Procrastination vs Doing what we love

I admit it, I'm a procrastinator. I need a deadline to get things done, like making dentists appointments or paying bills. That's what I like about Graphic Design, it's all about the deadlines.

I also delay doing things I like to do, waiting for the perfect time or opportunity.

Now I read in the New York Times Weekly, January 4-10,2010, delaying gratification is another form of procrastination.
"Once you start procrastinating pleasure...you fixate on some imagined nirvana. The longer you wait to open that prize bottle of wine, the more special the occasion has to be."

Dr. Suzanne B. Shu, who conducted marketing research at the University of Chicago, said,
"People can become overly focused on an ideal. Even if they know it's unlikely, they get so focused on the perfect scenario that they block everything else."

Here's an example of procrastinating 'till I missed the fun I'd been waiting for. I saw Whoopie Goldberg in her debut one-woman-show on Broadway, before I even knew who this 'Whoopie' person was.(You do the math, it was sometime in the 1980's) When she revived the show 20 years later in Philadelphia, I was wanted to go because now she's one of my favorite persons. I delayed getting the tickets thinking I was being responsible and taking care of more pressing matters.

I missed her show. In fact I missed a lot of things that year that I reeeeely wanted to see trying to be the more responsible person. Well not anymore. Now I just go to the event I want and don't wait for the perfect time or money.

I'll still procrastinate when it come to doing little things like the dishes, but I work hard to ignore "the strange impulse to put off until tomorrow what could be enjoyed today" (N.Y.T. 1/4-10/10)