Hello My Friend,
Life lessons are everywhere and in everything. They’re in joyful experiences as well as – and perhaps even more so, in painful ones. They’re in mistakes and triumphs; in games and in gardens. Is it a stretch to say that life lessons are to us what water is to fish? That sounds about right to me, actually.
( As I reread this post I thought, well that sounds like an exaggeration! I mean, fish NEED water – they simply cannot survive without it, whereas people can physically survive without learning lessons. But then I thought about lessons to do with life and death – those we get from young, about traffic, streets, helmets, matches, fire, drugs, etc. – then the analogy made perfect sense!)
With some life lessons, if we don’t get it, we die; with others we may live but certainly not at our potential. I eagerly look for lessons in everything these days!
I remember distinctly when the lesson called “Do it NOW” or “Do NOT Procrastinate” was delivered to me several years back, like water in the face for about the 100th time in my life. I remember this lesson vividly. [“Getting” a life lesson once is no guarantee you won’t (need to) get again in the future! And apparently until we get it, the lesson will keep popping up.]
Today when I was tempted to put some things off, I remembered and got busy ‘”doing” instead of “feeling.” I thought you would be blessed by this reminder.
This is what I wrote about this critical life-lesson a few several years ago:
This morning I looked at a bench in my front yard that needs repair.
A few summers ago it had a tiny, very tiny hole in the seat covering. I remember looking at it and thinking I “should” get some patching stuff and fix that up. Well, I didn’t.
This morning it grabbed my attention because it looked so horrible. It’s almost completely torn apart, with the ugly, dirty sponge material sticking out from its once safe and dry place. No longer safe and dry, this seat covering is now garbage.
What would have cost us a few pennies to repair is now a purchase in the hundreds!
As I walked past it, a familiar life lesson jumped up and out!
Do it TODAY!
Whatever is being put off, the pile of filing, the health issue, the slightly damaged relationship, the under-performing employee, forgiving someone, the signs of a bad habit in your child, etc, etc…WHATEVER matters to you, attend to it today! It WILL get worse if the work isn’t done to repair, make amends, guide behavior, give feedback, etc. If it’s important to you today, it’ll be important to you later, only then it will be in worse shape requiring even more attention.
Things and relationships do not fix themselves!
Yes, time heals and time sometimes has a positive impact on an issue – if there’s anger and a need to cool off for instance; it surely will be better to put off handling a matter. Why create a situation where forgiveness will be required? Just wait for cooler heads to prevail.
But that is NOT what I’m talking about here. Damaged items, bad behaviors and ongoing strained relationships cannot get better without our intervention. And sometimes, like in the case of my poor bench seat, the time, energy and money needed to remedy a situation is minuscule compared to what you end up having to put out. And even more sadly, sometimes – as I’m sure you have heard a story about this happening – people get ill, leave or die before handling their business; or before we handle our business with them.
Since this moment – this one RIGHT HERE – is all we are sure to have, we should take action and make sure to do those things that are important and require attention.
So take these words and retire them – at least until you have a powerful habit of doing what needs to be done today, TODAY.
No more:
next weektomorrowanother dayin the futuresomedaylaternext year – week or, month!
Retire them all… let TODAY and NOW be your only options – for those things you intended to do, need to do and you ARE ABLE to still get them done today, but for the sneaky habit of procrastination.
So do what needs to be done today. Tomorrow you will be thrilled with yourself!Actually, today will be pretty nice too! 🙂
[OK, I was going to avoid the temptation to say this as it’s so often said and who wants to be predictable… but maybe it needs to be heard by someone; Is tomorrow promised to you? Sure not to me.]
Wishing you an abundance of peace, productivity and joy,
(Seriously – such intense JOY from getting something done today that you wanted to put off for tomorrow!) 🙂
Julette Millien
∞♥∞
Top photo credit: L-T-L via photopin cc
