Procrastination

Procrastination is a nearly universal human trait. The tendency to procrastinate also undermines our self-confidence, convincing us that we are lazy or worthless. What is it in human nature that makes us delay doing certain things until the last minute--or forever?

Somewhere in your life, at home or on the job, you’ve been putting off doing something. The task itself might not be all that important, but it’s something you think you ought to do, and that persistent inner voice won’t quit until it’s done

Psychologists tell us that procrastination is a symptom of a hidden fear or conflict, a buffer that protects people from taking actions that may force them to confront painful feelings and unresolved issues.

For some people--a relative few--procrastination brings serious consequences. They lose jobs or relationships because of their apparent inability to complete projects on time or follow through on commitments or they realize too late that they have nothing saved for retirement.

How do we overcome our tendency to procrastinate? One way is that instead of setting vague, general goals, we pursue concrete behaviours that, pursued step by step, will lead to a goal. Another suggestion is if you have to start a project don’t wait until you think you have the time to do it all at once. Better to get started and use small bits of time--15 minutes here or there--to make continual progress toward your goal.

Some believe that the right dose of discipline and effort can help curb our procrastinating nature for a while, but this habit is powerful and we quickly fall back into bad habits. Savings plans get derailed, diets get cheated on, and, well, you never did go to the gym.

So what’s the solution? It’s called automation, and it goes beyond simply paying yourself first.

There is a lot of research that suggests that one of the best ways to get people to save for retirement is to automatically enroll them into the group savings plan instead of leaving it up to individuals to opt-in. Automatic savings plans are the most effective way to build up a nest egg. If you have to actively think about saving, odds are you won’t do it.

People were asked in a survey could you save $150 a month or would you save $5.00 a day. 7% of those surveyed said they could save $150 a month, yet 30% said they could save $5.00 a day. (Do the math…:-) Putting away even a small amount every month is a great first step, but perhaps there’s more you can do to ensure that you have a good retirement.

Back in the mid-1990s, behavioural economists devised a program called Save More Tomorrow that used nudges to help people make better long-term financial decisions. The program invites employees to gradually increase their savings rate over time.

Save More Tomorrow turns our natural tendency to procrastinate into a positive outcome. While most people would cringe at the idea of saving an extra $100 today, they’re more likely to agree to save that much in January, when their raise kicks-in. The Save More Tomorrow program asks the question and then automatically commits you to that increased amount in the new year. You don’t have to think about it again.

These desires haunt me.

As we go through life, we find that we desire different things out of life. We may desire love, money, fame, understanding, parental love, a job or a friend. When I was living my life, I came across a few people that I thought tried too hard. They desired friendship and became annoying in their attempts to please the person or people they wanted to befriend them.

They wanted advancement so they became annoying in their attempts to curry favour with the bosses so they would be noticed and promoted. They wanted to love but they became annoying in their attempts to win the person they wanted to love them.

Sometimes going full speed to get what you want works, but I have found that for all things and non-things that you may ever want that sometimes the fastest way to get them is to forget them.

I don’t mean putting your desire out of your mind, but I do mean that you should focus on just being the most amazing human being you can be. If you do that then I think you have a better chance of getting what you desire out of life. The reason is that we all like to be associated with winners, who are nice.

As humans, we love to be around people who are warm, friendly, pleasant, and have confidence in themselves. If you work at being your best at some point all of your heart's desires, spoken or unspoken, will be drawn to you more powerfully than a magnet is drawn to steel.

Holiday thoughts

As you read this we are just landing in Australia, to spend time with my daughter and her family and friends for Christmas. Family and friends are an important part of this time of year and we have not been to Australia to see our Australian family for a while. In fact, we have not been back for five years and this is only the second time we have been there at Christmas. I have decided that I will not post or spend time on the net, so I have posted ahead and thanks to the technology of Blogger I will not miss a day, but in real life, I will be spending my time visiting with family and enjoying having Christmas in the heat. I will not have to worry about driving around in the snow, or scrapping windows before I get to leave for whatever I plan to do for the day.

I am looking forward to exploring more of the high country of Australia, visiting  Mt. Buller,  Benella,  Lake Eildon,  Wangaratta, and  Mansfield  to name a few of the places we are going to visit or revisit. If we get the time, I hope to explore the  Great Alpine Road  from  Wangaratta  to  Metung  or further. My wife and daughter love a good glass of wine so we may spend time exploring the wine regions of the high country as well as the  Yarra vineyards. I love a good beer and so I am looking forward to visiting the local breweries in the area.

We also want to spend time exploring  Melbourne  itself and we will be visiting my daughters' in-laws who live on the  Mornington Peninsula. The last time we were there we did get a chance to spend a little time at  Arthurs Seat Eagle which we saw but did not have the time to take the ride to the top, this time we will take the time to soar to the top of this peak that gives spectacular views of the Peninsula and Melbourne. 

We have booked time in  Torquay  which is a seaside town at the east end of the  Great Ocean Road  coastal drive, southwest of  Melbourne, Australia. It’s known for surf beaches like  Bells Beach  and  Jan Juc Beach. The  Surf Coast Walk trail  starts at  Point Impossible Beach  and heads southwest via  Point Danger Marine Sanctuary  and is the gateway to towering  12 Apostles.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful and relaxing Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year. I also hope that 2020 gives you all of the joy and wishes you deserve.

Car rental woes

Over the past months, we have been planning our trip to Australia for Christmas, while we were planning, my daughter let me know that a friend of hers had a car that we could use. She said she would pick us up at the airport and we would have the use of the car for our time in Australia. I thought it was a generous offer and so we agreed.

The car belonged to one of their best friends father who had suffered a stroke and could no longer drive. The man suffered his stroke about three years ago and the car had been off the road since that time. So, when my daughter's friend went to get the car insured he ran into a roadblock. If a car has not been on the road and insured then by Australian law (Victoria State) the car must be inspected by a mechanic to see if it is roadworthy. The car went in for an inspection a few days ago, just about a week before we were to arrive. It failed.

I have found that renting a car for a trip is similar to buying a plane ticket, if you purchase far enough in advance you can get a good deal if you book at the last minute you pay more. In the past, I have used a number of good car rental companies in Australia. I have used Spendless Car Rental, Cut Price Car Rentals, and Rental Cars.com, Kayak, Enterprise and Alamo to name a few. These are well run, the staff are helpful and the prices are low if you book far enough in advance. We have never had any problem with any of these companies and I would recommend them highly.

This time I checked out the prices at each of the above and I also use Trip Advisor, Car Rental8, Lbcarental.com and Expedia to see if I could get a deal. I found one at Rental Cars.com that beat the others by about $50 and they quoted the price in Canadian dollars. I found some lower prices but they were priced in American dollars and after the exchange, they were about 20% higher.

I was happy with the process, and the price I was able to get with only six days before I travelled so I went on Trip Advisor to give Rental cars.com a good rating and I commented on the service I received. The rating and the comment were removed by Trip Advisor because they said it was a paid endorsement.  I also had a few people making the same comment within minutes of my posting. I don't do paid endorsements, I am at a stage in my life where I can call it as I see it, and if people don't like what I say, so be it. 

The removal of my post did surprise me although it should not have as Trip Advisor most likely has its own agreement with car rental places and does not want customers to be directed to other company's sites. Business is business, but just be careful what you read on Trip Advisor or any other site as full information may be blocked to benefit the site. By the way, Trip Advisor had the same car and from the same dealership as Rental Cars but Rental Cars beat their price by about $50.00. My advice is you have to book a car at the last minute shop around you may get a good deal.