The Importance Of Not Kicking The Can (Your Life) Down The Road.

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I'm absolutely, positively sure that anyone who has been alive long enough has at some point point in their life uttered the following or some iteration of the following phrases: "I'll do it tomorrow!" "I'll do it later on today!" We're all guilty of it at some time or another. When it comes to myself personally, and I'm sure that many of you can relate, but I have noticed that it is normally things that I'd rather not do that I tend to put off for another time. Another phrase of viewing this that many of you have probably heard of is "kicking the can down the road." Now I wasn't really aware of this saying till I heard various politicians and political pundits talking about it in regards to not addressing the trillions of dollars worth of debt that the United States is currently in. During the height of this issue of national debt, you had various politicians that would rather continue with the downward descent into debt rather than addressing the issue head on. Though the issue has seemingly taken a backseat to other matters, the downward spiral of spending more money that we're bringing in still exists. Now why do I bring all of this up some of you may wonder? Well from my perspective, we can almost compare our everyday lives to that of a politician in a sense. Most politicians will say just enough to get themselves elected. Then it seems that once they get elected into their position, they rarely make good on most the promises they make. However, they also do just enough to get you to vote for them again and again. I believe the same concept applies to us in various areas of our lives. Rather than addressing the important things in our lives that we'd do good to address as soon as possible, we often put these things off for another time. Just like I brought up the phrase of kicking the can down the road, our lives can be similar to the proverbial can, and we're just kicking it down the road without thinking of the consequences.

Back once again to hopefully bring you all some fresh game, it's your boy Brad H. coming through, and I'd like to welcome you all once again to another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! This is a space where I bring out my perspective on various topics that I think could be helpful towards helping us stay motivated. Hope all is going good and well for everyone out there, and that the new year has been treating you all fine thus far. Hopefully for those of you that have set those resolutions are staying on track and haven't broken them as of yet. So I'm going to bring some more football talk for my soapbox this week. I can't speak for anyone else, but boy have the last two weeks of the NFL Playoffs been a wild circus. We saw New England get knocked out in the first round, and the number one seeded Ravens go down in their first game. Both teams were taken out by the Tennessee Titans, a team that was considered to be one of the biggest underdogs. So we're now down to four teams for the conference championships. We got Tennessee taking on the Chiefs, and the 49ers going up against the Packers. I believe the Titans magic will end tomorrow at the hands of the Chiefs, but it also wouldn't surprise me in the least if they pull another upset. I really don't know what to think between Green Bay and the 49ers. I don't care for either team, but I would rather see the 49ers win since I have a close relative that has loved them for a long time. It is so hard to believe that the Super Bowl is only a couple of weeks away. It has definitely been an interesting season, and hopefully the games tomorrow continue that trend. So now that I've gotten on my soapbox for a bit, lets talk about the topic at hand on the importance of not kicking the can down the road.

Before I get more into why I believe it is of importance for us not to kick the can of life down the road in our lives, I want to preface this topic by saying that the "can" that I'll be referring to in regards to this topic is one that's subjective. It is up to us as individuals to define exactly what are the things in our lives that we're putting off now in favor of doing them later down the road. This is one of those things that you will have to evaluate in your own life. The examples that I plan on using may not be applicable for you personally, but I hope that they can be examples that we all can relate to in some capacity. Now I mentioned earlier how all of us are guilty of putting off things. One of the things I've noticed personally in regards to delaying things is that many of the things that we tend to delay are often things we'd rather not do in the first place. How many of you have taken a good look at your room and knew that it was due for a cleaning, but you just brushed it off and said to yourself that you'll do it tomorrow? There is also another, more emotional aspect of putting off things that affects us and that is fear. Yes, fear can play a huge factor in whether you kick the can down the road. There are just certain things in this life that we're afraid to do, but we know they have to be done if we're going to have peace in our lives. Both fear and slow poking it when it comes to doing the things we should are giant obstacles that many of us face.

Now when I talk about slow poking it as I referred to earlier, what is an example of this? I used the example of cleaning your room, but how about something that could be seen as being more urgent. Imagine a person that finds out that they are at risk for developing diabetes and in order to ward of getting it, they have to make some changes to how they eat. If this person lolly gags without taking the changes they have to make serious, the chances of coming down with the full blown disease will increase. Anything that has to do with regards to benefiting you from a health perspective isn't something that should be taken lightly. A person in this situation that doesn't take it serious is the personification of kicking the can down the road. When it comes to fear and kicking the can down the road, there are a number of examples that we could use. Imagine a situation where you've done something to wrong someone else, and you know you have to face them in order to rectify whatever you've done. You keep telling yourself that today will be the day you face them, but you continuously put it off because of the potential reaction you'll get from that person. Now being nervous or fearful in a situation of this nature is quite normal, but as with the slow poking example with the diabetes that I've given, nothing positive can really come from delaying any situation that should be addressed in a more timely manner. I believe this is where the importance of not kicking the can down the road comes into play.

So with all of that being said, why do I feel it is important to not kick the can down the road? From my own personal perspective on this topic, prolonging things that can be done today can often make whatever situation you're in worse later on down the road. I believe the downside of problems, whatever they may be is that they have the chance to fester and grow when they're not addressed in a timely manner. I mentioned earlier how the debt in the United States is out of control, but imagine a scenario where tackling the can of debt wasn't being kicked down the road. The debt likely wouldn't be at the level where it's at now, with it being so out of control that it probably can't be fixed without it affecting everybody. The same applies with the diabetes example I gave earlier. When it comes to the fear aspect of kicking the can down the road, it is best to just go ahead and face whatever it is you fear head on if possible. If you've wronged someone, it is best to go ahead and try and make it right as fast as you can. The longer you wait to do so, the greater the chances become where that person isn't willing to forgive you. There is a popular quote that many people in the health and fitness industry use. It goes; "Day one or one day, you decide." I believe this is a saying that could be applied to any area of life. Kicking the can of your life down the road only leads to bigger problems in the future. Though it may be hard to face issues head on at times, we have to work on doing so.

Well that's what I got for you all this week. I hope that some of you found it helpful and inspiring. This has been another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am Brad H., and I'd like to thank you all once again for checking out my perspective. As always, if you have any comments to add, please feel free to do so in the comment section. You can also connect with me on Twitter if you'd like. I can be reach at the handle @BradrickH. I hope you all are having a great weekend so far, and continue to stick with those resolutions and goals that you've made this year. Have a great week ahead, and I'll see you all on the next post. Peace!

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