Let tomorrow worry about tomorrow.

*EDIT: Had to turn off the word verification because it is broken.

So few of the people I have met recently really seem to count today as valuable. It is merely a transitory state for them to an ultimate goal. How often have we counted the seconds going by hoping that time would fly so that we can say goodbye to today and hello to tomorrow? I have often let my life become much like that. Even now, I see a goal that perhaps two and a half years hence will be a crowning achievement for my career plans. I will have a degree. Yet, I am seized with doubts.

In that chase for the ever elusive goal of financial independence, I have indeed forgotten how to treasure the successes of today. I don't smile at the sight of a blue cloudless sky lit by the golden glow of the sun anymore. Instead, I peer at the sidewalk, lost in my mindless pace towards a day that may or may not come. Chance having some considerable sway upon my plans to reach my goal.

I've forgotten how to rebel against being another suit with thoughts of dollar signs and material treasures. Instead, I calculate to the penny how I can afford to pay for food and rent for next month, often thinking how nice it would be not to have to do this prioritizing. To be able to purchase what I want and not worry about how it will be paid for. Or wonder where the money will come from to pay for this new emergency.

What good is the idyllic life at sixty when I must toil and starve at thirty? Will it make things taste sweeter? I can't honestly say with confidence. Who knows that on the morrow's sunrise the world might end? I certainly don't. No one that I know does either. I'm not advocating that we carpe diem here, but who knows when the end of this sundry toil really begins?

For instance, when was the last time anyone stopped to smell the roses? Will there come a day that knowing if a rose smells sweet would be a foreign concept? Will I forget to glory in accomplishing something small because I can only see that I need to accomplish something big for what might gain me respite from the current troubles I worry about? Will the larger goal eclipse the joy I can take in accomplishing something smaller today? Perhaps, that day has already come in my life.

Should I instead be grateful that I am alive and healthy? That those around me are hale and hearty? Should I count the little blessings of today? Do I count the minute triumphs (like getting out of bed and making breakfast, having paid off part of my mounting debt, doing well on a hard test or completing my course lab work) and enumerate them as things I have done that have improved my lot? Can I feel happy that the clouds have gone and the sun shines again? And if I can, should I?

Or should I, as I have said once upon a time (and others like Jens Nygaard, whom has also said) before, say again, "Too Hell with it!" and do what I wish to satisfy myself now?

Such a profound statement, "Letting tomorrow worry about tomorrow." It's not quite the Procrastinator's Creed. However, it is something that's said as a reminder to us all that we should live in the present. To see the now, and let hell and consequence go on it's merry way. (Now, if only I didn't worry...)

While I cannot vow that tomorrow will come with any cheer, I can make today more cheerful and more valuable. I can work to provide cheer to others, regardless of whether they return that cheer. I can do something nice and not expect to be rewarded for it. I can smile at someone for no reason at all. And most of all, I need to mean it sincerely when I do these things. As the song goes, "I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror, I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways." Maybe, others will join the bandwagon.

Besides, now that I've made plans to count today more valuable, it allows me to shirk my plans to do Christmas shopping for my family. As you can imagine, I've been watching the Christmas decorations that have been up for as long as three weeks now and wondering where I will find time to do the present shopping. I know! Gift cards are the procrastinator's best friends!