“I think of myself as something of a connoisseur of procrastination, creative and dogged in my approach to not getting things done.”—Susan Orlean
In recovery, when we baulk at a challenge, we are encouraged to “act as if” and “fake it till we make it.” This is particularly great advice when we look to handle an attack by the Terrible Twins. Ok, so we could use that moniker to describe a number of pernicious combos. For today, though the Terrible Twins are those undeniable and annoyingly persistent rogues, Perfectionism and Procrastination.
Procrastination feeds on fear. Fear of discomfort. Fear of difficulty. Fear of failure. Fear of conflict and confrontation. Fear of action. Perfectionism sprays gasoline onto the fire of Procrastination’s fear. Perfectionism grabs its twin by the wrist and whispers into its ear “It’s never going to be good enough, so why even bother to begin at all?” The twins feed each other’s frenzy to avoid jumping into action.
Lack of “right action”—even if it means the action of “acting as if’—is not a safe option for us in our recovery. It’s a must to keep on keeping on… and the magical thing is, by just doing something—anything—to handle the perceived challenge, good things start to develop—whether the Terrible Twins like it or not.
The secret here could be called Progressive Refinement. Begin with the battle cry “Good enough is good enough!” Surge forward and just start splurging into action—with no care as to how beautiful or ugly the action might appear to be… The Terrible Twins may kick and scream a while, but their annoying kerfuffles will start to fade away as you refuse to give them oxygen…
Your strategy of progressive refinement will initially yield you anywhere up to 80% of what you’d hoped for. That’s good enough—because at this point, good enough is good enough. The hard part’s over. Now you just wait a little, then jump in on a second round—refining your “good enough” material. Wait some more, then on to the next round of refinement… And to your pleasant surprise, in one tenth the time you thought it’d take, you’ve got it done!
For so many of us, taking action to stay fit brings on a major attack from the Terrible Twins—with Procrastination being the prime culprit of the two… (By the way, we’re over two weeks into our New Year’s Fitness Resolutions. How IS that going?)
Well, when it comes to movement priorities to take action on, it’s possible we most often ignore our hand-health. Too bad too—because when it comes to taking action, it’s all about our hands. And the beauty of it is that it is really, really easy to help our hands feel more mobile and pain-free.
Today’s movements will be a high-reward breeze:
Rotational joint exercises are a superb way to warm up, as well as to increase flexibility and reduce pain. The wrists are the gateway to our hands. To heal our hands, then we are going to rotate and open up the wrists. Whether from high-mileage exercise, compulsive keyboarding or sheer neglect, our long-suffering wrists can take quite the beating. Eventually—like any abused or neglected joint—they will not be shy to broadcast their displeasure! Better to be nice to your wrists up front, so they will be nice to you over the long haul….
Stand or sit with good posture. Extend your forearms in front of and at right angles to your torso, with your elbows resting gently on your stomach. Circle your hands at the wrist joints making a full 360-degree rotation. One hand will be rotating clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. Reverse directions. Do 24 to 36 rotations for each wrist. We will be revisiting other beneficial movements for the hands throughout the year…
It feels so relaxing to know I don’t have to go on trying to be perfect!