Are Your Gears Grinding?

I often use a metaphor called “wear spots”—those nagging thoughts or situations we have in our lives that cause stress, anxiety or worry. They usually start with words like “I know I should…” or “I’ve been trying, but…” They cut across all areas of our lives: family, work, money and health.

Wear spots aren’t hair-on-fire issues that demand our immediate attention. Instead, they simmer in the background, slowly nagging at us that we aren’t getting something done or we aren’t resolving an issue with another person. Slowly, they sap our enthusiasm, degrade our confidence and cause us to beat ourselves up because the issue is still lingering.

Just like a on a car or a truck, wear spots take their toll over time. The more the cause of the wear spot goes unresolved, the more damage it does over time. After a while, it can feel like metal-on-metal, gears grinding, as we lurch forward instead of running smoothly and efficiently.

Here’s the problem with wear spots. The longer you ignore them, the more difficult they become to fix. Suddenly, that tough conversation or that nagging ache in your knee is a lot tougher to address and resolve if it’s been festering for a long time.

Procrastination—one of the basic traits of being human—is not your friend here. I know first-hand. I put off going to the dentist for a long time. Every time I passed a dental office or saw a billboard advertising dental services, I’d cringe and say, “I need to go.” When I finally did, I paid the price, literally and figuratively. It took two visits and a whole lot of painful scraping to get my smile back again. Had I gone twice a year, I could have avoided all of that—and stopped the mental nagging that came from putting it off.

The first step in resolving wear spots is figuring out where you have them and how bad they are. Is there a health issue you’re ignoring? Is there a problem with a colleague that you need to resolve?

Then, ask yourself what toll the procrastination taking on you, both mentally and physically. How much better would you feel if you were able to resolve it? Is that enough motivation for you to say, “It’s time to get into action.”

Finally, figure out a way to avoid wear spots from ever appearing. Train yourself to notice that first urge to push an issue to the back burner. Remind yourself of the cost of sidestepping what you need to do. Give it some priority within the next few days of your busy schedule. That’s the grease that prevents wear spots from ever forming and gives you one less thing to worry about. And we can all use that!