Just Do it (NOW)

One of my all time favorite movies is Gone With the Wind. Those of you who are also fans of Ashley, Rhett, Scarlet and the gang may remember the closing line by spoiled Scarlet in her southern accent: “I don’t want to think about that today. I’ll think about it tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day.”

Yes, tomorrow is another day, and it is usually easier at the present time to do the more pleasant tasks and leave the difficult ones for “another day.” Yet, when we do a difficult or disagreeable job today, we save 24 hours of dreading to do it, leaving 24 hours to savor the feeling that the job is already behind us!

Most of us have fears about doing anything outside of our comfort zone, so we tend to procrastinate. One of the lines in DANCE OF THE FIVE ELEMENTS (on the Tai Chi Flow DVDs) tells us to “Look the tiger in the eyes.” The tiger represents your fears or challenges. Once you face them and let them go, they have no power over you. The potency of the negative emotions attached to that task is dissipated.

When I was newly married, I worked as a receptionist at a dentist’s office. I liked the job, but among my other tasks, I prepared the office’s quarterly taxes and helped prepare things for yearly taxes. That was long before Turbo Tax, and oh, how I would dread those days when it was time to do taxes! It was also before I knew how to energetically release those feelings of dread. To face my fears, I would remind myself of the constants: I would still be at work the same amount of time, I would still be sitting at my familiar desk, and I’d still get a lunch hour — I would just be doing this additional job that I saw as a burden. Then to really push away my fears, I would remind myself that it was not going to be physically painful for me — that helped! I was able to do what needed to be done at the time.

A simple rhyme from Dr. Dale E. Turner reminds us to face our fears and let go of the need to procrastinate:

He was going to be all that a mortal could be — tomorrow.
None would be finer or braver than he — tomorrow.
A friend who was troubled and weary he knew,
would be glad for a lift, and needed it too
on him he would call and see what he could do — tomorrow.
Each morning he stacked up the letters he’d write — tomorrow.
And think of the friends he’d fill with delight — tomorrow.
It was too bad, indeed, he was busy today,
and hadn’t a minute to stop on his way.
“More time I’ll give to others,” he’d say — “tomorrow.”
The greatest of workers this man would have been — tomorrow.
But the fact is he died and faded from view,
and all that he left when the living was through,
was a mountain of things he intended to do — tomorrow.

Let’s move forward with things we need to get done today, so that tomorrow will be more than just, as Scarlet said, “another day” — it will be another GREAT day!