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That’s the problem with October. That and the fact that it’s too hot, it’s too cold, the flowers are early, the rain is late... Apart from our tendency to complain about everything, the problem with October is that it often feels like nothing’s really worth it. Not at this point in the year.
Sign up at the gym? Nah, it’s almost the end of the year. See those friends you haven’t seen since January? Too late already - we’ll do it next year. Any new idea or behaviour change just doesn’t seem worthwhile. Because it’s basically Christmas, right?
But a valuable lesson from history is this: don’t kick back and put things off because it’s October. Let these examples inspire you.
For starters, Greenwich universal time was officially established in October 1884. Imagine they’d procrastinated and only done it later. Then... well... I’m not sure what would’ve happened. Would time be what it is today? Would October even be October? Would we even be here? Is this conversation getting too deep?
New topic. The very first Model T Ford went on sale in October 1908. Imagine if Henry Ford had decided to relax and wait until January. The entire course of human history might have been different. We might have had less black cars on the road today. Who knows what might have been?
Also, the first ever sound film was released in October. It was 1927 and The Jazz Singer was all the rage. The film only contained two minutes of synchronised dialogue. But the sound in the cinema was even more profound than the sound onscreen, with fascinated audience members chanting Jolson’s name.
Not to be cynical, but nowadays movies sometimes get released in October to be top-of-mind when it’s Oscar voting time. But the Oscars hadn’t been invented yet, so nobody was thinking about awards.
Cut to October 1957 when the Space Race officially began. If the Russians hadn’t launched that first satellite, it might not have been much of a race. If they’d put it off until New Year, got busy in January, and decided to wait until the Valentine’s Day hype was over, the world might have looked very different today. Who knows who else might have beaten them to it?
Yale and Harvard were both founded in October. Lincoln sent the first transcontinental telegram. Edison kept an electric lamp lit for over 13 hours. The New York City subway opened, as did the tunnel under the English Channel.
Nobody sitting on their hands during those Octobers. Instead of getting a head start on the December holiday, they were literally changing the world.
Speaking of people... October babies include Pablo Picasso, Mahatma Gandhi, Marie Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bill Gates, Oscar Wilde, John Lennon and Friedrich Nietzsche. (Not to mention my mom...)
Quite a proactive bunch, don’t you think?
So. Next time we all get the urge to say, “Ag, we’ll do it after New Year”, remember what can be (and has been) done in the month of October. Just shows it’s never too late to start anything.
So go ahead. No pressure.
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