The Tomorrow Trap: Unlocking the Secrets of the Procrastination-Protection Syndrome by Karen E. Peterson allegedly is about procrastination and how to beat it. It has a way of dealing with procrastination that I haven't read before, and I've read a good many self-help books. The theory behind this book is that we all have deep-ingrained shame from our childhoods that is causing us to procrastinate. Whether that shame cuases fear of failure, fear of success, belief we aren't good enough for anything good, perfectionism, or any other of a host of reasons, the true cause of procrastination is shame, and once you realize what is causing your shame, you can stop procrastinating.
This book is really about unearthing the shame from your childhood, and no matter how good a childhood you had, this book assures you that you've got shame. What you do once you unearth this shame is not in the scope of the book, although they do advocate going to therapy. You are apparently supposed to unearth your shame and then get some real help from somewhere outside the book.
This book covers a lot of interesting ground in a different way, and for that reason it was an interesting read. If you like self help books, psychology, or philosophy, this would be an interesting book for you. I want to point out a couple of things right away so that if they're going to turn you off, you can prepare yourself ahead of time.
First, the author believes that even infants feel shame, that we're practically born with it. I don't buy it. I can believe a lot of things about infants, but not shame.
Second, the author believes that at that point (1995), we were entering into a golden age of parenting when parents finally know how important it is to foster their kids' self esteem and how to do that all because of self help books like this one. Uh huh. I've seen what parents get when they work harder on the kids' self esteem than on teaching the kid how to be a member of society. It's not a pretty sight.
Other than those two points, this book was pretty neat, but I'm not going to bother with the exercises. If you're interested in them, 1) write with your non dominant hand when you're thinking about your childhood, and 2) go into therapy and ask them about photo history and art therapy. Voila, you're done.
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I'm just not buying the infants feel shame theory! Thus, I'm having trouble with the whole book. Oh well.
For a practical, readable self-help book, give Woman's Field Guide to Exceptional Living a look. The author provides readers with a powerful invitation to take responsibility for creating our own exceptional, meaningful lives. I think it's that aspect that really speaks to me.
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