Understanding People: Quote of the Day

Today's quote comes from the Great Emancipator himself -- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). Ranked among the best U.S. presidents of all time, Lincoln is best known for guiding the country through the Civil War -- the bloodiest conflict in the nation's history -- and abolishing slavery.

"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time." - Abraham Lincoln

What Lincoln is saying here is that the future comes only gradually, thus giving us ample time to plan for what lies ahead and realize our goals.

I would argue, though, that this isn't always the case. How many times has the future caught up with us when we've least expected it?

As I stated in my previous post, I proposed to my wife in 2012. We agreed to set the date for March 2014, which, at the time of the proposal, seemed a long way off. Well, those two years came around a lot quicker than I anticipated.

The same goes for other life events that seemed to occur just the other day and are now well in the past, like beginning a relationship with your partner or starting kindergarten.

Not all of us are big on planning ahead, but I think doing so would be prudent for two reasons:

It gives us the opportunity to inch toward our goals and have an early plan for meeting them
It prevents procrastination and the inconvenience of having to do things in a rushed matter later on

I know Lincoln was nicknamed "Honest Abe," but for those of us who live very busy lives, the future sometimes creeps up on us. I also understand that things went at a much slower pace in the mid 1800s. Would he be saying the same thing if he were around in 2015?

What's your opinion on the quote above?

Comments

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