***Develop a Sense of Urgency and Do it Now! by Judi Moreo

No matter how good you are at what you do, how talented, how knowledgeable or competent you may be, unless you develop a sense of urgency – a commitment that the time to DO it is NOW, you are likely to find yourself still wondering how to be successful five years from now.

“Just do it” may have been a popular Nike ad, but it is also a valuable piece of wisdom. If you want to be a runner, just do it. If you want to be a successful lawyer, just do it. It sounds simplistic, but unless you take the first step, unless you do something, all the wishing, dreaming and hoping in the world won’t make it so. Make a plan, then execute it. Telling yourself you will do it “when the kids are older,” “when I have the money,” or “when I have more time” usually means that whatever it is will never happen. When you allow yourself to put off your dreams until something else happens, that “something” rarely happens and, consequently, the dream is never fulfilled.

We all know very competent people who honestly intend to do things tomorrow, and yet their accomplishments seldom match those who, although perhaps less talented, have a sense of urgency about making things happen. It is successful people who understand the importance of getting started NOW.

You may honestly need to wait, to save money in order to take that trip around the world. If you don’t make a commitment to it by starting a savings account TODAY, then the tomorrow you plan to take the trip will never come. If you don’t get the catalogue from your local community college or university or get the information you need to go back to school, you will not finish your degree next year, or the year after or even the year after that.

We don’t always like it, but for the most part, we show up when we are required to… for work or events in our children’s lives. We are busy. And we are tired. Tired because of all the ‘stuff’ that keeps us on the run. We rush through our lives, filling our days with things we “have” to do and leaving ourselves too exhausted to do the things that will get us off the treadmill and on to the fulfillment of our dreams.

Now! Right now! Do something that will take you one step closer to your dream. It is important. It is imperative. This “now” will never come again. You will never have as much time as you have now. Once you have done something, it becomes easier to take the next step, to do something else. Loose change in the jar soon adds up to dollars to deposit into an interest bearing account. Making a deposit NOW, not tomorrow, may mean you won’t have money to stop at Starbucks on the way to work in the morning, but you will have taken yourself one step closer to the plane ticket to Paris.

Whatever it is you want, just do it….and Do It Now!