Hasta La Gadget!

How to beat the “Tomorrow Syndrome” that almost everyone faces.

People procrastinate for many reasons, but the result is always the same: they rush to get the task done at the last minute or miss the deadline. Even though it feels frustrating to procrastinate, people still continue this bad habit. Why?

According to Caroline Webb in the Harvard Business Review, our brains are programmed to put off tasks. Webb shows research from UCLA proving that the allure of near-term gain almost always outweighs the attraction of future reward. Given the choice between concrete and more abstract ideas, our brain naturally sides with more material notions.

But just because our brains are seemingly working against us doesn’t mean we can’t overcome procrastination. Instead, it should inspire us to work at the task even more because it isn’t a personal flaw but a part of our natural make-up that can be re-trained.

Without further ado, here is the research backed-guide to get started:

Find an Accountability Partner

When we share our goals with someone else, it creates social pressure, but unlike the peer pressure we faced in high school, this type can lead to success.

Sharing your goals with a partner can create a system where you have a cheerleader and walking living reminder to stop procrastinating. In fact, according to Webb’s research, experts have found that we instinctively want to be respected by peers, and are more likely to reach our goals this way.

So when you have a task at work to complete, tell someone when you will finish it. If you tell a client or employee exactly when you’ll get something done, your brain will feel more obligated to actually do it. Even better, if you’re trying to accomplish a big-ticket item, harness the power of mentorship to boost your accountability and success.

Make the Cost of Action Feel Smaller

Identify the first step. Sometimes we’re just daunted by the task we’re avoiding. We might have “learn French” on our to-do list, but who can slot that into the average afternoon? Caronline Webb says the trick here is to break down big, amorphous tasks into baby-steps that don’t feel as painful. Even better: identify the very smallest first step, something that’s so easy that even your present-biased brain can see that the benefits outweigh the costs of effort.

So instead of “learn French” you might decide to “email Nicole to ask advice on learning French.” Achieve that small goal, and you’ll feel more motivated to take the next small step than if you’d continued to beat yourself up about your lack of language skills.

Tie the First Step to a Treat

We can make the cost of effort feel even smaller if we link that small step to something we’re actually looking forward to doing. In other words, tie the task that we’re avoiding to something that we’re not avoiding. For example, you might allow yourself to read lowbrow magazines or books when you’re at the gym, because the guilty pleasure helps dilute your brain’s perception of the short-term “cost” of exercising. Likewise, you might muster the self-discipline to complete a slippery task if you promise yourself you’ll do it in a nice café with a favorite drink in hand.

Remove the Hidden Blockage

Sometimes we find ourselves returning to a task repeatedly, still unwilling to take the first step. We hear a little voice in our head saying, “Yeah, good idea, but . . . no.” At this point, we need to ask that voice some questions, to figure out what’s really making it unappealing to take action. This doesn’t necessarily require psychotherapy. Patiently ask yourself a few “why” questions – ”why does it feel tough to do this?” and “why’s that?” – and the blockage can surface quite quickly. Often, the issue is that a perfectly noble competing commitment is undermining your motivation.

For example, suppose you were finding it hard to stick to an early morning goal-setting routine. A few “whys” might highlight that the challenge stems from your equally strong desire to eat breakfast with your family. Once you’ve made that conflict more explicit, it’s far more likely you’ll find a way to overcome it – perhaps by setting your daily goals the night before, or on your commute into work.

Trust Yourself to Start Now

Once you’ve figured out what’s keeping you from taking action on a specific task or project, it’s time to get over your fear. Webb’s research shows that we’re more likely to perform a cost benefit analysis on something new, but are far less likely to weigh the potential disadvantages of maintaining the status quo. This omission bias can keep us from doing things better just because it means doing something differently.

Get over this fear by using the 70% rule from the Marine Corps. As long as you have 70% of the information to make a decision, 70% of the resources to complete the project, and you’re 70% sure you’ll succeed, then you’re ready to go. The heart behind the 70% rule is that it’s impossible to be fully prepared for anything. Trust your gut and get started.

Focus on the Results of Procrastination

Mark Twain once said, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” Don’t listen to him!

Instead, focus on what will happen if you put off a task or project until the last minute. You might have an emergency come up causing you to miss the deadline. The result is you miss out on a good deal or you hurt your business image. Your client may feel you provided poor customer service, which could also affect your reputation and ability to obtain future work.

As you think more about the negative effects of putting off a task, you’ll be more motivated to avoid those effects and get the job done. According to Webb, Psychologists call this a prevention focus, because most people seek to avoid negative consequences even more than receiving positive results. This mindset will keep you pushing on even when you want to quit or put the job off to another day.

Accept that procrastination is a natural part of who you are, but just like anything else, you also that you have the power to retrain your brain and overcome it with these practical steps. L.M. Heroux said, “Stop talking. Start walking.” I’d like to alter that advice just a bit and say to you, “Stop reading. Start succeeding!”

