Delays

# Chapter 46

Delays. I spend an inordinate amount of time in airports. In fact I am writing this chapter from an airport after a red-eye flight from the West Coast. Of course the connecting flight is delayed. This always creates a cascade effect of problems. Today’s most pressing problem from this delay is that I might very well miss my uncle’s funeral. Its gonna be a close call.

There are few delays that are positive. Almost all of them create more problems than they solve. We delay our investments toward our retirements way way too late. I am guilty of this, and as “retirement” age looms very close on the horizon, I am realizing what each of those decisions to delay are costing me now.

We delay making the hard or difficult decisions. Most of us hope life or the situation will change course all by itself and save us from the horns of whatever dilemma we are facing. Since we regularly use this saying, that “hindsight is 20/20” that clearly points to the fact that we usually wish we had pulled the trigger sooner on . . . well, pretty much everything. I can sure testify to the fact that I wish I had not delayed 23 years to leave my previous employer!!

This can a fairly infinite list of delayed decisions, delayed flights, delayed conclusions, delayed pronouncements, delayed beginnings, delayed thinking and delayed results. What are you delaying today that you can actually control? Those delays that you cannot control, like this flight I am waiting on, you don’t worry or fret about those. Instead focus on what you need to be acting upon and don’t delay any longer.