In days gone by, phrases like wearing our ‘Sunday best’ and bringing out the best crockery for special occasions were common place. It was usual for people to have a parlour which was kept clean and tidy and only used when there were important visitors. All other family activity took place in the other (often cramped) rooms of the home.
In some ways, this attitude still prevails. Maybe it is a special outfit that we’re saving for a family occasion like a wedding or a special party, 18th, 21st or 50th maybe? Or perhaps it’s less obvious than the special outfit or crockery and instead maybe we’re saving parts of ourselves for the right time to bring them out? When written in that way, its sounds bizarre, but in truth, we’re all guilty of this to a greater or lesser extent.
I’ve deliberately used the above examples as an analogy for our tendency to put things off while we wait for the perfect set of circumstances to align. Maybe we feel that we can’t start our latest weight loss goals until all the goodies from (say) Christmas have been eaten, or maybe we can’t start on our latest masterpiece until we’ve learned all there is to know about a particular writing or painting style. [Read more…] about Don’t Save Your Best for Later!