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Most people wouldn’t dream of asking the person who attempted to rob them to dinner. But Julio Diaz isn’t most people. 

Diaz’s unusual response to a young man who held him up at knifepoint became the subject of a 2008 StoryCorps broadcast on NPR and has since been retold in an animated video made by the organization in conjunction with Upworthy as part of their #WhoWeAre series.

In the video, which was shared on the StoryCorps Facebook page Aug. 20, Diaz recounts how he offered the teen his coat, treated him to dinner and ultimately gave him $20.

“I figured, maybe it’ll help him, I don’t know,” he said in the animated video. 

Diaz also gave the young man something that is arguably far more valuable than money, an example of what happens when you do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

“I figure, you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world,” he explained.

Watch the animated version above to find out what else transpired during their truly unique encounter.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

This is where we have been headed for almost eight years and you have the GOP to thank for all of this.

From day one of the Obama administration, Mitch McConnell and his “patriotic” country of old white men (with the exception of John Boehner) gathered together like a meeting of the Dons and made it their one single purpose to block anything that our new president was going to try to do by any means necessary.

Do you not remember during a speech to Congress when Joe Wilson of South Carolina yelled out “you lie?” Has any other president in U.S. history ever been treated like that? Racist? You tell me.

That was the GOP made visible. Using your middle finger you can trace from that point until it is pointing directly at Trump.

For almost 8 years the GOPhuck yourself congress has deliberately and systematically fought to prevent any major social changes and yet Obamacare and same sex marriage is one outstanding legacy wouldn’t you say?

To me the executives who overcharge for Epi-Pens and any single GOP senator who mangled Obamacare are made out of the same cheap swath of cheese cloth.

And how many children alone have been slaughtered like pigs by automatic gunfire during the last 7 plus years? And what did your GOPhuck yourself congress do?

Absolutely nothing.

The GOP has given America, potential terrorists and the insane a license to kill. And what is the effect?

Do you not remember when Sarah Palin published an ad that featured pictures of U.S. senators with targets superimposed over their faces? It was called “The Hit List” and under the pictures it said, “Don’t retreat. Re-load.”

Included in that shooting gallery was Gabby Giffords.

During the GOPhuck yourself debates Carly Fiorina inflamed her base by citing a fake film on Planned Parenthood that purportedly showed executives selling “baby parts.”

And in a matter of days a lunatic shot up a Colorado Planned Parenthood using her language.

At this point, especially after reading Trump Revealed by Washington Post investigative reporters, I have had enough.

If that blithering idiot appears on the screen, I now mute the TV.

A year or so ago Trump seemed like a charming buffoon that no one took seriously. But now he has lead his Confederacy of Donces to the well of do anything, say anything you want and America is now on fire.

We all know he’s using the Hitler playbook. Spread the big lie, blame one single minority (or two) for all of your problems and eliminate them at any cost.

Make GermanyAmerica great again.

This from a man who years ago was sued by the city of New York in the single biggest racial bias case in history for refusing to rent apartments to African Americans. (He was scared to rent to blacks in fear of being shot. This from an NRA supporter).

And this is who just yesterday called Hillary Clinton a “bigot.”

Which brings me to Leslie Jones, who I happen to adore.

First she was online attacked for her role in “Ghostbusters” and now her personal pictures and even her driver’s license has been hacked. And why is this happening?

Because it is now officially open season for all the unfair and unbalanced disgruntled moron hunters of America who have been given permission by their idiot king candidate to do whatever they want, say whatever they want, without any fear of any kind of reprisal.

A soccer player calls her opponents cowards and she is publicly rebuked and treated like a pariah. But if someone in Trump World, say, Scott Baio, throws up a picture of Hillary Clinton with the word “COUNTRY” partially blocked behind her so it looks like it says, “C*NT) that’s fair game.

If someone is told that the Second Amendment gives them a right to shoot Hillary if they don’t like her picks for the Supreme Court, hey that’s cool.

And if someone humiliates Leslie Jones, they should just play nice and make sure that they’re home for dinner.

Well I think It’s time for all of us who are empathetic, civil, decent, educated and have all our teeth, to take back the America that we cherish.

It is time to shut the goddamn news outlets OFF because the truth is they are part of the problem as well. Every few seconds the next FRANTIC BREAKING NEWS story appears that is not news at all.

Les Moonves said that Trump is bad for the country but he is terrific for CBS.

And there it is. Right there.

We’ve willingly turned hate and racism into the next big hit, money making Honey Boo Boo quality reality show.

And who is behind it all?

The thug pretender who wants to The Appresident. The Commander and Mischief.

You can stop this. Right now.

Looking away and pretending it’s not there, while peeking through the drapes, doesn’t stop Kitty Genovese from getting butchered.

Get angry god damn it.

Re-dignify America. Now.

And leave Leslie Jones the hell alone.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Part-time or bi-vocational ministry is becoming commonplace, and frequently it is the go-to solution used by church leaders to address the needs of an increasing number of congregations.
This pattern is only going to intensify as mainline Protestant denominations shrink.

