Now

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 7, 1913

IF I were to give you a motto to go through life with—one that would stand you for a warning and counsel in any strait in which you might find yourselves, I would give it in this one word “NOW.”

Don’t waste your time, your strength, and your opportunities, by always meaning to do something—do it! Only weakness comes of indecision. Why, some people have so accustomed themselves to this way of dawdling along from one thing to another, that it really seems impossible for them to squarely make up their minds to anything. They never quite know what they mean to do next; their only pleasure seems to consist in putting things off as long as possible, and then dragging slowly through them, rather than begin anything else.

Don’t live a single hour of your life without doing exactly what is to be done in it, and going straight through it from beginning to end. Work, play, study, whatever it is, take hold at once, and finish it up squarely and cleanly, and then do the next thing without letting any moments drop out between. It is wonderful to see how many hours these prompt people contrive to make

of a day; it’s as if they picked up the moments that the dawdlers lost. And if you ever find yourself where you have so many things pressing that you hardly know how to begin, let me tell you a secret: take hold of the very first one that comes to hand, and you will find the rest fall into file and follow after like a company of well-drilled soldiers; and tho work may be hard to meet when it charges in a squad, it is easily vanquished when brought into line. You may have seen the anecdote of the man who was asked how he accomplished so much in life. “My father taught me,” was the reply, “when I had anything to do, to go and do it.” There is the secret—the magic word “NOW!”—Selected.