Somethings in life are avowed as important - at least in the short term. However, for one reason or the other, they don't get done - or at least don't get done soon enough. Eventually, the frustration of not having been able to accomplish an important task in a timely fashion overpowers the joy of accomplishment of an important task. There is no positive feedback - if anything, there is a negative feedback. We grow more wary of undertaking or promising important tasks. Gradually our lives attain only a fraction of meaningfulness that their potential promised.
I bought some gifts for my relatives in India about 2 months ago. When I looked at the gift items, I knew I just had to send them to certain people I know. I bought the items, and the only things remaining to do were: Get the addreses, go to post office and post the gifts. That is all. It took me all of the 2 months to do that! Unbelievable! When I originally bought the gift items, I thought I would be sending the gifts in time for the new year. New year came and went and I still had not gone to the post office.
What explanation do I have for this delay? The only thing I can say is that the post office does not work 24 hours. Had it at least been open until 11 pm, I could have dropped into it and done posting. During the weekdays, I am working at the time when the post office is open. During weekend, I am busy playing chess. With all the busyness, visiting a post-office becomes a very difficult task. Yet ... when I went to post-office yesterday, I went in the middle of the day, out of the way, not thinking about not showing up at work early, just not caring about the consequences, because I was too frustrated with not having been able to go to the post office for so long.
Moral of the story: I could have not cared about the consequences of turning up late two months ago, and sent the gifts in time, and felt good about it! Delaying the Important just because it was Inconvenient only meant Losing Joy Of Accomplishment.
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When I started writing this article, I predicted that I would be defending all the extra time it took me to go to the post-office. Instead, I surprised myself by concluding that I should have just recognized the inconvenience as a cost of doing something important, and done it without wasting time.
Other things that I have considered important for a long time are:
1. Writing a chess book on Colle Zukertort opening ... a book that is useful for recalling the important points in crunch time.
2. Spending time / energy and other resources on finding affordable technology to lengthen life span, especially of the old people.
I know that the second one is more important than first one in terms of overall importance. However, I have spent a long time on the first one, and I need to get it done.
They both need a commitment of a certain amount of time - time that was difficult to find a few days ago, but now, I have some morning time available on some week days, and some Sundays.
Wishing myself good luck on completing the chess-book writing project, before this month ends, I sign off.
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