Play Now, Pay Later

By HR-Worldview Regular Columnist: George Krafcisin

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We went to our granddaughter’s third birthday party on Sunday. We gave her some cute new outfits, a book about cars and trucks, and a bill for $40 trillion.

Huh? Yes. By now you’ve heard that she and her older sister will be paying their share of a national debt that will grow from today’s $10 trillion to $40 trillion or more over the next few decades if we don’t do something about it today. I’m willing to bet that Congress (responding to YOU) will do nothing about it.  The decisions are too painful to address, so they’ll be ignored. And my granddaughter will end up sending most of her paycheck to Washington to service federal debt.

Why do we put off thinking about difficult issues? In your life, have you put off setting up a budget?  Talking to your spouse about something they do that bugs you? Planning for taking care of your elderly parent when they can’t drive any more? Cleaning out the garage? Starting a diet? Going to the gym?

I think we put things off because we all have a built-in procrastination filter. When confronted by an unpleasant future problem, we subconsciously shut it out. “Maybe something will change, or the problem will go away, or I’ll die before I have to face it.” There’s pain in facing the problem, no immediate pain to ignore it.  Instead, we watch football, eat pizza,  or go shopping. The pain comes later.

It isn’t just bad things we push off – we put off thinking about how good the future might be, if we start now.  Many of my coaching clients have no definite thoughts about what they want to be doing five or ten years from now. They come to me with an immediate problem – their company’s sales are slow, or they hate their job, or they can’t keep up with their workload. But when they stop and think about what the future could be, rather than how miserable the present is, they discover possibilities and a path to a more satisfying future. They learn that today’s to-do list is the first step towards that really satisfying career five years from now.

So the first thing to do about avoiding difficult problems is to give some thought to what you should be doing, but keep ignoring.  Talk it over with a good friend, your spouse, a trusted co-worker, or your coach.  But DO something about it.

About Our Columnist:

George Krafcisin is the President, coach and trainer of Mosaic Management, Inc. He writes regular installments on the topics of leadership and management here on HR-Worldview. 

His last article "Breaking the Rules" can be found here.