Deep Thoughts: The Arrows of the Pleasurable Time Thief

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick. Time is going…yawns… Tick! Tick! Tick. Time is going…

Going where?

What really is time?

Do something Grace, you’ve got no time to laze around.

And who says?

There is so much to do… why aren’t you doing anything?

Those things can wait… yawns…Right now I just want to watch my anime…

“Mhuahahahaha” cackles the time thief. “I sure have caught another one’

My heart weighs heavily as I write this. For this week I sunk in the great deep abyss of laziness, pleasure, procrastination and more pleasure. I do have to say I am smiling from cheek to cheek as I write the word ‘pleasure’ (the lingering of the pleasurable moments just played in my head). Pleasurable moments of watching anime. The one addiction that takes away my time and prevents me from doing anything else. Suffice to say there are lessons to be gained from awesome, thrilling suspense filled Japanese animation stories which just excites the mind.

But you know, time is not on my side for dilly-dallying especially when I am meant to be achieving my goals and dreams. There is so much to do yet I find myself doing nothing. Do I hate myself right now? No. I am still giving myself a thousand excuses for my folly this week. Excuses that I am stating clearly here hoping to overcome them.

First excuse: There will be days of hard work ahead so enjoy this moment of pleasure. I almost fell for this excuse. Because really I sense days of hard work ahead, forgetting there will always always be days of hard work. So should I keep taking moments of pleasure to cover up for the days of hard work? At that, the work will never be done. Plus if I really want pleasure I should not forget I scheduled it for my Lazy days (currently my weekends). I should look ahead to my Lazydays and do the work now rather than doing the opposite. As this excuse did not hold much weight for long, I gave another.

Second Excuse: Aren’t we allowed a moment of weakness? Just a little moment! Yeah, a little moment, then more and more and more. I have used this one especially to snooze on and on and I definitely used it this week to watch episode upon episode. This excuse is sent from hell. When it comes to mind, kick it out immediately because it’s bound to sink its claws on you as it did on me and when combined with the next one. I became a goner (definitely not an Arsenal fan).

Third Excuse: There is not much work to be done. This excuse is so scary because it resonates with a little bit of truth. It is the easiest to believe. This was the one I fell for repeatedly. We don’t call things we do that help build us up, work. Work is generally thought of as an assigned task to be undertaken, for example, office work, school assignments, home assignments, etc. This is, of course, true but work is also any activity involving mental or physical effort done to achieve a result. If I had been thinking of work this way, I would have known that studying and engaging in activities for self-development was also work. Hence I would have placed priority on it and not fallen for the above excuse. When this excuse shoots its vile and poisonous arrows again, I would have a full armour to deflect them.

Oh, wretched man that I am. Over and over again I bowed to the above arrows of the time thief. But still, there is redemption.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick… Time to start again…yawns

Yep!  Definitely, time to start again.

Jaa mata!