Blank Walls and Procrastination

Have you ever had to make a big decision in your life?  You put it off and put it off and put it off.  And it took FOREVER to get that decision made.

Sometimes you just need to listen to music and break that procrastination!

Solving Procrastination

I was dating a woman for about a year and we decided to move in together.  Now this was a big deal for us because each of us had come from major relationships.  Moving in together was our way to ease into a bigger commitment.  A year later, I looked around our house and there were no pictures on the wall.  None.  A CLEAR indicator that we didn't feel …. Permanent. 

If we weren't committed to our home, how could we commit to each other?!

We were backing away from this decision.  It was just terrible.  I started thinking, is it time to ask her to marry me?  Maybe I should.  Maybe I shouldn't.  I backed off.  There were great days.  And days I thought, maybe not.  I spun. 

Maybe I should create a spreadsheet, a spreadsheet of pros and the cons and lay it all out.

Then I remembered something my dad told me.  He said, 'Son, there's three decisions that aren't rational.  One is buying a house.  Second is having children.  Third is getting married.'  

Drat!  The spreadsheet is not going to work!

I kept thinking about it and thinking about it.  March came and went.  April went by.  This big decision was eating me alive.  You've had big decisions in your life, right?  Those decisions that eat you from the inside out.  They're big.  Nothing's pushing you to make that decision today.  But another day goes by.  And another. 

Then something magical happened.  A song came on the radio.  I was in the right space at the right moment to hear the lyrics. 

I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
I want to know right now
What will it be
I don't want to wait
For our lives to be over
Will it be yes or will it be … Sorry?

• Paula Cole, I Don't Want to Wait, 1996

Even hearing that song today chokes me up.  I knew I didn't want to be sorry.  When I heard that music I knew the right decision. 

I decided to marry her.

21 years later, we're still married.  That song changed my life!  The universe gives us the exact right answers we seek. 

Sometimes to break procrastination, all you need to do is listen to the music.