When would NOW be a good time?
What do you want to do that you’re putting off? Are you, `someday-ing’ your way through life?
Can we be certain that `someday’ will be available when we’re ready to grab it?
Rather than living with the expectancy of a long life, Buddhists give thanks for each day and value every breath. They live in gratitude for every moment they’re gifted with.
I’m not sure how I feel about this.
I’d prefer to assume that I will live a long, healthy and happy life, rather than preparing for it to end, but appreciating life is important too.
I want to dream and get excited for things to come, but I also want to be present and savour every moment.
Convinced that we have decades ahead of us, do we defer the things we want to do? Suspend living, in the belief that we will do it “just as soon as…”
Putting it off for another day.
I did this for years. Head down, on the hamster wheel, earning money, pausing for a holiday where I wasn’t fully present. Smiling as I pushed my kids on the swings, slightly agitated by the list of things I wasn’t tending too.
- When would my daughter be top of that list?
- When would I do the puzzle with my son with genuine interest and enjoyment?
- When would I ask my husband the kind of questions that I used to ask him when we first met, and be truly interested in what he had to say?
- When would I take a couple of hours off to have lunch with my parents
- When would I meet my sister and best friends for coffee and have a belly-laugh like teenagers?
- When would I go to the log cabin to write my novel?
- When would I do the open water swim
- When would I visit Hadrian’s Wall?
- When would I watch the sunrise?
- When would we convert the van into a Camper Van and live with freedom and nature?
Sooner or later. Why not sooner?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to own a cabin in the country. I imaged how I would drive there, with nothing but a box of food, bottle of wine, laptop, notebook and walking boots. I’d drink coffee on the porch watching the sunrise, then head out for a hike. By 10am, I’d be back writing my novel at the desk by the window overlooking the Lake. In the evening, I’d sit on the porch with a glass of wine and look at the stars.
During a coaching lesson with my clients, I asked them to think about everything they desired in life. I asked them to make a list of 30 things they wanted.
Then, to take a highlighter pen and mark everything on the list that they could do right now.
They were surprised when over 50% of their list was highlighted.
You can guess the next part of that coaching session.
Every person took immediate action in the direction of the life they want to live. Not talking, doing.
Each of my clients experiencing the things they want to experience, living their life now.
Not `as soon as…’
I booked an Air B&B cottage in the Yorkshire Dales. After a hike and a dip in the water-fall, I warmed my feet by the log fire with a glass of red wine in my hand and a glow in my heart. While I was there, I wrote a new coaching programme.
I still don’t own a cottage, but my dream of time alone in a cottage with nature, log fires, a laptop and some wine, is now a reality. All it took was a decision to do it.
Last week, during a clear out, I thumbed through a journal I’d written over 10 years ago. In it, a list of all the things I wanted, and of course the country cabin was top of the list.
Why had I waited 10 years? Time? Money? Perfection?
We often postpone doing anything until all parts are perfect. If it’s not an exact match to what we want, we don’t bother.
I decided that some action was better than no action and having part of my dream was better than having none of it. Why wait to buy ‘some-day’ when I could rent today?
I consider this dream achieved and I have two breaks a year in a country cabin in a location of my choice.
You know what to!
Make a list of all the things you want to experience in your one and only life. Grab a highlighter, get colouring and get going.
Make a decision and take immediate action. Today, not some-day!
With Love
Lorna