Shooting Flaw

When I work, I hustle.  Especially repetitive tasks.  Hurry hurry hurry.  It has always pleased supervisors over me on various jobs.  Mopping floors?  Fast.  Restocking shelves?  Fast, fast.  When I was a kid I'd mow the lawn at a run, almost.  "Why do you work so hard and fast, T-Bolt?"  "It is because I am very slothful, gentle reader."

Sloth?  Huh?

Yes.  I want to be done with the work.  The tedium.  I can't get out of the task.  I have a sense of responsibility.  Even when not driven to a job that sense of responsibility eventually overcomes my procrastination.  And once I set to my goal is power through it until it is done and... I can do nothing again.  Sit under a tree and read a book.  Slothful.  I want all my time to be my own, but the time I owe to someone else, I want to minimize that.  So, hustle hustle hustle.

I remember hearing a story about Abraham Lincoln as a young child.  He was sitting around reading a book and not working or helping.  Eventually exasperated co-workers roused him from laziness to try to get him to help move an impossibly large and heavy chicken coop from A to B.  The impression was that even with the extra hands of Lincoln the job may be beyond them.  Abe set his book down, picked up the chicken coop by himself, moved it, then went back to the book, quick as you please.  I thought... That's me.  That's how I do things.  If it truly was impossible I'd quit immediately. 

This rush to finish permeates everything I do, though, and always has.  It adversely impacts my attention to detail.  I don't proofread these posts as well as I should is an obvious trait.  When I sign my name the last part of it is sloppy.  That second crossed T in Thunderbolt could be more accurate on my checks for example. 

It's Sloth.

"Ok, T-Bolt, so you have a form of laziness that makes you appear to work hard and accomplish some things in record time.  What's that have to do with shooting."

I have a shooting flaw when presented with many targets that aren't TOO hard to hit, and I have pressure to go fast because of the clock, I miss more. 

"Well, that's true of most folks, T-Bolt."

Yes, but I am recognizing the WHY of missing.  When I am shooting at a target, I am moving on to the next target before I put down the popper in front me over the sights.  So I miss target 1.  That miss flusters me so it might even trigger a miss on target 2.  Now the string of the next 12 is all thrown off.  I am hustling TOO much. 

"How do you fix that?"

Well, Zen out and concentrate on just the one target in front of you.  But that doesn't obviate the need to get all the targets as fast as possible, so Zen out quickly.  It's hard.  One way is to say aloud "This one" bang.  "This one" bang.  To try to narrow the focus.  But breaking myself of the rushing habit will be as hard or harder than developing a fast but smooth trigger press.