You know, I was thinking. And, no, such activity is not that rare given the season of my life. It is Sunday, and my “work plate” is rather full. Not overflowing full, but that’s true only because of how the shit is arranged on my plate – which required a personal undertaking of no small measure. You might think I was a high school football player during hell week having dinner at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Piled high.
This begs a question, and I have many, as to why this is. As an educator, I live for those few moments where a “focused and engaged” student passes through my field of vision. You know, locked-on. It happens, but not all that often. But when it does, I marvel at the wake of success and progress that engaged student leaves behind. Of course, that “wake” conveniently serves as a metaphorical equivalent of a mountain – a mountain that other students must navigate if they are to have a chance to wet their beak at the free enterprise fountain of opportunity.
So, what it the key difference among students? Among anyone who is living life? What separates the normal from the uncommonly normal? I suggest it is the “Art of Procrastination”. We can try to learn time management, digest project management techniques, do a Black Belt in Six Sigma, and earn a sigma that. All good stuff really…it helps… But, that ain’t it. There are some things we can’t teach and some stuff we can’t learn. We can try, and we do. We are then called consultants or subject matter experts… Not a bad thing, really, you can make a living, but the majority of us are not “the one”.
Just who is “the one” and how did they earn that title? Well, they are different. They are wired, yet remain open systems. They are prescriptive and creative at the same time. The coup d’état – they can actually handle change – not fake it with a casual embrace, pun intended. How? Geez, I don’t know. Look at me, my plate is piled high with things to do and I am writing this.
But I suspect, they have mastered procrastination – the last bastion of inefficiency. Not mastered as in they do not procrastinate. Rather, they have taken procrastination, the proclivity to postpone, to new heights. A new discipline, really; “The Art of Procrastination.” Such mastery promotes efficient, effective, creative, and focused behavior. Their results come sooner, faster, better, cheaper, and all that.
So OK, these folks are different. They possess the ability to discern the important from the urgent and when they have to guess, they guess right a lot more than wrong. They are gifted to the degree of ordinary. They are blessed and their most centered and observed quality is their humble nature. And, most of all, they do not know they are truly special.
And that, folks, is a precious moment to witness.