When you realize that life is finite, you would not procrastinate. Procrastination is the act of delaying things that you know you need to do. When you know you need to do them, why procrastinate? What if there is no tomorrow?

This is a scary thought. Wonder how many times we use the word ‘later’ in life. We tell ourselves that we will chase our dreams later, postpone things we care about to later. We tell people we care about that we would meet later and then we postpone everything that’s important to later.

The meaning of procrastination is to push away things that you need to do to later. Later is a scary word. To learn not to procrastinate, we need to realize that there is a sense of urgency in life.

What if there is no later?

What would you do if there is no later?

Wouldn’t you do the things that you care about the most? You would, right? I think this is an interesting way to look at things, to assume that there is no later and so we do what we really care about.

What are the things in your life that you have postponed to later? What would you do about them if there was no later?

1. Procrastination takes away from the urgency of life

Stop postponing things you really care about. Your dreams, you certainly care about them. Don’t you? Please start working on them NOW. We really don’t know if there is time. We may not have time. You may not have and there may be no later for your dreams. Do whatever you do can do to make them a reality while you still have time. You sense the urgency, don’t you?

2. Procrastination kills love

Do not delay your family time to later. What if there is no later and you regret that you never took the opportunity to spend the time with your people when you could? Take the time to spend with people you care about. Who knows how long do we have? Who knows how long do they have?

3. Do not procrastinate saying ‘I love you’ and ‘I am sorry’

Are you holding back things you want to say to people for later? For what, and for then, and why? Say what you want to say. Do not go to bed leaving things unsaid. Please, say everything you want to say to whoever you want to say it. What if you don’t get the opportunity when you are ready?

4. Procrastination moves your happiness away from you

Please do not make goals if you won’t enjoy the journey. Happiness is meant to be a journey, and not a destination. Be happy today and make goals whose process of achieving would be fun for you. The beauty and the happiness of life lies in the journey of achieving our goals. Do not hold your life for destinations. Who knows if we will even see those destinations? Live for the journey, in the journey. Procrastination on your happiness would take precious life away from you.

5. Procrastination pushes your passions away

If you are passionate about something, that’s a blessing. Most people in this world don’t even care to find out what they are passionate about. If you are passionate about something, please go and make the effort to it. Your passion/s make you feel alive. When you do what you are passionate about, it doesn’t feel like work, and you are able to find the best in you. Do not hold your passion to be lived on a later late. When is later anyway?

6. You can’t procrastinate travel

One of the most painful part of the year 2020 is that it stopped people for traveling and experiencing new things and people. Travel is one of the greatest joys of life and it helps us in renewing ourselves and learning something new about the world wherever we travel. Travel while you can. Who knows, you get so busy later in life that you won’t get the time, money or energy to travel? Travel while you are still young. By the way, die young.

7. Procrastination delays finding meaning and purpose

Take the time to understand yourself and your purpose in life. Life runs by pretty fast without us realizing our true purpose. If you end up living a purposeless life, it would be lived on an auto-pilot mode and you wouldn’t really know why you did the things that you did. Make the time to understand who you are, what your special gifts are, and how they are connected with your purpose while you live. A purposeful life is a meaningful life. It is too important a thing to be left for later. Trust me.

8. Procrastination takes away your me-time

Make time for yourself. Peaceful, self-reflection time that you spend in your own company to understand and reflect on your life every now and then. If you tell yourself you will do it, when you have time later, who knows that later would come? You may be deprived of one of life’s greatest gifts-the gift of solitude.

9. Procrastination pushes away your mindfulness

I know, you live a busy life where multi-tasking is considered a virtue. You can’t quite make time to focus on one thing a time. Hell, you can’t even focus on your food while eating and have to take calls alongside when you eat. You have your phone ringing even when you are making love, with chats coming from different friends, who need an update. What use is such life when you can’t really focus on thing that you are doing and make the most of it?

Do not leave living in the moment for later. Life will rush by you and you would not even realize that you didn’t feel how it went, because the speed was too fast. Slow down a bit, and live the moments that you are going through. Feel them. When they are gone, they will be gone forever and there won’t be a way to turn back the time.

