My wife asked me the other day when I was going to start exercising again. I said probably after my first medical emergency. Best answer? No. Honest answer? For most of us, yes.

I had stopped exercising for no real reason other than laziness last fall, and it took me a while to get back to it. But that isn’t the point. Why do we often wait until there is an emergency to address our health? Is it simply being lazy? Or do we think we don’t need to be healthy, until we learn otherwise through a crisis? Maybe a little of both?

Regardless, is this the approach you have taken with your 914’s maintenance and projects? Will you wait until your brakes fail on a curvy road at Okteenerfest, to rebuild those calipers? There is no need to change the expensive rubber windshield seal, as long as you have a towel in the car. Right? I’ve been there. I get it. But, we all know that there are cost savings related to preventative maintenance. Yet we still procrastinate. At our own expense.

It isn’t just maintenance that we frequently put off. Are you waiting until you have “free time” to start that 914-6 conversion? What, exactly, is “free time,” anyway? Retirement? In today’s world, that has a multitude of meanings, and not all of them involve a great deal of “free time.”

Often we wait to do the things we always wanted to do, only to find that we no longer want to do them. Or maybe we no longer can do them. Either way, we miss out on a little part of something.

Is it a five-lug installation, engine rebuild, or weekend trip up the coast, that you have been putting off? Maybe it is buying that ‘74 because you love the bumper guards. Or perhaps you have been waiting to dive into that paint project. Now that is one I understand. Everybody has their list of things they want/need to do. What’s your wish list, and when will you get back to it?

How we spend our time is a very personal choice. And yet, we often don’t make that choice in a way that serves us personally. The car in the shed isn’t getting any younger. Unfortunately, you aren’t either. Time to dust off the rust, both vehicular and personal, and dive into that project that you have been waiting to start. There is only one way to eat an elephant. One bite at a time.

Save the 914,

Steve