Use what you've got when you have it.

The other day I posted a story I read in The New Yorker magazine that I really liked about a young girl who became a Nazi  just a bit before the Second World War and idolized Hitler for years. She betrayed her family and friends and then tried unsuccessfully later to repent. She wrote a book about all that and the article goes into her, the book, her best friend and how it all played out over the course of their lives.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/05/i-was-a-nazi-and-heres-why.html 

I read a lot of articles from that magazine and others, and I post a few. But even though I think that I post mostly very interesting ones, I get very little response from them. Not this time. I got quite the response, and it wasn't something I expected.
So, why this time?
This time I realized that it was because I posted a short status which I wrote ahead of it which led people to take a look at it. Why did that work?
Simply, because I am very good at doing that when I take the time and effort to do it. For whatever reason, I did that this time when I don't always. But I should. I don't really have to spend much time doing it to get the results I did this time. It just makes sense to use this skill.  But often, I don't. 
Something I do often, and have my whole life, is not use my skills well. I am and have always been fully aware of that. Everyone has character flaws, and that is certainly one of mine. I am mindful of it, but in spite of that, I am still prone to doing it.   
In some cases, blind luck helps you see what you should have seen before. It really doesn't matter why your attention has been brought to an issue that you have. When it presents itself to you hopefully you are lucky enough to see it and act on it.
Whether you believe in God or just think that things happen for no reason at all, somehow you were given natural abilities that others don't have. Use those talents to the fullest extent you can. If you don't, you are not only betraying yourself, but also whatever gave them to you.
That is what I plan to do going forward. Plan to. Like all plans, it is only a plan until it is executed. Anyone can say they will do what they know they should be doing. It is another thing to actually do it, and on a consistent basis. We are all great at losing weight for a week or so. But maintaining that resolve over the long term is a much more difficult proposition. 
There are endless examples, for which any one or a few can apply to you. Quit smoking. Work harder. Care more about your family. Save money. Go back and get a better education. Travel the world. The list is endless. We tell ourselves to do these things, and we get excited by the prospects of it improving our lives, but most of us give it up at some point and don't really care that we do that. 
The same goes for overcoming my lazy and non motivated personality at times. I have to care that I am wasting what I have been given before I decide to make a consistent effort not to continue that non productive behavior.
At least now, I am mindful of it because of a fluke. Life is like that sometimes. Something happens and the light bulb goes on. Don't hit the switch and turn it back off. 
Use what you have got when you have it. At some point it will be gone, and you will wish you had it back so you could have done something with it.