EcoTrain Question Of The Week season 8: If not you, who? If not now, when?

In Nigeria, we often believe as long as it is not completely spoiled, it still can be used. Therefore, we manage to drive through the spoiled road, manage our health to work, eat the food that is against the doctor's recommendation, etc. And keep procrastinating in taking actions until it becomes worse. Some time ago, we were traveling to a particular village in north central Nigeria. The driver kept complaining on how the villagers had been reluctant to fix the road he drove through, when in truth, he was the only one who had a car in the village, the others were still using bikes for transport. Though I didn't talk with him on that matter but asked myself, "if it's not you, then who"?. He was driving through a bad road as a man who among other villagers was opportune to buy a car but was expecting the villagers who still ride on bikes to fix the road. Oftentimes we don't see ourselves as one who should do the task probably because we see others as better for the task than us. We feel our effort to fix what's broken may not count. And when it comes to health, we have this belief in professing just positive words and not giving the devil a chance by admitting we are ill. This may not be so in the Western countries, but in Nigeria, we believe if you admit you have diabetes or suffer from any sickness, you're giving the devil a chance to strike, therefore, we deny it and this hinders people from taking action in time until the health condition becomes worse.

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When it comes to procrastination, we often believe there's enough time, "I will do it tomorrow". When we start to see enough time in everything, there's a high tendency of not doing it now. We keep postponing in taking action with the assumption that there's still time since the situation can be managed. I have procrastinated at a point in life and that was because I believed there was time, until it became late and I tried to rush through the activities. As long as it is manageable, people usually don't see the need to do it now. We want the rush, we want to meet up with the time, and when there's time, we relax and keep waiting for the rush hour.

The question asked for this week is; If not you, who? And if not now, When?. If we could keep this question in our heart and ask ourselves daily, it could prompt how quick we respond to the changes in our environment.