I’ve been a
procrastinator all my life. Whether it
was studying for a test, writing a paper in college, or meeting timelines at
work, I always seemed to wait until the last minute.
Every time
the clock ticked down in the final hour before a deadline, I always asked myself
why I let it happen again. Some people say they do their best work under
pressure. Others say they like the
stress.
My rationale? Life always seemed to let me get away with it.
Over and
over I was convinced that “this time” I really waited too long; over and over
everything turned out ok. No matter how
much of a crunch I was ever in, things always turned out great. I always came away with an A on the test,
wrote a great paper, or efficiently finished the project with high
quality.
Life never
taught me a lesson as to why I shouldn’t procrastinate, so I just kept doing
it.
As my
Schmeis35for35 year went along, I wasn’t procrastinating with workouts, but was
waiting way too long before attempting some of the goals if I wanted to finish
with a good number. After all, with just 2 weeks left in the year, I still had 13
remaining to accomplish and hadn’t even attempted 7 of the 35.
Luckily, everything
always works out for me, right? Let’s
take a look…
My left knee
had prevented me from doing as much running as I wanted this year, but that was
no excuse for letting the calendar turn to the end of December before making a
push for any of my running goals. Not
only did my procrastination cost me even attempting a few of the goals, but it
also forced me to run in conditions that were less than ideal for the ones I
did try.
As an
example, I ended up attempting my goal of running 1 mile in 5:30 on Christmas
Day…after a big Christmas meal…in 28 degree weather…with significant wind. Those aren’t exactly ideal conditions for a
blazing time. I would have preferred to
approach this much more like a space shuttle launch…wait for the perfect conditions,
delay a day if necessary, and then give it a go.
The weather
though showed a winter storm with 6 inches of snow expected on December 26th
so I had no choice but to try my mile attempt on Christmas Day. Here it was…
5:43. Missed it by 13 seconds. I went out too fast and couldn’t maintain the
pace…a definite rookie mistake that never would have happened if I had actually
tried it a few times before. But I
procrastinated and didn’t try it before…and now the clock ran out on me.
I’m
confident after my performance that I can do a 5:30 mile in reasonable weather,
but being confident doesn’t count. I
didn’t get it done.
Next up was
the 400 yard swim. I already
accomplished 4 of my 5 swimming goals and only needed to swim the 400 in less
than 6 minutes to sweep the category. I was
around 8 minutes to start the year and then tried it again in October and went
6:02. Since I was so close, I always
knew in the back of my mind I would get this goal done but kept putting it off
for some reason. Next thing I knew it
was late December and I hadn’t tried it since the October attempt.
I finally
gave it another shot over the holidays and went 6:06. Ugh…not only did I not make it, but my time
was worse than before. I hadn’t been
swimming that much and had lost a little fitness in the pool I guess. Now my procrastination left me with only one
final chance to break 6 minutes…on December31.
You’ve got
to be kidding me. 6:01…6:01…6:01. I missed it by 1 second. I’m beyond disgusted…so brutal…like getting
your heart ripped out. My turns were
absolutely terrible, my stroke felt slow, and I just didn’t get it done…missed
it by 1 freaking second. F-me…so
disappointing.
All I wanted
to do after the swim was go home and crawl into bed, but there wasn’t time to
dwell on the near miss. With only a few
hours left in the year, I needed to head from the pool to the high school track
to try my ¼ mile and ½ mile running goals for the first time.
My legs
pretty much felt like jelly after kicking with everything I had to make the 400
yard swim time and now that was all for nothing. I couldn’t help but think I would be much
better off running with fresh legs but there was no time for that…there were no
more days left in 2012.
I needed to
do the ¼ mile in 65 seconds and the ½ mile in 2:30. I thought my best chance to get both would be
to just try it all at once. In other words,
I would run the half mile but try for a super fast first ¼ mile and then
attempt to hang on to the finish. If all
went as planned, I could knock off both of the goals with one quick run.
66
seconds! My quarter mile was 66
seconds! I missed this by 1 second
too! Ridiculous. It was cold again outside, my legs weren’t
fresh, and needing to do a 2nd lap definitely held me back from
going all out on the first ¼ mile. Why
did I wait until December 31 to try this?!?
To make
matters worse, you’ll notice I didn’t even run the 2nd quarter mile
lap. I had instructed Sue to call out my
time as I went by the ¼ mile mark so I would know where I stood for the 1/2. When she was silent, I assumed that meant I
wasn’t even close so I just stopped. In
reality, I still had 1:24 to do the 2nd lap and had just done a 1:06
first lap. It would have been very
doable but I didn’t even try it.
I was
initially upset at Sue for not calling out the time but now realize I have no
one to blame but myself. In nearly every
sport, you’re taught to keep playing until you hear the whistle. You never assume a call is going to be made…you
keep playing. It was as if I forgot all those lessons when I
stopped on my own.
I was so
pissed off that I lined up on the track again a few minutes later determined to
make both goals. This time I took off as
hard as I could, made it about 100 yards, and had to come to a screeching stop
as I slightly pulled my right hamstring.
It was one disaster after another…
With my head
held low, I hobbled back with Sue to the car in disgust. We were hosting a NYE party later that night,
but I didn’t feel like celebrating.
Instead, I sat
in silence on the ride home with a blank stare on my face. I wasn’t thinking about the 22 goals I
accomplished in 2012. I was thinking about
the 13 goals I didn’t accomplish and why I waited so long to attempt them.
Finally,
after 35 years, procrastinating cost me.
It wasn’t
supposed to end like this.
Schmeis
