"Might as well be you; might as well be now."

This post comes from the Daily Stoic email that showed up in my inbox today.  I loved it so much, I printed it off and hung it on our kitchen wall for the whole family to see.  I made one modification to the email; changing the very last word from "today" to "now"

"Before the U.S Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant was a down-and-out officer working in his father’s leather goods store. By the end of the war, he was the highest ranking general in the country and soon enough would be the president. He would say at one point, faced with the incredible difficulty of that war, “The task is a big one and has to be performed by someone.” And so he did it. Simple as that.

"It’s doubtful that Grant ever read the Stoics. He was a simple, straightforward man. But he was Stoic in almost everything he did. We’d all do well to pick up a bit of that attitude for the difficulties we face: Our relationship had been neglected and begun to fall apart. Our company needs to be turned around. Our grades are in the toilet. Our house is filthy and needs to be cleaned. The answer: “The task is a big one and has to be performed by someone.” And then do it.

"No more, no less. Someone has got to do it. Might as well be you. Might as well be now."

do it now

do it now.

these are powerful words.  i remember the day these words rang out in front of my eyes; and the vibrations of the ring have never stopped.  i was sitting on an airplane waiting for it to take off.  i pulled out one of the magazines in the seat pocket and was thumbing through it.  this magazine had several 'motivational posters' it was selling.  one of them was a picture of a big blue ocean wave with the words 'do it now' underneath.  i was so impressed, i took the magazine, cut the picture out and had it laminated.  i kept it with me for several years before losing it in a move.

while searching for that picture, i came across another quote.  this one is attributed to paulo coelho, who wrote the alchemist.  the quote was: "one day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted.  do it now."

it is sound advice; especially when you are a person drowning in debt, clutter and a sedentary life.

the character andy dufresne, in the shawshank redemption said it best, when he was faced with seemingly insurmountable odds: "get busy living, or get busy dying."

indeed there are barriers which prevent us from getting things done.  however, almost all of these are psychological.

the way you get over those barriers is to simply do it now.  just get out the door.  just start on it.  just start cleaning up that clutter.  just dump that un-needed stuff in a bag.  just make the choice to do it.  once you have that little momentum going, the magic happens and you begin to feel really good.

image source: themebin (with a little modification i made)