For a long time now, I been have accelerating my efforts to keep people out of my life who have an aversion to taking action. It never ceases to amaze me that so many people are addicted to procrastination. And what a terrible addiction it is. Procrastination is, in fact, a living death.

In that vein, we should all heed the words of Michael Landon — producer, director, writer, and superstar — who died of pancreatic cancer in 1991, at age fifty-four, at the peak of his career. Said Landon, “Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. … Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.”

The master of word efficiency, Mark Twain, put it even more succinctly when he said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”

When the final seconds tick off of your life clock, don’t be caught still thinking about that book you always wanted to write, the venture you wanted to get into, or the extreme makeover you wanted to perform on your life. Take action today, rather than tomorrow, to avoid dragging regret along with you to the bitter end.