Just as predicted . . .

I turned my thesis in today. I finished it at 4:30 this afternoon. It was due at five. Seriously, I think that I just love the thrill of meeting a deadline. I just operate best, okay, I only operate when my adrenaline gets pumping and I'm in a time crunch. I just don't understand how people can work on the same thing for weeks or even days, just doing a little bit at a time. I admit it is somewhat fulfilling to see the incremental development of a major project - I think that's the side of me that's socialized to think that incremental progress is the responsible way to accomplish tasks. What's really fulfilling though is to accomplish a major project in a short amount of time, and still do an excellent job.

I have a sticky note on my bathroom mirror that says, "The key to success is not in trying harder but in being consistent." I got it out of a marathon training book. It seemed to apply to the rest of life pretty well though. Perseverence is one of my best qualities, but consistency is not something I do, well, consistently.

I heard a story about a man who took his son to a Navy base to tour a historic battleship. After the tour, the man toook his son aside and said, "how much do you want to bet that I can move this ship with one hand?" The boy looked at his father like he was crazy and replied, "Dad you can't move that ship! It's huge!" The father put his hand on the side of the ship and started to push. He continued to push, putting his whole body weight into his one hand. He pushed for nearly half an hour and the boy was getting impatient and just as he was getting ready to throw a fit, the ship budged. "See," the father said. "I just had to be patient and keep pushing. If I had given up, all that energy would have been wasted and I wouldn't have been able to move the ship. If you had helped me push, it would have moved in half the time."

So maybe the story is more about kinetic energy than consistency, but I think it illustrates a valuable point about being persistent and continuing to push even when it looks like nothing is being accomplished. Similarly, if the man had pushed a little, stopped, pushed a little, stopped, pushed a little, stopped, the ship would not have moved either.

For me, this story is really about struggling to accomplish difficult tasks and not giving up. Actually, I'm not even really sure about how that dumb ship story relates to my problem with procrastination, but it seems to fit somehow.

I'm just not wired to work on projects bit by bit. I like having lots of diffferent things to do in a short amount of time. That's exciting. I can't throw myself into something and truly become engaged if I'm just doing little bits and pieces over a long period of time. I like to be totally absorbed in something, focus, hammer it out or mull it over, and then complete the task all in one giant sweep. That doesn't mean that I get tunnel vision and can't think about anything else. I just like to be able to get passionate about something and channel that energy into accomplishing something.