and I'm not sure a single one was strictly necessary if I'd paced myself as some of my more organized friends.
This can be summarized best by the following, frequently occuring scenario. My mom and I have a project to work on, as well as a movie I rented for the evening's entertainment. Mom wants to get the work done, then watch the movie. I vote for the opposite. When we do it her way we occasionally don't get to watch the movie. When we do it my way we end up staying up way too late because the work took longer than we thought. I'm sure that's not terribly shocking. :p
So my deep, introspective question for the night is this: is procrastination a personality trait that is just in my blood or is it a character flaw that I should be working on? And just to clarify, I'm not talking about procrastination to the level that you don't get the job done -- I know that's 100% bad -- but if you still get the job done, if you don't inconvenience other people (which I'm not saying I've never done!), is it something that should be worked on?
I know this seems like somewhat of a silly question, but it represents something deeper to me. If God created us with certain personality traits just as He created us with blue eyes or brown -- are these areas that we can just live with and not worry about? Almost every day I struggle with one area or another that God is nudging me to fix, but the job seems endless. I guess I'd like to know that there are a couple things about me that I don't need to worry about.
And by the way, I should clarify that this isn't a poor-me-depression-question -- it's just something I was thinking of because, in my usual way, I have quite a few more things to do to get ready to leave on Saturday than I should, owing to the fact I've been lounging around since Christmas!
Comments
Well... I am of course completely unbiased, and I heartily believe that not only is procrastination as you describe (not poorly impacting anyone or the end result of it getting done) is not only OK, but also reflects the flipside which is a good quality: likelihood of creativity that usually flourishes in a less structured, more spontaneous (adrenaline-stimulated?!) environment.
I'm speaking hypothetically, of course, being the kind that never procrastinates ;-)
Posted by: pami | January 19, 2007 12:57 AM