Sunday morning, after a summer of playing at the beach, wake boarding, and doing all the fun things that can only be done in the summer, I woke up in a mini-panic.  It was almost Labor (and everyone knows that is when the summer weather comes to a screeching halt) and I hadn't done the maintenance work on my house that needs to be done before the snow flies.

Specifically, I was freaking out about sealing my deck.  If it didn't get done soon, the fall rain would start and the deck wouldn't be dry enough to seal until next summer -- and it needed to be done last June!!  I had the sealant.  I had the brushes.  I have had everything I needed to make it happen....but just put it off because playing is more fun.  But Sunday was the day. (Do you all remember that Sunday it was forecasted to be 90 degrees? This has all the makings of a solid plan, right???)

I decided to start with the spindles and do the whole outside of the deck first and then move to the inside, saving the decking for last (because as I recall, that was the easiest part and I would be tired...or maybe just sick of doing what I was doing... by the time I got to that).

The spindles were easy and the work enjoyable (for the first side and a half) -- I felt like I was accomplishing something, it wasn't hot out yet, the deck was looking great.

Then friends called to see what I was doing and if I wanted to go out to lunch (which I couldn't because I was working!) and the deck work seemed to lose much of its charm. 

By the time I got to the decking, I was really tired and sick of working on this project.  I was disappointed that it was taking much more time than I thought it would.  And to top it all off....the deck sealant was looking streaky on the decking.  And when I thought I was almost done, I realized I hadn't done the stairs yet.

So why am I telling you this story?  Do you recognize yourself in any of these sentences?

Humans underestimate the time it is going to take to complete projects -- especially the ones we don't really want to do in the first place.  With something like my deck, I could have done part of it and saved the other part for another day or I could have waited until the weather was cooler and perhaps that would have made it more enjoyable (even though I normally don't mind doing that kind of work). 

The other wonderful thing about many of us is that we also underestimate how unpleasant a job is going to be -- the old "It'll be fine" mentality.  And as much as I really do like that optimism, certain tasks are unpleasant and the rose-colored glasses prevent us from seeing potential situations that might trip us up so that we can plan for them.  (like putting a water bottle outside so when I was had messy hands from the sealant, I could still get a drink because it was 90 out).

I don't have a genius solution these seeming problem -- especially when it comes to people who have a lot of weight to lose -- many of us fall in to these same patterns of playing until we can't stand it anymore, freaking out about our current situation and lack of time to deal with it, and then getting to work to lose the weight but getting frustrated because it is much harder and takes longer than we planned on having to deal with it.

The best suggestion I have is to be aware that this is a pretty solid trend in many people.  It's not good or bad, it just is.  If you start to understand that, then it won't be such a slap in the face when you realize you're not having that much fun anymore just trying to get the weight off.  And most important -- you can keep working (even though you are uncomfortable) because once you get done your "deck" will look great and you won't have to worry about tackling that project any more.