“You look a bit silly now because you are taking steps to avoid something later. To the wise, later is now.”

A thought by Andy Stanley (2009-03-31) from his book, The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (p. 49). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

I live by the principle of time that you are either late or on time, that being early just means being on time so I usually am early. That way, I am always assured of being on time and not late.

I wish I could say the same thing about doing things that I’d rather not do. All my term papers in school were usually put off to the last minute. I always said that I worked best under pressure but as I’ve gotten older I don’t think that was true. I just think I was avoiding what I didn’t want to do and waiting till the last minute meant I couldn’t avoid it any longer so I did it. But it would have been the wise thing to have started it earlier without all the stress, all the pressure.

It’s like the person who files an extension for his income tax and finds it doesn’t get any better later so why not do it now. Or the guy who keeps putting off asking her to marry him? He loves her and he wants her to be his wife but he is afraid of it all so he puts it off. He tells everyone that he just isn’t sure but he just is afraid of the risk. You are sure so go ahead and ask her now.

We avoid the hard stuff and we miss so much in life. We will never get that time back so doing it now is the best, is the wise use of our time.

So what is it you are avoiding doing?

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