The Fierce Urgency of now

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THE FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW



What are you waiting for?  Permission?  Extra time?  Enough money?
What’s holding you back?  Fear?  Laziness?  Uncertainty?
I’ve struggled with all of those things at one time or another. In fact, I’m struggling with most of them right now as we get ready to head out on our first mini-retirement (update on that next week).
But here’s the thing. The time will never be “right.” The conditions will never be “perfect.” The things holding us back will never magically align and start flashing a giant green light.
The road less traveled will never be safe, risk free or totally clear. Sometimes you just need to go. To try. To step out and take a chance. If you don’t, that chance will vanish. “To wait” has a funny way of becoming “too late.”
When that happens, you’ll no longer have something trivial like money or fear holding you back. It will be something much harder to overcome, like your health or some other door that was once wide open only to slam shut.
So don’t wait. Your life and opportunities won’t go on forever. Someday it will be “too late.” That realization should cause you to live with a sense of urgency and to focus on the people, issues and goals that are important to you. Time will rush on. What will you do to make the most of it?  What will you do to live a meaningful life and leave the world a better place?
“We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood—it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.