Burning the candle at both ends.  Workaholic.  Masochist.  These are not descriptions that I would apply to myself, nor are these descriptions that any of my close friends would use to define who I am.  However, I feel more and more that at some level these words are beginning to describe what I am.  I blame it on my students.

One word that I have always used to describe myself is procrastinator.  This term does not mesh well with the ones I first mentioned.  It also doesn’t fit in well with my current goals for myself or my students, so it must simply go away.  It will no longer define me.

If only it were that easy.  30+ years of training have made me into a world-class procrastinator.  That is not something that can be undone by so many pretty words, but it will be undone.

I came to this conclusion as I considered what I’d like to do with my students, my education, and my family.  Procrastination (and its ugly cousin, laziness) make what I want to do difficult at best, impossible at worst.  I have great plans for my students; some will love it, others, not so much.  The interesting part is that those who tend to be the workaholics are the ones who will get the most out of my plans (more on that in a future post).  I also want to finish my masters.  Let’s see…I’ve started my masters in one form/subject or another in 4 different schools now.  Hopefully the next one will be it (again, more on that later).  Most importantly, I want to spend more time with the family, although, some of them are already workaholics to the point that I’ll have to schedule family events.

So… it’s time to throw off the procrastination monkey, unbury myself from the mundane and start piling on what I truly enjoy because I’m not dead yet no matter how it may appear!