“a stitch in time saves nine; if you sort out a problem immediately it may save a lot of extra work later (the loose interpretation)”.
One thing I have come to know about life for the few years I have spent here on earth is that once you don’t solve a minor problem whilst it is still minor, it blows up to become a big problem.
Let’s say a car for instance; I drive a car and I know that once the car gives a sign on the dashboard; a maintaince or warning sign and I as the driver refuses to adhere to that sign or immediately fix the problem that was indicated on the dashboard, more things will spoil in the car and from a minor car maintenance problem to a huge one: If you have a leak in your tire and it’s indicated on the dashboard or you feel it on your steering wheel that the car is not balanced, hence the urgent need to top up air into the tire, if you ignore that sign and continue using the car like that and more air gets leaked out, and it suddenly becomes an empty tire with no air, driving a tire without air immediately damages the tire and if you continue driving a damaged tire it will damage your rims and if you continue driving the rims, it damages the break disc as well and it you are still recalcitrant and wants to continue digging it out, i promise you that it will get to point where the engine will knock and the car will no longer be able to move. Now from the minor problem of a tire leak which could be fixed by N100 worth of air or patching of the tire to a huge car problem that will cost you millions to fix only if you are lucky if not the car may become unfixable.
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Same with the human body; if you have malaria and you fail to treat it immediately, it can blow up into a more life-threatening sickness. Same with injury, if you have an injury and you refuse to treat it immediately it might become more damaging; some deep wounds if not immediately treated can even turn into cancer and the only cure then will be to amputate the affected part.
Same with the road we drive or walk on; if there is a tiny porthole on a road and it is not immediately fixed or closed up, the porthole will expand to a large hole until that whole portion of the road becomes damaged.
And this how life is general is; a minor problem if not immediately tackled and fixed turns into a major problem. In problem management we were taught that problems are easier to manage and solve when it is still minor, if you let it get full-blown it may become difficult to manage or handle.
This is why it is ridiculously bad to procrastinate problem-solving. Do not procrastinate, it is disastrous; tackle it immediately raises its ugly head. Imbibe the culture of handling your minor problems once you notice them.
I believe that from now on you will have a deeper understanding of the cliche “a stitch in time saves nine”.