Be a Man of Action, Today, Not Tomorrow

1916

Don't Fall Into the "I'll Do It Some Day" Habit

"Some day" is the one day of the 365 that has no place in the calendar and is still the most popular day for making disagreeable engagements. It is the day that every idle dreamer chooses to begin the monumental work that it is to make his fame and fortune.

Today is always huddled, crowded, too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry. Today is out of the question. But "some day" lies in the far golden haze of the future that seems to have in it the infinite leisure of eternity. And so we defer till the more convenient season that never comes what ought to be done instanter, without taking heed of our own feelings, our plausible objections, and permitting the creeping paralysis of overmuch debate that keeps the arm from striking while the iron is hot.

These prophecies that begin with "some day" and a good resolution are rarely converted into the past tense. The man of action makes his plans soberly and takes the facts where he can get them that will help him to decide what to do. But when his mind is once made up he goes ahead without telling you much about it. He does not boast. He is too conscious of his own fallibility to be cocksure of brilliant and secure results. — Philadelphia Ledger.

—Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, July 29, 1916, page 3.