Procrastination??

Ever look at your money?  If you have a 10 spot on you, take a look at the guy on the front.  Despite what most Americans believe, that guy, Alexander Hamilton, was never President of the United States. Really. He was our first Secretary of the Treasury, and one of the Founding Fathers of our country, but never President. He was instrumental in designing our Federal Government. Sad thing is, the old boy croaked before he was 50.  Know how?  The Vice President, Aaron Burr, shot him.  No kidding.

What does this have to do with procrastination?  Hang with me, I‘ll get you there, I am just putting it off for a few more seconds.

OK, so Hamilton was instrumental in creating our country, and setting up the way we run it. And Aaron Burr shot him dead in a duel over some disparaging remarks by Hamilton regarding Burr.

So, what does this have to do with procrastination? Wait, I will tell ya.

Remember the old maxim, 'Never do today what you can as well do tomorrow,'? Aaron Burr was famous for saying that. Yep, the same Aaron Burr. The guy who shot and killed one of our founding fathers was the poster boy for procrastinators everywhere. The reason he gave for procrastination was you should put things off “because something may occur to make you regret your premature action.”

Far be it from me to pass judgment on a guy who kicked the proverbial bucket a couple hundred years ago, but he didn’t follow his own advice, did he?  I am sure Hamilton was not chasing him down with  a one-shot dueling pistol demanding they fight it out right here and now.  Why didn’t the procrastinator’s poster boy put that decision off?  If he had, probably his life, and most certainly Hamilton’s, would have been better in the long run.

The moral of the story, kids, is some things can be put off till later, and some can’t. We all have to decie for ourselves what to put off till later.  I tend to put off tasks I don’t want to do, but only if I feel they can wait. (Tasks like getting to the point, for example.) These are “harmless” procrastinations. I usually have better luck deciding what to put off than Burr did.  I hope you do too.