Nothing hurts like pain.
Let me share a quick story that might motivate you to get after some things you’ve told yourself you’d get to later.
Like most, I don’t have the fondest memories of visiting my dentist, so it’s easy to put it off.
Many months back I cracked the crown on my molar. Initially I didn’t feel any pain so I didn’t consider it urgent to address right away. Recently however, I started to have occasional pain but I dismissed it since the pain was temporary. Sound familiar?
Over the coming weeks the pain became more persistent and I’ve been on the road most of the month so I wasn’t able to deal with it. Eventually, the pain became so intense it was making the whole side of my face sore and keeping me up at night with throbbing pain.
Now there was no delaying. Today, a week later, I’m still nursing a slightly sore jaw following a much dreaded and heavily researched root canal. I’m feeling much better but wishing I had been smart enough to address the problem sooner.
The lesson is clear, it’s much better to address things long before they turn into an urgent or emergency situation.
Most times it’s far better to do something today rather than tomorrow — now instead of later. This can be especially important in our profession or business.
Self-inflicted emergencies in business are to be avoided like the wrong side of town. The sooner you tackle a business task the longer you get to enjoy the benefits of having it completed.
And there’s the concept of exponential return on that accomplishment that tends to increase over time. The same goes in the negative direction if you put things off too long.
Similar to how my sore tooth affected my other teeth, our lack of timely attention to matters can have unfair negative consequences on other people.
For certain it can be a challenge to get ourselves to do something when we anticipate there might be pain involved, but a potent secret to success is doing the thing you know you should do even when you don’t want to do it. Discipline is a hallmark of maturity.
So go ahead, take a bite out of those over marinated to-do nuggets, they’re not going to get any more appetizing. Do it before they potentially become more than you can chew.