In Praise of Procrastination

There is a time to get started, and there is a time to wait.

1. When you have thought carefully about it, take action. But when you haven’t thought about it, wait.
2. The important is rarely urgent, and the urgent is rarely important. Do not become a slave to the merely urgent.
3. Perception is to see things that not everyone sees. Intuition is to recognize connections, and the patterns that occur because of these connections.
4. Maximum information is available, and maximum contemplation is possible, only at the last possible moment.
5. If you ever feel bad about procrastinating, just remember that Mozart wrote the overture to Don Giovanni the morning it premiered.
6. Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment. But if you procrastinate too long, you will have your choice made for you by circumstance.

Mozart was christened Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Theophilus, in Greek, means “loved by God”.

In a letter announcing his birth, his father said his name was Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart. Gottlieb, in German, means “loved by God.”

When he was 21, Mozart began calling himself Amadè, which is Hungarian for “loved by God.”

Mozart called himself Amadeus only once, when he signed a letter “Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozartus” as a joke, (sort of like Indiana Beagle calling himself “Indianus Beaglus” in the image at the top of today’s Monday Morning Memo.) Amadeus, in Latin, means “Loved by God.”

“Johannes Chrysostomus” precedes the name “Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart” because he, a Catholic, was born on January 27, the feast day of Saint John Chrysostomus in the West until the calendar reform of 1969.

But I digress. We were talking about the tyranny of the “merely urgent” versus information, contemplation, and procrastination.

1. Waiting serves a purpose. In Manley Miller’s booklet, “Potato Chips: Greasy, Salty, Really Good Stories from Growing Up in New Orleans,” he writes,

I became a pastor when I was still young and foolish enough to say, “All right, God, if I’m not a senior pastor by the time I’m 30, then I’m going to quit being a pastor. I’m just going to take that as a sign from you that this is not what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Later, I found out the reason Jesus didn’t start his ministry until he was 30 is because you couldn’t become a rabbi until you were 30. You didn’t have enough life experience.

Jesus was 12 when Mary and Joseph found him teaching in the Synagogue, and it says that he “spoke with great wisdom.” But then when he’s 30 and starts his ministry, it says he spoke with great authority.

You have an aptitude for something when you have a talent for it.

But you develop proficiency over long experience.

And it’s going to take some time to get there.

Likewise, there’s a long journey from wisdom to authority.

When you have something to say worth hearing, that’s wisdom.

But when people respect you enough to listen, that’s authority.

Waiting is not wasting.

And now we’re going to make a 90-degree turn and head off in a tangential direction. Hold on tight.

Here are the Top Five Regrets of People Who are Dying:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. I wish I had spent more time with my family.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

– Bronnie Ware,

an Australian nurse who spent several years caring for patients during the last 12 weeks of their lives.

Final facts about Mozart:

When Mozart was 20, Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence.

When Mozart was 32, the Constitution of the United States was ratified.

When Mozart was my age, he had been dead for 31 years.

How much time do I have left?

How much time do you? I ask you this only because I am your friend.

Roy H. Williams

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