Everyone knows the aphorism ‘The Best Time To Plant a Tree Was 30 Years Ago, and the Second Best Time To Plant a Tree Is Now’. This is usually attributed as a ‘Chinese Proverb’ but according to Quote Investigator it is more likely to have come from the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1967 as quoted by George W. White, but his source was anonymous.

Regardless of its origins, there is a strong message here. Don’t worry about what you should have done, instead start doing it.

While this is great advice, it is also very hard to do.

‘If I had only’ is a phrase that we as humans utter constantly. IE If I had only…

• invested in Google 20 years ago.
• gone to college.
• started working out.
• and the list is endless.

This is a trap that is so easy to fall into.

So, when confronted with this thought process, instead think, yes I should have done that then, but what can I do now plant a tree?

Turn missed opportunities of the past into new opportunities for tomorrow.

Haiku

peering to the sea
over rust-stained rails of stone
ponders their decay

Word of the Day

zygology n. The branch of technology concerned with joining and fastening. via OED.