“…what you could do today.” 

Have you ever heard this quote? I know I have, and yet to be perfectly honest when I originally sat down to type out this age old adage I legitimately couldn’t think of the actual quote…so I Googled it.

In fact that right there is very telling about how I choose to work. I Procrastinate. A lot.

Now comes a story that may seem as if it has no place in this entry and yet I will bring it all back around, and hopefully before you become wise to my plot twist.

I always wanted to become an escape artist. Seriously I was in awe of Houdini and all those illusionists who could seemingly never be tied down. When I was younger I went through a phase where every chance I got I would beg my older brother Mark to tie me up and then time me to see how long it would take for me to escape. He gladly obliged if only to keep me out of his hair for a little while longer. I would do this over and over until either my brother locked me out of his room, or I decided I wanted to do something else. But over time, I got really good. So good that I cocky. I started bragging to my brother’s friends that I could escape any knot in under 5 minutes (hey, that was a long time to 7 year old).

One summer’s evening my brother and his friend Travis decided to put me to the test. So they tied me up to a chair in our basement and walked away. Piece of cake. I was out and bothering them within minutes. So they upped the ante, two different ropes. Again I escaped within minutes. Then came the final test: three different ropes duct taped to the chair. This was outrageous! How was I supposed to slip my wrists free of their bonds when all the rope around them was duct taped? So I did what any 7 year old would do in this predicament. I started to complain, loudly. Calling my captors back to taunt me, however they quickly grew weary of my whining and so instead of releasing me from my bonds, they added insult to injury. My brother upon scouring the basement for rope, had come across a used diaper from my Baby Alive doll. To silence my annoying complaints they promptly taped the diaper across my mouth.

I swear this was a real toy, and I am pretty sure they still make them. Google it.

This effectively shut me up, I wasn’t about to get fake baby poop in my mouth! Travis and Mark exited upstairs where they continued to enjoy their summer evening. About ten minutes later there was a knock on the door and my brother greeted my friend Sydni and told her I was downstairs. To my embarrassment Sydni walked into the room and all she saw was me tied to a chair, with a diaper over my mouth. She gaped at me then said, “I guess you’re busy, talk to you tomorrow.” And then she walked away leaving me gagged and humiliated. What felt like hours later but perhaps was only about 5 minutes. My brother and Travis, after realizing that Sydni had abandoned me, came down stairs and let me go. I never asked to be tied up again.

Over the years I’ve come to learn something about myself. I enjoy a good rush of adrenaline. It doesn’t need to be overwhelming, I don’t put myself in dangerous situations just to feel the blood pumping in my veins, but one thing that will always give me a jolt, without fail, is the pressure of working under a clock. I like to put things off, because I have convinced myself over the years, and trial and error, that I work better under the pressure of having to get something done in a short amount of time.  Which means that most of the time I tend to put things off. However, I have grown and learned that there are some things that you just can’t put off because they take time. So I try to live a balance of longterm planning and work, and the short term. My seven year old self wanted to be an escape artist because for me that was the height of an adrenaline rush that I could get on fairly regular basis and in a somewhat safe manner. I put myself on a clock and the pressure was to make my escape in a timely fashion.

I know that there are times that I would be happier and less stressed if I didn’t put something off, and yet its a habit I cannot seem to break completely. Sometimes being ahead of schedule feels good, and other times I just find it incredibly boring. There is no moral to this story (with the exception that a diaper is the worst possible way to be gagged ever), no lesson learned, mainly because I haven’t learned it yet, and I fear that I may learn it the hard way. Yet that fear of failure gives me just enough pressure to make sure that I continue to push myself to succeed.

It’s a vicious cycle.

Now I know you may be wondering where my parents were that they were seemingly okay with me being tied, ducted taped and gagged. This particular evening they happened to be out and our babysitter (Travis’ older brother). Was in my dad’s office 15 feet away from me, with the door shut working homework he was doing for a summer course at the community college.

See it does exist and they are still being made and there are more of them…just check out hasbro.com.