Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero![i]

By Patches

You know, kinda like: seize the day, put no trust in the morrow!  … for you never know what tomorrow might bring!  Don’t put off any of the important stuff – in other words … don’t procrastinate, dang It!  You might never get the chance to follow it through, also – don’t live too much in yesterday, the future lies in tomorrow!

Of course, we wish nothing but the best for pretty much everyone out there, and wish for all the longest and fullest possible life … but, we need to remember, that all things don’t always go as planned.  You never know when something minor, or major, might come up and prevent you from doing all of those things that you have on your “to do” list!  It might be wise to think about all the stuff you’ve got going on – maybe do a little re-arranging, a little re-prioritizing, some discarding, and some adding … you know … just “re think” your stuff!  Some of the stuff that used to seem so important to you yesterday might not rank up there with the important stuff of today!

Of course, all of you humans (and some of us bupps too) procrastinate at some level – we are all guilty of putting off things that we believe to be unpleasant, painful or difficult.  However, if we, as I have already suggested, do a little house cleaning on the stuff that we “need” to do and the stuff that we “ought” to do (while maintaining sufficient time for those things that we “HAVE” to do) – you just might discover that you have a little more time for the thing that you “want” to do.  Plus, procrastinating rarely, if ever, really works to the effect that you want it to.  When you just sit agonizing over the task at hand – the amount of the stuff that you need to do doesn’t change – but when you eventually start whittling away on it, the “stuff”, and associated dread, ought to decrease as well, and before you know it … the task is DONE.

Thinking deeper … often when I start procrastinating, I also become nostalgic (sometimes it helps with the procrastinating!).  Well, if you’re anything like me, when any of us get that nostalgic feeling, we ought to remember this quote by Sanhita Baruah[ii] (a poet and blogger that I ran across on that ol’ WWW):

Nostalgia

How often we use this word reminiscing about the past - our childhood, school days, college days.

We feel nostalgic, we dwell in the memories of the past, we talk about how great those days were and how we would do anything to just go back in time and live those days again.

Perhaps we fail to realize the fact that tomorrow we will say the same things about today, about the days we are living in now, about the emotions we are feeling now, about the time we are spending now.

I love this day. I love this weird feeling I feel today. I belong here.

Sanhita Baruah

Pretty dang deep, if you ask me – her other writings are pretty good too (you can check them out on the link/credit)!  I know that all of us around this ol’ place are pretty guilty of getting all nostalgic and misty eyed at times.  But you know that I AM the ossimistic[iii] pup around this ol’ place and while I don’t think that there is one durned thing wrong at all with being nostalgic about the olden days, I believe that, more often than not, we need to pull our big girl britches up, and our boots on, and live in The Now!!!!  I mean, really … the past is the past (we can’t go back and relive it, we can’t change it no matter how often we try, and there ain’t nothing that we can accomplish by lamenting it) and I do TRULY believe that it is CRITICAL to remember all of the good times that we’ve had … we STILL can’t forget about the now!!  Surely, the things that we are doing today ARE the memories of Tomorrow!!

So, in summary, my advice to you is:

1. Figure out what is important to you (and why);

2. Shed what isn’t important;

3. Enjoy the past, but don’t live in it;

4. Get out there and start making your splendid memories of Tomorrow!!!!

Carpe Diem, don’t cha know, my Friends!!!!

Patches

Live everyday as if it's your last, boys, and one day in the future when you look back, you'll have lived ten thousand lifetimes.
Steven Moore

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness; no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

Lord Chesterfield

Procrastination is the thief of time.

Edward Young

Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.

Author Unknown

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
Helen Keller

It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one.
George Harrison

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin

Carpe diem.  Seize the day, boys.  Make your lives extraordinary.

Robin Williams

Today is the tomorrow that you were worried about yesterday – What is your excuse now?

Sanhita Baruah