Years ago, I don’t even remember what year it was, maybe around 2000 or so, I recall walking into a bookstore and seeing the new bestsellers on the shelves. Prominently positioned on these shelves was a new book by Eckhart Tolle called ”The Power of Now”.
Many of the books that would appear on these bestseller shelves were often business books about some aspect of success. So, logically my first impression of the book was that it was a book about business and that the only way to succeed was to succeed NOW!
I was not into business in those days and I wasn’t at all interested in the success industry. So I just sort of walked past the book and was actually a bit annoyed by the book because I thought it was addressing an issue I had known all of my life and that was procrastination. I figured the book was going to be a book about my sins of procrastination and I really didn’t want to go to that church and be yelled at for committing the sins of procrastination.
Several years later I was visiting friends in the Netherlands and one of them let me borrow the audio book to the ”Power of Now” read by Eckhart Tolle. My friend told me that it gave her the ability to deal with the many stresses she was having in her life at the time and she thought I would like it as well.
So, when I went to bed that evening I put the earplugs in my ears and started listening to the book. To my surprise it wasn’t about business or success at all! It was about spirituality and began to talk about the teachings of Buddha and what that was all about. Tolle also incorporated what Jesus taught and because of the way he presented it the Gospel of the teachings of Jesus took on a completely new meaning.
I was stunned by how profound this book was so the next day I went to the bookstore and bought the paperback and began to read.
The book takes you on a journey through the way you look at yourself in the world. It talks about the deceptive concepts of time and the ”pain bodies” we have in us that get released like a powerful drug when something in our lives crops up and makes us feel awful, angry, sad and jealous. The book talks about the dual personalities we possess in our minds, the ”I” representing the state of being and the ”self”’ which is the mind that defines everything. Tolle used the sentence ”I can’t stand to live with myself.” It begs the question of ”Who is the ”I ”that my ”self” can’t stand to live with?”
There can only be one me, so one of these two personalities must not be real. It turns out the the ”self”’ what is otherwise known as the ”ego” is the form part of who we are. It is who we ”think” we are, not the real person that was created in the image of God, the infinite being of existence.
All of these things really helped me deal with the many aspects of my life that were crippling me at the time. Indeed one aspect of the book was about the fact that the only time we have to do something is ”NOW”. You can’t anymore do something yesterday than you can tomorrow. There is no time but the present moment to get things done.
So, the book does address procrastination in an indirect way. But, it doesn’t treat it like the sin it really is.
Anthony Robbins talks about the definition of the word ”Power” to be the ability to act. If you combine that with the word ”Now” you get a very challenging decree which addresses procrastination front and center.
The title of this book would be called ”The Ability to Act Now” . Indeed that is a principle that would challenge me directly and it would feel like being taken to the woodshed. If I were to define the one thing that has caused me trouble in my life it is this.
I am more of a thinker than a doer. I am more of a philosopher than a practical person. I like to talk about things and study them but I am not necessarily the guy who ”does” it. I am like a political pundit who isn’t a politician at all but talks as if they know it all. I am like the music critic who has never been a real musician and has no idea what it is like to perform at the level he is criticizing.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with my general nature of observing, analyzing and commenting on things but the fact is, that being a philosopher or theorist doesn’t have any power at all really because they don’t ”do” anything really. Part of this is my love for writing on this blog…it gives me a place to philosophize.
But, much of this ”over thinking” gets in the way of action. The problem with procrastinating is that the world and time is moving along just like you are. So, external conditions for getting something done now will not be the same as the conditions will be tomorrow and obviously there is no way to undo the past.
In other words, if you put off planting the seeds in spring and you do it in fall, you are not going to get any plants to grow. Yes, you finally planted the seeds, but the external conditions have changed and then the action is useless. It is too late.
Another example is that you want to go see an aging relative and you know you should do it now, but you put it off. Unfortunately the relative dies and it is too late to visit.
There is the example of the student in class who puts off doing homework, then as they plan to do the work they get sick or have an injury and are out so they can no longer do the work and it ruins their grade.
Unfortunately we live in a society that allows for late payments. We want something now, but don’t have the money to pay for it now so we borrow from the future to get what we want and the fate is that it may soon be too late to pay the debt. Right now someone may make enough money for the payments, but if conditions change they may not be able to do it.
Today, we are so easily forgiven for our tardiness and that creates a weakness in society and will ultimately undo us. This needs to stop.
So, the ”Ability to Act Now” really becomes a powerful title, doesn’t it?
Every day is a ”Launch” day. I heard a Ted Talk by Mel Robbins who created the ”5 Second Rule”. It reminds me of a little game we used to play when playing basketball. We used to do the countdown ”5 4 3 2 1” simulating the last second shot to see if we could do hit the basket at crunch time. Well, Mel Robbins ”5 Second” rule uses the same idea but it is all about getting into action. ”5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ACT NOW!” I actually used to do this when getting out of bed in the morning. So, the 5 Second idea, while not ever being presented in such a way, had already existed in my mind for a long time.
But it is so easy to do ”5 4 3 2 1 Dudd.” ”5 4 3 2 1 False start”. So even the principle can be used as much not to act in as much as it is designed to get you to act.
Life is short and is only made up of the moments of now. The past and future have no effect on our lives, only the present moment determines the course our lives take. So as we are skiing down the slopes of life we must hit each gate as we come to it. You can’t go back up the slope and re-run those gates nor can you run the gates ahead of you before you get to them. So whatever it is that needs to get done… the time for it will always only be now and avoiding this simple but unforgiving truth is nothing but a recipe for misery.
”The Power of Now” is a book about spirituality and peace, but really it is a book about responsibility and awareness of the true nature of the universe. You cannot avoid the Now, every attempt to do so creates stress, pain and misery.
”Act Now”
If you can get it done early, do. If you can get it done now, do. But if you think you can do it in the future, you may not be able to.
There are many pitfalls and problems that procrastination brings with it and there are just as many excuses you can use to justify it. But the results are unavoidable.
Procrastination causes more stress because the amount of things that need to get done compound over time. It robs you of down time in the future because you will have to spend that time to do the things you didn’t get done before.
Why do we procrastinate?
What is it about doing something now that makes us not want to do it?
I think there are several reasons for it. Maybe you don’t feel ”ready” or well prepared enough to do it. You don’t think you can sing well enough yet so you think you will be more ready in the future and while there may be some truth to it, it isn’t the ability to sing that gets in the way it is the belief that you necessarily have to be at any certain point of ”readiness” to do it. If you wait to be perfect before you act on something, then that day will certainly never come.
But I think the real cause for the severe lack of action in the world is FEAR.
Fear, as described in the book ”The Power of Now” is actually reduced to the natural fear of pain or death, in this case not physical death or pain, but the injury to the ”Ego” to the ”Self”. When you physically die you no longer feel the pain of life, but as long as you are living you feel the pain of life and the fear of death.
So, maybe it is a matter of defining what we fear that effects the way we live our lives. Why am I fearful? What is the solution?
Tolle says the cure is that we must all know that the true ”I” cannot be destroyed. No matter what happens in the world, it cannot touch who we truly are and so we should not be afraid for the world cannot touch us.
Still, that can cause us to avoid doing something altogether. So, we are back to the beginning. Why are we afraid?
I don’t really know to be honest. But, not acting does nothing but reinforce fear’s power over us.
Maybe the final verse of Robert Frost’s poem ”Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening” say it best…
The woods are lovely dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.
We do have promises to keep and that will never end until we die. So, we must get going. Whether we want to or not because time waits for no man.