Do what good you can, as soon as you can (DW#399)

positive thinking self reflection spirituality May 23, 2018

"It is they who hasten to every good work and these who are foremost in them."
(Sūratul Mu’minūn, 23:61, Holy Quran)

Have you ever had a intention to do something good (give charity, help someone, reach out to someone going through a tough time, visit a loved one) and thought you would do it later but then never got around to it?

Research now confirms that the more you delay something, the less likely it is that you will actually do it.

Piers Steele, who won the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in psychology for his work on motivation says that "As the deadline for any task gets pushed further into the future, Delay increases and our motivation to tackle the tasks decreases."

This means that if you have a goal to do something good in the future, no matter how excited we are in the present, it will be hard to sustain this motivation when the goal is in the future. Plus, life, as they say, will certainly get in the way. In other words, the sooner you take action on something, the higher the levels of motivation and the more likely that you will actually do it.

So how about hastening towards good and taking action on those good intentions? Like . . .now!

Imam al-Bāqir (as) says: When you think of doing something good, rush to do it immediately for verily you do not know what could happen later [to prevent you from doing it] (The Scale of Wisdom).

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Do what good you can, as soon as you can (DW#399)

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