A Year From Now You Will Wish You Started Today

I’ve learned a lot from my Dad. He always manages to distill the heart of any situation into a succinct one-liner that penetrates into your psyche and won’t let go. And of course, his one-liner isn’t just a commentary on the situation you’re in; it is in fact the answer you should have known and now have no choice but to implement.

Imagine yourself on any given morning. The alarm goes off. What do you do? If you’re like me, you snooze. (More times than I’d care to admit here). And then what do you do? At the very last moment, you wake up in a flurry, rush to get ready, and speed to work (probably forgetting something, spilling coffee, or starving on the way). Or let’s say you have a deadline. You know the deadline, day by day you watch as you get perilously closer to the deadline’s edge, and yet, you wait until the last moment to start. These are both classic hallmarks of procrastination. To that, my Dad has this to say:

“Stop bargaining with yourself.”

When you procrastinate, you drive down the sales price of your own time. No one else benefits, and neither do you. So next time you’re about to hit snooze or wait to start a project, remember that the only person you are undercutting is yourself.

Stop bargaining with yourself and start realizing the true value of your time.*

*Hint: It’s priceless.