Once a group of employees in the office was given a task by the boss. Each of them was given a piece of paper and was asked to write about their plan for the next holiday. They were given one minute to write down their thoughts. After a minute once the time was over, each of them submitted their answers. The one with the best answer was sanctioned a paid trip to the Bahamas for a fortnight. Why? The boss received so many answers. Some of them wrote, someday I will go to Africa. Some of them wrote, once I save some money, I shall visit the Manasarovar. Some of them wrote, if I get a promotion, I shall visit Seychelles. And the one winning the paid trip had written, I plan to pack my bag NOW and leave for the Bahamas.
Most of us live on this ‘Someday’ island. Someday I will do this, someday I will do that, and blah blah. And that actually dampens our spirit. The ones with the real urge to do something do not wait for someday to come. If they want it, they will get it now. And that mentality differentiates them from the others. They live on the ‘Now Island’. For them, tomorrow is only for the savings. The person in the story had this winning habit of doing it right now and he was rightly rewarded for his way of thinking.
So, it is essential that you prioritize your life now. You have several plans on your mind. And you have this obnoxious habit of procrastinating your actions. For example, you want to lose 5 kg weight and you know that it needs a lot of sacrifices to make that happen. And you start delaying your plan. So you are thinking, let me enjoy this month and from the next month, I will start working on losing weight. You want to spend less time with your mobile or other electronic devices. But you do not have the focus to start it right now. You console yourself, let me enjoy my time with the mobile phone for this month and from the next month, I will start working on this. This way you get trapped by this vicious cycle and the day when you start working on lessening your mobile addiction does not happen ever.
This very perspective of living on the ‘Someday Island’ thus goes hand in hand with procrastination. The more you procrastinate things, the longer is your stay on the island and the longer your plan gets stretched and your goal gets out of bound. And one day you lose your focus and bid adieu to that goal. And towards the end of your life, when you ask yourself, was your life truly driven by goals, you get a negative response. And you leave this beautiful world with strings still be played in your heart. Is that a good idea? Is that something that makes you happy about yourself? Is this what you had desired when you were a small kid? So, if you truly want a life of fulfillment, come out of that someday island, live in the present and act now. Very soon today will be tomorrow and tomorrow will be the end of your life. And you will be ruing forever on why you did not come out of that island and start living on the ‘Now Island’.
The concept of the “NOW ISLAND” is very inspirational.
Thanks sir,
Now I understand I am suffering from the cycle of Procrastination . Wasting time , make me feel guilty and it is followed by panic , excuses and finally at the same state of mind. Thank s sir, I will try to start living on now day island .