BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE

The morning I sat down to write this Thought for a Sabbath was only a couple of weeks before I would complete my 80th Year of mortality and I was also making the transition from the Book of Mosiah to the Book of Alma in The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ . I had just written the following which I planned to include as a face book entry on the day of the celebration of my birth and the completion of my 80th decade of mortality.

Blink!

And the carefree decade of your infancy, toddler and youth evaporates

Blink!

And the troubled decade of your teens vanishes

Blink!

And the hopeful decade of your twenty’s disappears

Blink!

And the training decade of your thirty’s dissipates

Blink!

And the productive decade of the forty’s is gone

Blink!

And the fruitful decade of your fifty’s withdraws

Blink!

And the secure decade of your sixty’s retires

Blink!

And the resourceful decade of your seventy’s fades

Blink!

And the ebbing decade of your eighty’s expires

I wonder what will happen as I ebb through the decade of my eighty’s. I was about to open the Book of Alma in the hope of getting some inspiration on what to write a Thought about as part of the wonderful adventure I have been taking over the last year and a half as I have been making my way through The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. I happened to see the third book of ‘Reflections for a Sabbath Day’ that contains some of the radio talks I had written when we lived in Reno, Nevada, during the decade of my forty’s. This reminded me that I had one more talk that I had not rewritten in my Thoughts for a Sabbath day. When I opened that talk I was impressed that it would be very appropriate to rewrite as part of today’s Thought, as it was along the same line of thinking which was going through my mind when I wrote the words to Blink.

Although my memory of the lyrics is blurred the message of the song ' Mañana is Good Enough For Me’ is both vivid in my memory and my everyday reality.

The malady of procrastination has been compared to stepping into quicksand. The longer you wait, the harder it is to get out of your predicament. Procrastination has other characteristics with quicksand, such as; we would be better off if it were completely avoided, it is usually part of the unpleasantries of life, we always know it exists, but continue to fall into it’s trap anyway.

Many times our ability to overcome the debilitating effects of procrastination happens because we don’t understand the cause.

Any one or a combination of any of the following causes could attribute to a person putting off tasks, even some of which one might normally complete with eagerness and joy.

Physical well-being, tiredness, fatigue and mal-nutrition contribute greatly to a person’s ‘put-off until tomorrow’ syndrome, while fitness, healthiness and being well rested help with our ‘get it done now’ abilities.

Emotional well-being, which is determined by many factors such as; we may be over programing our lives, we may have developed a self-defeating attitude, we may be overwhelmed with the envisioned commitment, or we may have developed habits of laziness.

Spiritual well-being, when we lack a firm conviction that there is meaning to life and an eternal purpose for existence it becomes much easier to rationalize inaction in many areas of our lives.

Although I have listed these contributing causes separately, they seldom work independently, but often attack our ability to complete tasks as a heavy inter-twined mangled weight. Therefore, if we are going to show progress in our overcoming the debilitating malady of procrastination we must improve our well-being physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Since overcoming procrastination is an task which effects us during our entire lives, I have come to the conclusion that putting off until tomorrow is not good for any of us. Sterling W. Sill once said: ‘In a dreadful reality, everyday is judgement, and is part of eternity, therefore, each day must bear its full load of responsibility. One of the greatest truths of the world is that the future is now.’(Instructor, June 1961)

Whatever it is…

Take it from someone who knows.

Do it now!

Blink!

And the carefree decade of your infancy, toddler and youth evaporates

Blink!

And the troubled decade of your teens vanishes

Blink!

And the hopeful decade of your twenty’s disappears

Blink!

And the training decade of your thirty’s dissipates

Blink!

And the productive decade of the forty’s is gone

Blink!

And the fruitful decade of your fifty’s withdraws

Blink!

And the secure decade of your sixty’s retires

Blink!

And the resourceful decade of your seventy’s withdraws

Blink!

And the ebbing decade of your eighty’s expires


THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY

EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY