Every now and then, some friendly soul stumbles upon someone full of despair about some aspect of their life. Low on money, unhappy in love, with bad health – you name it. There are endless ways to be miserable. Some of these poor bastards actually attempt doing something to recover from their dire situation. That’s noble of itself, make no mistake. But quite often things just don’t work out well. They fail once. They fail twice. Then thrice. Then, if they’re still fighting, they might fail again. It is remarkably easy to give up. Don’t beat yourself if it happened to you. That’s just being human. With exception of relationships, we hate being stuck in the limbo. Then we give up and accept that we’ll never be rich, happy, or healthy. That makes us sad and miserable. Then the good soul appears and, with best intentions, shares the worst motivational advice ever.
“Don’t worry, it’s never too late!”
Wait, what’s wrong with this one? After all, it’s meant to give hope. It should be fuelling the remnants of a dim light. The notion of never too late is an universal measure of pulling the people out of misery. Well, I say it’s nothing more than an illusion.
A very deceptive one, for two reasons.
First, it’s misleading the good soul. Though it makes them feel good, for sure. “There was someone in need, so I shared my uplifting view hoping it would help. I did something. I did enough. Hell, for sure I did more than all the others! I’ve made the world a better place!” Now, that’s the definition of a lie. Huge majority of people (and, certainly, almost all managers) has no ability to distinguish action from outcomes. Only the latter one matter, while we focus on the former. Action, improperly applied, can give no results at best – or some devastating ones at worst. In this case, I’d say it’s somewhere in the middle.
Second, while this advice is meant to inspire action, it can easily be misinterpreted. Because, “if it’s never too late, then why should I do anything today, not to mention – right now? I’ll get to it tomorrow.”
And tomorrow is the magical place where all the (possibly) great inventions perish, all the (possibly) great people go unnoticed, and all the (possibly) meaningful lives are lived.
The brutal reality of life is exactly the opposite of the stupid “It’s never too late.”
It is too late now. In ten minutes, it’s going to be too late more. Tomorrow, it will be too late even more.
Stuck in misery, in whatever area of your life? Get fucking moving, right now.
Want to help a friend in need? Kick their miserable asses and get them moving, go with them, do the actual work.
Just do it now. As it’s always a bit too late. And, without your deliberate, focused, and actually executed action – it can only get worse.