Running out of gas is a choice you made at the last three stations you drove past.

Emergencies usually have a history. What feels like sudden bad luck is often a series of small postponements, each individually reasonable, none of which looked like the moment anything was being decided. By the time the situation is urgent, the decisions that caused it are already behind you and no longer available to change.

When you notice yourself thinking you will handle something later, count how many times that thought has already occurred. Three is the number where later stops being a plan. Deal with it at the station you are currently passing.