That Which Can Be Done At Any Time Rarely Gets Done At All

My mom, Ruth Reed, was such a wise woman, a fount of unconditional love. I appreciate her on so many levels and wish she was still around so I could thank her for the example she set and for her unwavering love. And oh, would she glory in her grandchildren.

One of the things I’ll always be grateful to her for was how clear she was about doing what was important now, not someday.

She was the one who introduced me to Reader’s Digest.

We were visiting our Granny for Thanksgiving. It was a rare rainy day in L.A. All us cousins were making a ruckus and were banished to Granny’s back porch.

I complained there was “nothing to do.”

Mom pointed at the stacks of Reader’s Digest Granny had collected over the years and said, “You love to read. Why don’t you read those?”

That was my first introduction to “hook, line and thinkers.”

If you read Reader’s Digest back in the day, you remember their first-person stories of bravery and the jokes, anecdotes and one-liners that graced almost every page.

That was when I started my habit of tearing things out of magazines and newspapers and stashing them away.

If it got my eyebrows up, I wanted to save it.

I didn’t know how, when or where I was going to use it, I just knew it was a keeper.

Little did I know back then this would turn into a lifelong habit that would serve me well over the years.

Little did I know many of those quotes would end up in my books and presentations (with attribution, of course. I believe in giving credit where credit is due.)

Little could I have known Tongue Fu! would be excerpted in RD and several of my What's Holding You Back? one-liners included in their featured column “Points to Ponder.”

One of my favorite repeatable-retweetable's from RD (from that famous philosopher Anonymous) was, “That which can be done at any time rarely gets done at all.”

I always associate this insight with my mom.

If I ever told her I wanted to do something, she would ask, “When?”

If I gave a fuzzy answer, she would smile and gently remind me, “That which can be done at any time rarely gets done at all.”

Thanks Mom. For everything.

And in case you'd like some additional one-liners to remind you to act on what's important now, not later, here are a few thought-provoking insights to remind us "It's about time."

1. It gets late early out there." - Yogi Berra

2. "If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't; you'll find an excuse." - Jim Rohn

3. "The trouble is, you think you have time." - Buddha

4. "You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." - C.S. Lewis

5. "Tomorrow is another day. But so was yesterday." - Rene Ricard

6. "The bad news is, time flies. The good news is, you're the pilot." - Michael Altschuler

7, "The minute you begin to do what you really want to do, it's a different kind of life." - Buckminster Fuller

8. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not just come. We have only today. Let us begin." - Mother Teresa

9. "Perhaps we never really appreciate anything until it is challenged." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

10. "It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis." - M. W. Bonano