Today is Monday, the start of a new week. Today is the day I was going to finish my book. I have been waiting for this day for months. I said, “As soon as I hand in the paperwork to the local school district, I will finish editing and illustrating my book.” I handed in the paperwork at the end of last week.
Big plans. Big Dreams.
So what did I do this morning after breakfast? I organized my vitamins.
Whenever I get close to finishing, something else comes up that is more important. And sorting vitamins is very important. How can I survive without making sure I am taking the right vitamins?
Then I have to scrub the kitchen floor. Because a clean kitchen floor is also very important.
I really didn’t know why I was stalling until I read my friend Chris Morris’s story, The Myth Of Procrastination, this morning. I took a break from sorting my vitamins to read facebook and see what my friends had written.
I am procrastinating because I am afraid.
I am afraid to fail.
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
The vitamins do not need to be sorted. The kitchen floor can be scrubbed later. I am going to work on my book. One day someone will ask me what I did with my life. I don’t want to say, “I sorted my vitamins and placed them in alphabetical order. Never did finish that book I started, but you would have liked it.”
Shadow dreams. Succeeding in my mind and never risking failure. Who knows, someone might even like my book.
I will try.
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
Theodore Roosevelt
