The easiest thing to do in the world is to neglect the important and give in to the urgent.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the tendency to prioritize immediate tasks over important long-term goals.
Denis Waitley emphasizes the common human tendency to focus on what feels pressing and urgent, often at the expense of what truly matters and requires more thoughtful consideration. The quote serves as a reminder to recognize the difference between urgent tasks that demand immediate attention and important goals that contribute to long-term success and fulfillment.
In practice
In a motivational speech about time management, this quote could be referenced to illustrate the importance of prioritizing goals.
Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the "someday I'll" philosophy.
Winners have the ability to step back from the canvas of their lives like an artist gaining perspective. They make their lives a work of art - an individual masterpiece.
Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.
You are an uncut gemstone of priceless value. Cut and polish your potential with knowledge, skills and service and you will be in great demand throughout your life.
Expect the best; convert problems into opportunities; be dissatisfied with the status quo; focus on where you want to go, instead of where you're coming from; and most importantly, decide to be happy, knowing it's an attitude, a habit gained from daily practice, and not a result or payoff.
Positive self-expectancy is the first, most outwardly identifiable quality of a top-achieving, winning human being. Positive self-expectancy is pure and simple optimism: real enthusiasm for everything you do... [while] expecting the most favorable result from your own actions. There never was a winner who didn't expect to win in advance. Winners understand that life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. And they know that you usually get what you expect in the long run.
The smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.
Be sure that someday you'll praise and thank God for your unanswered prayers that once you had wept for them.
Of all human lamentations, without doubt, the most common is if only I had known. But we can't know, and so days of death and fire so often begin no differently than those of love and warmth.
The bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.
When we're awake in our bodies and sense, the world comes alive. Wisdom, creativity, and love are discovered as we relax and awaken through our bodies.
I waste most of the day, then finally start to write around 3 P.M., totally disgusted with myself for my wasteful nature.
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