10. Are you procrastinating laughter?

Do you get to laugh at all or life is way too serious? Your laughter is the sign of life in you. Whenever you feel that you haven’t laughed in days, there is something missing and you must not ignore it. Do not tell yourself that you will laugh when you have met all your responsibilities in life. Laugh through the journey. Make time to laugh and to do the things that make you laugh. Laughter is real happiness in our lives. Do not just do it yourself, but share it with others.

11. Procrastination moves away gratitude

No matter what goals you are working on in life right now, there is always room for positivity and gratitude. Make time to count your blessings every day and tell yourself how blessed you are. So many of us are fixated on things that our lives lack, and we don’t take the time to be happy for things and people we have. Make a conscious habit to build positivity and gratitude in life so that you can enjoy life on an everyday basis while achieving your goals.

12. Do not leave celebrations for later

When would you celebrate life and all that you have been given? When would you dance, when would you drink a bit, and go mad like a child for life is beautiful and we are so fortunate to be alive? Too many of us celebrate so little because we can’t get over negativity in our lives. Celebrate life, and be happy today for all the blessings that you have been bestowed upon. Make time to celebrate life, in small ways every day. What’s there to be sad about?

13. Do not postpone making others happy to later

A life which is too self-indulgent is not a meaningful life and that is where a purpose is important. Make the time to figure out how could you make the world a happier place while you live, and who knows, you end up creating something or doing something that makes the world a better, and a happier place.

14. Do not leave making your life count to later

Live a life worth living and create a story worth telling. Imagine that you have grandkids and they are sitting in front of you asking for the story of your life. Would it be a story worth telling or not? Create a life story that’s not boring, but exciting and full of adventure. What’s a life that’s not worth talking about?

15. Do not postpone your legacy to later

One of the reasons I am writing this blog is because this is a part of my legacy. I want to be remembered as the guy who tried his best to make the world a happier place through his work. If I would be able to do it or not, is a matter of discussions but that’s where I am on. I quit a lot of stuff in life to be able to do work that I think matters, and that’s why I continue to write on this blog, because this is part of my legacy. I want to the guy who wrote a definitive happiness blog.

Please do something that would be your legacy. Leave something that the world would remember you for, something that would have your stamp.

16. Do not postpone living to later

A lot of people are just surviving. Their definition of life doesn’t go beyond paying the bills and raising a family. They don’t do either of these for the love of it, but rather because it is a chore. If you ask them how they are doing, they ruefully reply that they are surviving.

Do not join the gang of the living dead. You don’t want to be the one who chooses to spend 30 years of life surviving to be able to live one day later, when they have fulfilled all their worldly responsibilities. Life is meant to be lived today and in the now, knowing that we don’t quite know how many days we have been given.

17. The best time is NOW

There is a Chinese proverb that goes something like this

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

This means that you may have lost 20 years in going in the wrong direction. However, as you have now realized the right direction, go ahead and plant the tree. The best time to do the right thing is now. If you are 20 years late, so be it. As long as you are alive, you have the opportunity to do what you should have done many years ago.

This thought exemplifies the point of this post quite well. There may be no later, and you should take the opportunity to plant the tree today. Since you are alive and reading this, you still have the opportunity. Do not flounder it. There may be no tomorrow.

Well, if there was no later, you would perhaps find yourself using the word ‘later’ not as frequently as you do. You would make the time to do the things that you care about, for people you love. You would make time for finding your purpose, passion and happiness and that’s exactly what you should do. We don’t know if there is a later, and we should live our lives as if there is no later.

Thank you for reading.

The purpose of this blog to help you find your happiness. Please read the other posts on the blog, and follow so that you get updates when new posts are published. Please share any posts you like with your friends so that they can also find their happiness. If you have any feedback for me, please leave it in the comments and I would be happy to work on it. If you would like to support my writing and this blog, you may please send a donation through PayPal here.

I appreciate the time you spent in reading the blog and wish you happiness.

Love,

Amarvani