She who hesitates is lost, or at least really, really inconvenienced. Call it what you will, be it hesitation, fear, laziness, insecurity or procrastination, whatever identity you choose to give it, but remember that he who hesitates is most truly lost. She is missing out on something. She will ultimately and inevitably never experience what one day could have been.
This will not be an earth shaking example but it’s one worth recording. I fell in love with audiobooks about a year ago. I no longer listen to music purposelessly or fill in my time listening too the news or sports gossip radio. I either spend it in silence or I listen to a book from audible. A whole other world has opened up to me. I have learned and am learning things I would otherwise never discover, because time throughout the rest of the day is very fragmented and demanding.
Several months ago something terrible happened. My auxiliary plug on my old car radio stopped working. I had no other choice but to replace the radio, but I didn’t. I hesitated. I fiddled and played with the cord. It would work sometimes and most often not. I played and fiddled and tried over and over again to make it work. I was unsuccessful and so April turned to May turned to June, turned to last week.
I didn’t realize how much I depended and loved being inspired and learning new things, but it was my hesitation to get a new radio that had prevented me from doing something about it. In my mind I imagined since it was an old car, it would be a waste of money to replace the radio. I would have to hire someone, pay them, buy a stereo, and all for what? To have the car break down on me and waste all that money?
But I finally decided that enough was enough and went out to buy a radio. Low and behold that I discovered that I did not need a new radio. I was able to buy a fm transmitter and I’m back in business.
The story itself is not really that engaging or enlightening, what is however is the start point that had I acted on my need back in June I would have discovered the solution so very long ago, and the same holds for a lot of our decisions.
We end up waiting. Hoping for a good day to begin. We imagine how difficult or time consuming something will be. We try to manipulate and talk ourselves out of a lot of things. But if we only set some priorities. If we figured out what we want out of life. If we set out to get the most out of life, maybe we wouldn’t find that life is passing us by.
You and I have to commit ourselves to living each and every day. We need to commit to never hesitate. To begin and take charge of the things that need doing. Right now. Today. Lets not invent roadblocks and deep valleys that we don’t need to traverse in order to be and do something.
Let this be a lesson not only for me but for you.
She who hesitates is lost. Don’t be lost. Act.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer David Tran via unsplash.com
