Have you ever heard of a guy’s plan to rappel off a sheer cliff of 100 feet near Bear Trap Ranch in Colorado, USA? All week he had been preparing himself for the rappelling trip. His physical preparation included “learning the ropes” on smaller cliffs and his mental preparation involved watching and talking to veteran rappellers.
However, when the day he was supposed to go, he was still very busy with a camping trip. The next day no one was going. The day after something else came up. From then until the end of the week he was going to make the rappelling trip….tomorrow. It never happened!
To this day, 20 years later, he still wonders,” Why didn’t I go? Was I unsure of my skills, was I too timid to take up the challenge or …….?
Something to share…..
When I was the Manager of Mekassar Estate near Bandar Mudhazam Shah, Keratong, Pahang from December 1985 – November 1988, I always wanted to make a trip to Tioman Island. However, I kept on postponing the trip. I have not visited the island till today.
Then again, when I was managing Morisem Estate in Kinabatangan, Sabah from December 1988 – December 1990, my intended trip to Brunei had also never come about till today.
When I was Plantation Controller for JCC Group from June 1995-December 2003, I used to visit its plantations in Sabah. I talked so much of making a trip to Labuan one of these days, but it never happened too. My problem was that I kept postponing the trip thinking that I could make it tomorrow.
This is the trouble of human’s weakness, keep postponing our plan as if we can make it tomorrow. Then we often find excuses because there is always a tomorrow for tomorrow. How true it is when someone says, “Tomorrow will never come.”
How to breakthrough this human’s weakness? Well, I think we have to keep telling ourselves “Do it now” whether it is a planned trip, a job assignment, a work programme or anything we plan to do today. We have to constantly remind ourselves to do it “Today Not Tomorrow”. Otherwise, there is always another tomorrow when tomorrow comes.
4 comments:
I cannot agree more with you on postponing what we always wanted to do to another day. This "besok lusa" thing must stop. The Mexicans are also good at their "manana" ( pronounced mayana ) thing!! My story is different. I had always wanting to visit Alaska - for it's natural beauty and also to see the "Last Frontier" and the wilderness. See how the bisons migrate during the on set of winter and hear the vibration just by putting your ear onto the ground because they run across the plains by the thoudands!!. That was 30 years ago when I was a student in Texas, USA.
My earlier ( partly wife to blame also ) excuse was that the 2 babies I had then was too small to travel. Then we got home. They went to school and it wasn't convenient except during school holidays but then you cannot get leave to go. College days came, it bacame more inconvenient. So one year after another sampai hari ini. Sudah mau jadi datuk still haven't gone yet!!
If you feel like doing something, just do it NOW. You may not live another day to actually do it if you keep postponing!!
You are right about this. Thanks a lot for the sharing.
It really reminds me that tomorrow will never come. So, we should do everything that we could do today, never cancel it. It’s about time management. Today not Tomorrow, cause the day after today has problems itself.
Prograstination is the thief of time. How very true of this statement. We must not always postpone things. We must do it right away.
I must admit I have this very bad habit, always postponing things I suppose to do right away. In the end I find that I have to rust thru things and make a lot of mistakes on the way. Make haste less speed.
I remember my art teacher, the late Miss Yoong wrote in my autograph book, " First plan your work. Then work your plan". She was a good and kind teacher who taught me Art in Form Two back in 1960. We used to bully her and made alot of noise in her class. Later she married Andy Murugasu, a police inspector. Later when I was in Kemayan Sec. School, I saw an advertisement annoucing her passing. Her husband then was the head of the Police Training School in N.S. a town near Kemayan. I felt very sad. She was a good and dedicated teacher and we naughty boys took advantage of her kindness and gave her a hard time. Good and dedicated teachers are hard to come by these days.
So we must appreciate our good teachers and friends. Once they are gone, they're gone forever like Gone With The Wind ( my favourite film ).
When I was the HM in Kemayan, I made a trip to your estate in Bandar Mudhazam Shah in Keratong, Pahang, if I'm not mistaken in 1986. I had to make a trip to see u before I got a transfer back to Lipis the next year. I drove along the lonely road amigst all the oil palm trees and not a soul in sight. Then I came to a police station and asked around and was directed to another lonely road to your estate. There were no handphones then. It was a miracle I managed to locate u right in middle of a jungle. I felt like a white hunter looking for Tarzan in the African jungle. I thought I was lonely in Kemayan but when I saw your manager's house in the estate, you only had trees for companion and you had to cook for youself. That's life as a planter.
At least in Kemayan (border village town Pahang/NS), there were shops and you could still see people and buy any u wanted. Luckily, for u, u could go home to Segamat twice a week. I went back every weekend. Later I followed u to ur house in Segamat and spend a night there.
The next morning, very early we drove back to ur estate. We passed by a road side stall displaying a very appropriate sign, " Stop, Look & Eat ". U told me u suggested the words to the stall owner. But u didn't tell whether it worked wonders for him. Unfortunately, we didn't stop and eat, we just looked.
I'm now still in Penang - managed to find a cybercafe write this.
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