“Procrastination” is not a common word in English but we practise it almost every day.  There is a nice quote in Hindi which says “What we need to do tomorrow, do it today, what we plan to do today, do it now..”.  It is true that we tend to postpone issues on the slightest pretext. We do not need excuses as we invent them for anything and everything in life.

Our day begins and ends with excuses to procrastinate things.  We postpone the morning walk because it is raining.  We do not clean our room because we are late to work.  We skip breakfast because we postponed buying provisions for the kitchen.  As we leave for office, we reschedule the first meeting of the day since we are caught up in traffic and cannot reach on time. So, the day goes on by postponing one thing or the other and hoping that everything will get done tomorrow.

This habit of delaying or postponing things is not unique to a country.   Of course, it could be more prevalent in some countries than others.  But, I believe it is a human trait.  I am not sure if we are born with this trait or we inherit it.  I believe we develop it and let it blossom out of our own laziness. We always have reasons to justify it and if we don’t find one, we can always make someone else responsible for it.

I have been no different in life.  I always had reasons for postponing things. I was intuitive and innovate in inventing excuses.  One day I reminded myself that postponing exercises is not going to harm anyone else.  It will only impact my own health since I am a diabetic.  I used to skip my walk whenever I came late from work.

One day I realised that “Tomorrow never comes.. “.  If we think that we can make up in life by postponing things we are under an illusion.  Life goes on like a train without a destination.  It could give us opportunities to learn like the train stopping at various stations on the way.  But, it is up to us to reflect and learn from our mistakes.  Imagine a smoker thinking that he can give up smoking from tomorrow.  Most smokers believe that smoking is injurious to their health.  They resolve umpteen number of times to give it up.  Every time, they wait for that auspicious day or hour to start, which never arrives.

Life is no different.  It does give us reminders and opportunities to learn. But, if we decide to procrastinate and think that a better tomorrow will arrive for us to change, it may never come.  It is up to us to start today.  It is better to start now rather than wait till the end of the day.  It does not matter if it is a simple or a complex decision in life, the best time is now or never.

Like in the photo above, it is not good enough to buy a nice cycle and park it in front of your home.  The time to start cycling is now if you think cycling is the best exercise to keep you fit.

Why wait till tomorrow ?  Let us start now.

S Ramesh Shankar