Pre-holiday I am motivated by the urgency of the looming deadline – in spite of our pleas, the powers that be have refused to move Christmas to a more convenient time. The house got decorated, the gifts done, the dinners made, the company had.

But now it is all over. Even my annual January brunch is over so I have no more excuses to begin the task of taking it all down. But I procrastinate. There is not motivation to undertake this task. The decorating has its own built in motivation – the end result of beautifully festive surroundings. That keeps me going because I can envision how nice it is going to look. But taking it down? There is no joy in that at all. The home that you were satisfied with and looked just fine before the holiday decor, is going to look forlorn, boring, cold without them. Since most of us cannot just go out and buy new furniture there is no remedy. I wonder if this is why more people are doing decorating for Valentine’s Day – to ease that transition.

I cannot seem to summon the energy to start schlepping it all down to the basement or up to the attic. For me, there is only one motivational tool left – humiliation.

I had an excuse to have it up until now because I had a rescheduled holiday party yesterday. But now the excuses are over. We have all seen the houses that have their holiday decor left up well into March. Even more pitiable are the folks who forget to turn off the timer and still have the lights go on every nite or have those air filled lawn figures come to life again. They are just screaming their procrastination to the world. I do not want to be one of them.

It is well documented that the human psyche will do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. Ultimately that will be my motivation – avoiding humiliation of having friends stop by in March and be welcomed with December.

Your Turn: So what task will you be using the motivational tool of humiliation for? Let us know and we will help you by casting scornful side eyes at you to get you started.