Are you a procrastinator? If you'd like to change anything, "Knowing is half the battle." (G.I. Joe)

I'm a writer who sometimes procrastinates, but sometimes, it's not what it seems. I'm often working on a strategy to a writing project, redesigning a poem or taking a break so as to reconstruct or deconstruct it all, but in my eyes, it's part of the job. Then again, I wonder if I'm simply just procrastinating. 

There are several types of procrastinators and different ways to procrastinate, so how do you know? To answer the question, I consulted a few sources, but I like the following response I excerpted from www.mindtools.com:

How to Overcome Procrastination  

Follow these steps to deal with and control procrastination:

Step 1: Recognize That You're Procrastinating

If you're honest with yourself, you probably know when you're procrastinating. But to be sure, take our Are You a Procrastinator?  self test.

Here are some useful indicators that will help you know when you’re procrastinating:

• Filling your day with low priority tasks from your To Do List.
• Reading e-mails several times without starting work on them or deciding what you’re going to do with them.
• Sitting down to start a high-priority task, and almost immediately going off to make a cup of coffee.
• Leaving an item on your To Do list for a long time, even though you know it's important.
• Regularly saying "Yes" to unimportant tasks that others ask you to do, and filling your time with these instead of getting on with the important tasks already on your list.
• Waiting for the “right mood” or the “right time” to tackle the important task at hand.

Am I a procrastinator? My answer to the question is, yes and no. What I do about it depends on whether I like the way I flow or if I want to change anything. But at least, I know. What about you? Are you a procrastinator? If you'd like to change anything, "Knowing is half the battle." (G.I. Joe)

Love for others includes many attributes, but compassion is probably the most important part of love.

Most spiritual practice and religious scripture emphasize attributes like humility and having love and compassion for others. Yet, very little time is spent explaining the importance of self-compassion and self-love. Although it's not emphasized, being able to "love your neighbor as yourself" indicates a need for self-love before all else. Without self-love and self-compassion, it's difficult to have love and compassion for someone else.


Love for others includes many attributes, but compassion is probably the most important part of love. Compassion involves being sensitive to someone's suffering and having a deep desire to alleviate their suffering. But in order to experience compassion, you must first consider the pain someone is going through. In other words, you must not only step into someone's shoes but also you must step into their pain and suffering. Once the pain and suffering are acknowledged and vicariously experienced, compassion includes a deep desire to help someone out of their unfortunate situation.


Self-compassion is more difficult because you must acknowledge your own humanity with a sense of respect, understanding, and kindness. It demands having patience with your own frailties and shortcomings and not falling into patterns of guilt, self-blame, name calling and destructive self-talk or behavior. It means caring enough about yourself to care for yourself and accept your imperfections. It's assuring yourself that with faith and trust in your ability to overcome adversity in life, you will overcome whatever the challenges might be.


At this point in your life, you have established patterns of behavior. By now, you are either good or not so good about the way you manage your thoughts and how you treat yourself. With self-compassion, you make it a point to handle yourself with care. You use self-talk that is gentle and encouraging rather than harsh and demeaning. Paying attention to your thoughts and feelings allows you to confront negative thoughts as they come your way. This allows you to remember your sense of humanity and know that you are not alone. Then you are able to replace negative or belittling statements like, "I'll never be good enough," with positive and encouraging ones, like, "I'm only human. I'll do better tomorrow."


Compassion for self allows you to have compassion for others. Recognizing and fighting negative thoughts requires that you become mindful of your thoughts and feelings and that you accept weaknesses as well as strengths. By accepting your human frailties and encouraging yourself when you're feeling down, you build self-compassion and strengthen self-love. If you can weather your own emotional storms and support yourself when you're feeling down, when it's no longer your turn to nurture yourself, you'll have the love and compassion to nurture someone else. 

Sometimes angels walk among us, protecting us. You know them because when they arrive, everything changes for the better. But they can't stay very long.

Before she came, there were two parents instead of one and there was fighting, violence and betrayal until she chased the culprit away. There was controversy, of course, because none of the other children glowed in the dark and none of the other children slept the entire night after they were brought home from the hospital. She was different, and although she never cried, everyone sitting in the church pews knew that unfamiliar glow that surrounded her. Still, they all kept quiet about the matter. Besides, there was nothing to prove she came to the wrong family. 

Who knew the married couple would divorce, break the family apart and that she'd be on her own with no one to guide her and nothing to indicate she was loved--though she was, if not all of the time at least some of the time, enough of the time for her to grab a moment or two, slip them into her pocket and store them away like precious gems.

She talked to herself, told herself stories, and made herself laugh every day. If she found something good to eat, she laughed, and when she found nothing, she laughed as well. That's how she survived after they deposited her to the missionaries and moved away. Her childhood behind locked doors was spent capturing positive moments and saving them for a rainy day when there was nothing to do, But at least the hard times were over. No more walking the streets, hiding in shadows or sleeping underneath benches at Grace Episcopal Church. Laughing in spite of the hard times, she had made it though rain, sleet, snow and the most dreadful heat and humidity.

She created happiness, moment to moment, savoring one encouraging word and then another until she was nearly fifteen and still living in the orphanage where she met Dee at the nurse's station. The attraction was immediate, but because the boy was so kind she loved him enough to do him the favor of breaking up before breaking his heart. Still, he lingered, tarried, and sought to be near just in case she needed him which she never did--until after he was gone.

They were kindred spirits, both had agreed. It was probably a heart attack or something sudden or so she thought, because he would never willingly try to escape. After a while, she began to regret the fact that she barely even knew him for sure and couldn't determine what made him stay with her through the years knowing she had missed too much love to manufacture enough for anyone, not even for herself. 

After turning eighteen and being set free, she hitch-hiked and walked from town to town hoping she'd see his face across the counter, his strong assuring hands serving up drinks while she held out her glass for another round. But it never happened. All of the hopeful men liked buying drinks, but they were not her angel in disguise. Sometimes she expected a knock on the door, a hand sliding her a bologna sandwich and a soda after curfew, but it never happened. The boy named, Dee,  had simply vanished.

"Cherish the day," is what he had said while she was in captivity and she wondered, how? "I should have had his baby and stayed connected because he was an angel, and when he thought there was no more work to be done, he disappeared." The woman at the counter had nodded and smiled.

Having his baby was the miracle she thought she needed, living proof that she had been loved. Now, it was up to her to find ways to live each day and to love herself, like it was the most important thing she could ever do. Some people insist that Angels walk among us, teaching, protecting and inspiring us. You know them because when they arrive, everything changes for the better. If you think you've met an angel, maybe you have, but learn what you need to learn because they don't usually stay very long.