Manage Your Later

Later. It’s the word that sends fissures through the bedrock of your goals. It infests, it sits, it permeates, it starts to look normal. Later can put on a face. It can argue for itself through unbelievable rationale and wit. We seem to have more arguments for doing something later than we do for even doing that something in the first place. We live with the promises that later will smack us in the face around the next corner - but all too often, it sits just beyond the curved horizon, always out of reach. If you don’t have a reason for why you are waiting, later will never change its skin into now. Be in control of your later. Later is fine if you have a reason for it, a good thought out written down reason as to why you have to wait until later to do x, y or z. It might be money saved, a credit earned or an accreditation garnered. But later will not present itself with bells and whistles if you haven’t prepared it to jump out at you wearing such. Instead, later will be buried at the bottom of an unmarked box, collecting dust in a corner of your rarely frequented basement. Keep later honest. Test it. Ask it why it can’t be now. Don’t assume you know what it’s going to say. Ask it. Ask others to ask you to ask it. Be relentless. Your life is your life. If you’re not careful, sooner always becomes later.