60 Seconds – Procrastination

Les Waas was born two weeks late. Several decades later, he still had not caught up.

His kitchen clock read 10:30 for years. He put off shoveling snow until after it had melted, and he raked leaves in the spring. He stated, “If I wait long enough, sometimes they’ll blow onto a neighbor’s lawn.” His wife revealed he was 15 minutes late to his own wedding. To Waas, none of this was a sign of laziness; putting things off was an art he had cultivated since before 1956, when he became founder and president of the Procrastinators Club of America.

Solomon addressed the danger of procrastination, by challenging us with the self-discipline and energy of an insect. In Proverbs 6:6 – 9, he wrote, “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise. Which, having no captain, overseer, or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?”

Charles Spurgeon warned, “Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow! Alas, tomorrow never comes! It is in no calendar except the almanac of fools.”

Longfellow wrote, “Do not delay: the golden moments fly!”

In one of the old Greek cities, there stood a statue. Every trace of it is vanished now. But there is still in existence an epigram which gives us an excellent description of it, and as the words are read, it teaches a valuable lesson. The epigram is in the form of a conversation between a traveler and the statue:

“What is thy name, O statue?”
“I’m called OPPORTUNITY.”
“Who made thee?”
“Lysippus.”
“Why art thou on thy toes?”
“To show how quickly I pass by?”
“But why is thy hair so long on thy forehead?”
“That men may seize me when they meet me.”
“Why, then, is thy head so bald behind?”
“To show that when I have once passed, I cannot be caught.”

Henry Ford correctly stated, “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do!”

Proverbs 24:33 and 34, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest; so shall your poverty come like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.”