What was it I was going to do?

I have one or two friends who constantly tease me about my talent at procrastination. I do not do it intentionally, in the fact the very opposite is the case when I say I will do something I really do intend to do so, it just always seems to end up being done the next day. I have a magnificent ability to be sidetracked.

It is not in anyway laziness I am up and about most days at six am. I am not like the person who said to me, "It's always easy the night before to get up early the next morning." So it is not the lack of time that keeps me from doing something, I am aware that procrastination is not a good quality to possess but there you are. 

Friends of George Burns had always kidded him about his singing. Burns, a master of self-deprecating humour, decided to take advantage of this and insure his voice for a million dollars. 

He thought it would be a wonderful publicity stunt.

"I was so excited," said Burns, "I couldn't wait to rush down to the insurance company. I took a cassette and a tape recorder with me so the insurance man could hear my voice. It was one of my best numbers, a syncopated version of Yankee Doodle Blues with a yodelling finish. The insurance man listened patiently to the whole thing, then he just looked at me and said, "Mr. Burns, you should have come to us before you had the accident."

I have tried so hard to rid myself of this trait of procrastinating, I am aware that hard work is so often the easy work you have not done at the proper time.

There are so often consequences of putting off today what should have been done today. I remember a little tale that makes this point so well. it is not exactly a tale of procrastination its true sense because it tells of a young boy who allowed himself to be put off what he knows he should have done. 

A farm boy accidentally overturned his trailer load of potatoes on the road. 

The farmer who lived nearby came to investigate. "Hey, Bill," he called out, "forget your troubles for a spell and come on in and have dinner with us. Then I'll help you get the trailer up."

  

"That's good of you," Bill answered, "But I don't think my dad would like me to."

  

"Aw, come on, son!" the farmer insisted.

  

"Well, okay," the boy finally agreed. "But dad won't like it." 

After a hearty dinner, Bill thanked his host. "I feel a lot better now, but I just know dad is going to be really upset." 

"Don't be foolish!" exclaimed the neighbour. "By the way, where is he?"

  

"Under the trailer."

So procrastination put off what can be done at your pearl.

The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.

Wait no more certainly a lesson I need to learn. Now, what was it that I said I was going to do?  Cannot remember, I will get it done tomorrow. Have a marvellous day.