Have any of you heard this term? It is a concept I learned in my Educational Psychology class 15 years ago. I tried looking the term up online (googling it) and found nothing. So I can't prove this is a real term but it is one that I've been using for 15 years and I swear I didn't make it up.
A "CONSCIENTIOUS LOSER" is the best description I've found for how I live my life.
Let me explain. I know the term "loser" seems harsh....but it is really just the opposite of being a winner. I'm talking about winning at the game of life. Being successful at what you need to achieve that day. Or what is your top priority at that time. You are "losing" when you are not doing what you NEED to do in a give hour, day, week, etc.
Now for the "conscientious" part -- conscientious means painstaking, meticulous or careful...governed by conscience.
When you put these two terms together in the Educational Psychology sense it means a person who is meticulously hard working and keeping busy....but doing the wrong things or at the wrong time. For an example: if the most important thing on my To Do list for a given day was Do the Laundry....I would find a million other semi-important things to do instead. I would call my Grandma, rearrange the junk drawer, make an excel spreadsheet for the PTO, and organize my bookmarks. All great things, and things that should be done at some point, but not the right priority for that day. I would never stop and read a novel when I should be doing laundry -- my conscience wouldn't allow that -- but I would find other obscure tasks to keep me busy but keep me from doing what really NEEDS to be done. I guess it is a specialized form of procrastination.
Anyone else guilty of this? Or is it just me. But I find and catch myself doing this ALL the TIME. It is crazy, I know better but I still find myself falling into this pattern all to often. And then I will start muttering to myself "Conscientious Loser, Conscientious Loser" and sometimes that is enough to get me back on track.....and other times I just ignore myself and keep sharpening all the dull pencils in my house... cause that's an important way to spend my time, right?
So that is my confession. I feel better...but I bet I should have been doing something else besides this right now, huh?
4 comments:
I too have this amazing gift of "specialized form of procrastination"! You aren't alone! :)
Wow, Heather, are you talking about me??? That is a perfect description, but I always just called it procrastination! Either it's inherited, or you saw me do it! I'm so sorry either way. Now we have to take Elder Russell's advice and "demand improvement". We can change, right? Scrooge did! I'm going to try to be a conscientious winner. Well, here I am writing instead of working on my lesson!!!!
I can totally relate to that. And I see it in Sienna too. Probably just another form of ADD or procrastination. Aaahhh!
Guilty as well.
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