Revisiting the Quote — Better Late Than Never
Better late than never is a trope we’ve all heard or used in many cadres of life. Have you sat down to analyze what this saying means? Most importantly, have you once thought of the essence of the “better” word?
The purpose of this piece is to mainly encourage us to go for what we want that may seem like time’s run out.
It’s pretty easy and logical as well to assume that if something occurred late, then it wasn’t meant to be. As humans, we were innately wired to follow the crowd. Hence, the need to be punctual or perfect always. Only a few take the contrarian stand. But in total dissection, it is worth remembering that people’s destinies differ and likewise the timing of their life achievements. So what one may consider late, could be the perfect timing for another person.
But pushing through the strides to do this takes a lot of guts. How do we build our courage or guts to go for what we want, even though time seems to be against us?
To decipher this, we need to define what “time” means in this context.
There’s time for everything. The regular time to be somewhere or do something. And there’s the time for when we draw a line as to how far we’ve come or can go from a certain place. Both aspects of time fit this article. Fulfilling things during regular time often leads to the latter — which is the destined time.
Oftentimes, due to the amount of pressure and timeline, we draw for ourselves, we create a mind map that limits us from going further should the “time”, our self-imposed time elapse. Whereby the reverse could be the case unknowingly.
In this case, we become afraid of doing or pushing further in life. We succumb, surrender, and sometimes, totally give up. Now while these endings may seem unpleasant, giving up shouldn’t be an option for you when you still have a lot you feel and know in your heart has to be accomplished. My father would say: “You’re not done until you’ve accomplished your dreams/goals”. And it’s true. No matter how much we convince ourselves we’ve thrown in the towel, we still hold on maybe not so tightly — which is very good. Instead, we subtly keep keeping on.
Our intuitions are powerful enough to encourage us to keep keeping on.
What gives you the guts to do so, is the belief that you’re headed somewhere. You’re still on a journey that hasn’t come to an end. As such you’re building momentum and you have the guts to do so based on this inkling. Our intuitions are powerful enough to encourage us to keep keeping on.
What builds our guts is knowing who we are and what we are capable of. If you’ve heard of the saying “late bloomers”, then you’d know it everyone has to grow at the same rate at the same time. Identifying the type of life growth you have (based on your past achievements and slacks), enables you to define your type of person. This, in conjunction with ascertaining your skills, raw talent, and zeal in life would aid you to keep moving irrespective of how late it may seem.
What builds our guts also is preparing for the worst at the end. There’s every probability that our life proposals could go the way we planned them or not. Many times we choose to equate the former as good, and the latter as negative. But just because something did not go your way doesn’t mean it’s a negative plan. We need to trust God or the forces of the Universe not to bring us what would not elevate us — even if we had to pass through pain to achieve it. Therefore, having faith that things will go well, but getting prepared for the antithetical result, is what builds our courage to move.
Rounding up:
I’ve missed out on many chances to be better or achieve greater things due to how hard I regard time. I’m almost starting to deny my son some privileges because of the same mentality surrounding time and lateness. Not until I conquered the bias of lateness and went ahead and did what I intended, did I understand that time is what we made up. Yes, it helps to build a structure in a free world like ours, but in the end, it’s mere time. You can still go for that course you’ve delayed going for due to how late or old you think it is, and you can still rebuild your life the way you want to live after many many years of not living right even though you may think it’s of no use. You can start now, as today would still make up a “once upon a time”, weeks, months, and years later. Time is all in our minds. It’s an illusion. Like heck, you can still send your child to school or that birthday to enjoy with his peers the little time left than not. After all, it’s better late than never.
Thanks for taking the time to read