For example: 80% of all Episcopal churches are either family size congregations with an average Sunday attendance of 20 to 50 or pastoral size parishes with an average Sunday attendance of 75-140. The Very Reverend Kevin Martin, an authority on such matters, notes that both kinds of churches are in serious decline.

Denominational leaders need to ask themselves one set of questions, and clergy need to consider a second set. The answers they provide will be telling, for the churches, clergy and denominational leaders.

For denominational leaders, the questions are these:

1. Is part-time ministry dictated by the demographics of the area (which are largely out of the leader’s control), or are they the product of choices that have been made by the congregation, its leadership, or the denomination?

2. If the latter is at issue and a church is moving to part-time pastoral care, why are leaders opting for part-time care? Was the church planted in a poorly chosen location? Is it in a location that no longer serves the needs of the community? Is the congregation lacking in vision or connection with the community? Has the church failed to offer the community a persuasive reason for attending church (i.e., does it preach the Gospel)? Is the church welcoming? Is the church mission-minded and open to change?

3. Is the assignment of part-time clergy a quick-fix or part of some larger vision for the future of the congregation? When churches are moved to part-time ministry, precedents are set for the congregation and for the denomination.

For clergy who are asked to take part-time responsibility for a congregation, these are the questions that they need to ask:

1. Where is the parish going, and what is the trajectory of the ministry that you are being invited to consider? What is the church’s vision for its ministry? Are there reasons for the church to continue that rise above habit, practice, and sentimental attachment?

2. If there is no coherent answer to those questions, ask yourself and the leadership of the parish: Does the parish want part-time leadership with a coherent set of appropriate goals, or is the church simply trying to pay their pastor part-time pay for full-time work?

3. If there is no clear answer to the first and second set of questions, then clergy need to face the fact that the parish may not have a future. If that is the case, then ministry there may be hospice care for a dying congregation, and clergy need to ask themselves whether they have the gifts and graces for that kind of ministry.

Far too often, clergy say yes to caring for dying congregations because they don’t know how to say no, but just because they are asked doesn’t mean that ministry of this kind is their calling. More to the point, far too many clergy also struggle to help churches to survive that should have never been created in the first place.

Some years ago, sociologist, Robin Gill wrote a book on The Myth of the Empty Church in the United Kingdom, which is now in a second and significantly expanded edition. Gill points out that the thesis that church attendance is falling thanks to secularization misrepresents the truth about the life of the church in the UK. Many of the churches in the UK were never full and should not have been planted in the first place. Denominational leaders and clergy should take note of the same truth in North America where, Gill notes, the problem is even more common.

Part-time ministry might make sense in some places. But its popularity across Protestantism is also obscuring a more fundamental problem and clergy are bearing the brunt of our failure to ask the right questions.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The conduct of American foreign policy is more critical today than at any time since the late 1980s. The next President of the United States must have extensive foreign policy experience with command of the issues and the process. In this regard, comparing Hillary Clinton’s knowledge and experience to that of Donald Trump is analogous to comparing the U.S. Special Forces to a Boy Scout troop. One wonders whether he knows the difference between the Baltics and the Balkans.

Whereas Mr. Trump, whose foreign policy experience appears to be limited to opening golf courses and emceeing beauty contests, Hillary Clinton’s mastery of foreign policy predates her tenure as Secretary of State. By the mid-1990s she was already a seasoned diplomat and an outstanding spokesperson for the United States. I know this from personal experience as US Ambassador to Hungary in the mid-1990s.

In July 1996 I had the privilege of welcoming then First Lady Clinton to Budapest for a three day visit. Before arriving in Budapest, Mrs. Clinton advised my embassy that she wanted to meet with a variety of Hungarians: she was particularly interested in problems faced by women, children, and minorities in a country recently emerged from Soviet domination. The day she was due to arrive in Budapest, Mrs. Clinton had already spent the morning in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, followed by a trip to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

This meant that she had to master the issues she discussed in two other countries before arriving in Hungary. After laying a wreath at the monument honoring Imry Nagy, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People’s Republic of Hungary during the 1956 uprising, I took her to the Parliament Building to meet Hungary’s Prime Minister Gyula Horn and Foreign Minister László Kovács. Showing no signs of wear and tear, Hillary was impressive. She spent over an hour discussing Hungary’s foreign policy and domestic concerns – possible admission to NATO, membership in the EU, the state of Hungary’s economy, its treatment of minorities, particularly Roma, Jewish restitution, and the role of women in Hungary’s civic and political life.

I never experienced a more satisfying meeting between a prominent American and Hungarian leadership in my two previous years as Ambassador. On the way out of the meeting, I turned to Hillary and said, “If you ever get tired of being First Lady, you might consider becoming Secretary of State.”

Hillary has already accomplished this and is now ready to assume the Presidency.

Ambassador Donald Blinken
U.S. Ambassador to Hungary
1994-1998

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.