“I don’t need to do it today, I can do that tomorrow.” It’s interesting that we often push the possibility of difficulty off onto “tomorrow.”
But today is the future we pushed stuff onto five years ago. Rent is due.
With the credit card swipe, the pill laden with side effects, the no-cash-down car lease, and procrastination, we push off the bad stuff until later. Interest accrues, your body slowly breaks down, and the distractions keeping you from important work are forgotten after the momentary pleasure.
We convince ourselves that some immediate satisfaction is worthwhile because all those nasty effects are way are in the future. Turning that lease in costs a bunch of money–three years from now.
It’s so difficult to connect with our future self, yet we’re all so ready to saddle him with untold burdens.