Tomorrow
Hey there.
Have you been missing deadlines lately? Are you doing now what you should have done yesterday? Did you just decide to read this post later? If your answer to any of these is yes, we need to talk.
As a self-diagnosed procrastinator, I am well aware of the intricacies of this human behavior. Procrastination provides a safe refuge from deadlines and difficult decisions. It has also come to be known as ‘the thief of time’, a befitting title which really should make you want to rethink forming a lifelong relationship with it.
My dream to publish a book became a reality two years ago, much later than I envisaged. But that novel would still be just a .doc file in the ‘Novels_2’ folder on my laptop, if not for the timely words of Uncle Ebo Whyte pulling me out of the tight grasp of this menace.
In my second year at KNUST, I decided to write a novel. Enough scribbling in notebooks and daydreaming in class, I said. It was time to turn the dream into a reality. By the time I started national service, I had completed the first draft, so I started looking for a publisher. And that’s when I got stuck in a loop.
I found publishers, but I also found reasons not to go forward with it. The time wasn’t right. I was still trying to find my bearing at work. And the book wasn’t ready. It needed polishing. So. I hired an editor. Then got proof readers. Another editor, and then another one. felt ready to publish. Months rolled into a year, but I still couldn’t bring myself to take the plunge. So, I postponed, again and again.
Enter Uncle Ebo.
I was back from work, in a hotel room when my phone pinged. A friend had sent me an audio file. It was a recording from Uncle Ebo’s ‘Food For Thought’ segment on Joy F.M. As a fan of the renowned playwright, I had no doubt the 8-minute recording would be informative, but the title, ‘Things you’ll regret at age 60’ piqued my interest even more.
And right off the bat, the first point hit me in the gut.
- Not making the most of time.
“Time is the raw material of life. When you waste time, you’re wasting your life. Young people think they have all the time in the world. And so they don’t live with urgency. In your 60s, you’ll ask yourself where all the sixty years have gone. You’ll regret not making the most of the time you’ve had.”
In that moment, time froze. I saw myself at sixty, old and grey. And just like that, everything changed. Old me was not an author. She had not published any one of her stories. She was full of regret, having missed out on the opportunity to live her dream. And as I looked at her, I was gripped with fear, forced to confront all the reasons I was hiding behind.
As I’ve come to understand, procrastination is never just about the postponing. There’s always an underlying cause. There’s a reason you’re playing a game on your phone instead of finishing your assignment. I’ve had some time since then to ponder and found that for me, they were the fear of failure, and perfectionism.
But at that moment, none of that mattered. I wasn’t going to waste any more time. I finished listening, sent a ‘thank you’ to my friend and requested a quote from a publisher. Three months later, ‘A Time to Part‘ was published.
That single act has opened up doors I didn’t even know existed before. And yes, as expected, it wasn’t all roses. I even had to plan an online book launch because I was out of town and I didn’t want to risk waiting again. But looking back, I have no regrets. At all.
It’s easy to take time for granted, to put things on the back burner for later. You can start investing next year. You’ll quit that job you hate when you’ve saved enough. And that assignment? Sure, you can finish it tonight. But here’s the thing: time is sneaky. Anyone who’s decided to sleep for five more minutes after their alarm woke them up knows that. Just think about it. 2019 has already rolled into September.
Time lost can never be regained. A missed opportunity may not come around again. And even if it does, you may not have the same resources tomorrow that you do today.
And I know, some things are out of your control. I get that. But where and when you can, take the shot. Do that thing you’ve always wanted to do. Start that business. Write that book. Build your dream house. Tell that girl how you feel.
Wait for tomorrow, and it might be too late.
P.S. All 10 points are potentially life-changing. For your reading pleasure, Mimi’s passion unpacks them all here. You’ll want to check it out. 🙂
Image Credit: Canva
