This Thing Called Life

I have been struggling a lot with balance lately.  I feel like I'm constantly running behind.  There is always too much housework, too many work hours to fulfill, not enough time for running, not enough time for playing, and definitely not time for blogging.  I truly feel like if I give up time to do one thing I am taking away precious time to do other important things. 

For example, I have kept up with running, but it has been sporadic.  The discipline is not there.  Nor is it present in my eating habits.  The problem is, I know exactly what I need to do and how to get there.  I just need to figure out the motivating factor.  A lot of it comes down to procrastination.  "Oh, I didn't get up early enough to run before working.  That's OK, I'll run tonight."  And then it never happens.

Procrastination has always been something difficult to overcome for me.  I love a clean house, but give me a good book and I can ignore the mess for a while.  I always feel like there will be time to "do it later."  Unfortunately, that's not how life works.  When I let everything get chaotic, or don't stay on top of things, something always happens that make me have to refocus and get back on top of things.  This time, that something has been my kitchen floor.

If you'll remember with me, I mentioned that we were redoing our floor in our main living space at the beginning of the year.  We completed the floor in a couple of weeks.  I spent weeks at a time after that doing little projects here and there to try and finish.  Once I got close, and had let everything else slip while I was focused on the flooring projects, my girls managed to spill enough water in the kitchen that it got under our floating, laminate wood floor.  So, I had to rip everything up in the kitchen and do it again.  I got it all put back together, except we never installed the trim that goes around the cabinets. 

I haven't posted pictures of this project because it was only recently that I got my house completely put back together, thanks to my brother-in-law.  All that was left was the trim.  Unfortunately, as I walked across the floor a couple days ago, it felt bumpy and not smooth.  I took a closer look and, to my horror, noticed the floor was warping in several places.  I am uncertain how water got underneath the floor this time as I took several precautions to keep water out.  It obviously did, though, so we have to rip it up again.

I spent about a day in outright anger at this turn of events.  We had just, read: that day, paid off all of our credit card debt.  Several great things were happening in our lives.  I felt like I would finally have time to catch up on everything.  Then this threw a huge wrench in our lives.  An immediate problem needing to be dealt with swiftly amongst all the other things I have been procrastinating for another day.

What have I learned from this?  It is worth it to make the effort to do a little at a time in everything.  It is better to only go for a 20 minute run than do nothing at all.  Keep my work schedule exact and don't to try to maneuver time around so I don't end up having to work a bunch of hours at the end of the week. Eat well every day with maybe a few cheats here and there, rather than to eat well sometimes and eat horribly at others.  Read a little bit every day instead of spending hours at one time.

Most importantly?  Life waits for no one.  Things happen every day, good and bad.  Being angry or even happy doesn't change a thing.  I just need to do my best to live out each day to my best ability.  Learning to let go of small things and focus on the big important ones is something I really need to master.  Procrastination only makes the job larger and more difficult.  A little at a time, all the time goes a long way.

Wish me luck with my floor!  Maybe I'll stop procrastinating and post some pictures when it's done.

How do you overcome procrastination?  How do you react to the unexpected?

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