Heavy Duty

Some of us don’t always eat right or get enough exercise. Don’t bother with a show of hands. We know who we are, and besides, I hope to get back in the gym the day after tomorrow.

It’s easy to give up on a painful, tiresome, or simply un-fun duty when we’re only hurting ourselves. It’s our choice, our price to pay, et cetera, etc.

Note: This only applies to anything boring, arduous or otherwise un-preferable. Think about it. How often do you put off good stuff? Of course you don’t. Why would you?

Procrastination is usually the path of least resistance. Avoiding responsibility is so much easier than shouldering a burden that the path of least resistance should be gridlocked by now.

Metaphorically speaking, I suppose it is.

We procrastinate when we’re lazy or tired or fed up. We procrastinate when the job/chore/obligation is difficult or uncomfortable. We procrastinate whenever we’re, well, awake.

Laziness may not always beat discipline, but bet the odds.

Those odds suddenly reverse whenever other people are involved. It’s a lot harder to be lazy when being lazy will let someone else down.

Letting people down sucks. It can even hurt. I hate doing it. So I try not to.

Like the late and much beloved Douglas Adams once said, that’s where it all falls apart, you see.

Trying to get through an entire day without disappointing anyone is like trying to get through an entire day without spending any money. It sounds a lot easier than it is.

To be fair, I’m at a disadvantage. I have a cute little dog who is disappointed by a general lack of global domination, which is somehow my fault for being stingy with the treat jar.

Duty may sound like what I pick up after the aforementioned cute little dog, and it’s a word we don’t hear much these days, but duty is still a thing.

Obviously, Auntie was never a Boy Scout. Less obviously, I was never a Girl Scout either, but somewhere along the way I picked up a sense of duty and responsibility. Maybe it was when I also picked up the responsibilities.

That said, it’s two days after I started to write this and I still haven’t been back to the gym. I did pick up after the dog, though. There are some things you just don’t procrastinate.