CXX. Taking Things In Stride: The Cross-Section Between Patience And Procrastination

Patience - an ability that enables one to suppress restlessness.

Procrastination - the act or habit of putting off or delaying; especially regarding that which requires immediate attention.

__________________________________________________________________

As I have discussed very succinctly in one my earliest posts, I am perpetually dissatisfied, or not content, with the present.

Nowadays, however, I have noticed that in spite of my continuous efforts to plan out the future, I’ve managed to decelerate my dream-state stream of thoughts.

That is to say, I believe I have begun to take more in stride.

A few weeks ago I made a decision, blurry-eyed by vision-obstructing tears: I would no longer pursue self-inflicted challenges that would cause me to feel inexplicably discontent. I believe my exact words at the time did not include discontent, but rather, unhappy.

It goes without saying that it is mandatory to seek out opportunities to stay active in whatever sphere of professional work you so choose to pursue. You need to become an asset, a necessity, and in demand. Instead of supplementing this inevitable task with never-ending internal monologues riddled with stratagems for becoming part of an intellectual elite, however, I have supplanted to the idea that decisions are made, regardless of any will power attempted to sway any pending decisions.

Channeling energy into worrying about phenomenon that is beyond your will is counterproductive and wreaks of supernatural intention. All logic and scientific evidence suggests that stressing one’s self out over matters that are no longer yours to steer, results in adversity.

In short, if you are pursuing something that resists all constraints of reality, like graduate school admissions after you have sent your applications on their merry way, just picture yourself as Asa from Shahs of Sunset.
That is what I did a few weeks ago during the above described scenario in which I chose to be content rather than to partake in stress-inducing actions. I quite literally pictured myself in an acid green and printed floor length Kaftan, complete with feral hair around my shoulders, and both hands to my head, exactly as Asa had done when blessing her “Diamond Water" business, in an attempt to invoke the shaakra, or the mind’s eye.

If you’re ever so discontent about the present state of affairs that you have to take two aspirins, just picture yourself as the reality TV personality who believes she can control the outcome via a “third eye.“

It’s a most effective way at forcing you to take things in stride and to practice patience. No one wants to intentionally pull an Amanda Bynes, or for the sake of continuity, an Asa.

Taking things in stride requires patience. While this novel way of life has demystified my outlook on going through a day without stress-inducing headaches, this idea of patience is proving to be a hard bargain.

Patience is sold as a virtue and a parable to live by. Yet patience is only beneficial in negligible quantities that do not take the form of procrastination. Procrastination can be classified as a form of practicing patience.

Procrastination is taking things in stride to such a degree that each second is a unit of time meant to remain as content as possible while we are alive. I’m referring to the most basic type of happiness. The happiness that diversion entails.

That is not to say that if we were to perform the tasks needed to be completed but are otherwise put off, we would not be happy. We just wouldn’t know for certain that we would experience as much pleasure performing the task itself.

Herein lies the cross-section between patience and procrastination.