Someday is not a strategy. Think about it. When contemplating something we long to do or experience, writing off a dream with “someday” is a cop out on ourselves. The only intention behind “someday” is procrastination or outright avoidance.
When an extraordinary friend and mentor first uttered these five life-changing words to me last year, I absorbed them into my very bloodstream. After that conversation, I began to think long and hard about my dormant dream to be a writer, and I suddenly had no good reasons for “someday.” Why not now?
From there my blog was born, giving me a fulfilling way to exercise and strengthen my writing muscle. I’ve redoubled my commitment to write the book I began a few years ago, and I’m more passionate than ever about my writing.
These five words, each simple by itself but profound when strung together in a statement, are a constant reminder to check myself if I start defaulting to excuses for why I can’t pursue a goal or a dream.
Why wait a moment longer to start reaching for your heart and soul’s desires? The fallacy of waiting for circumstances to be perfect is that perfection is a fleeting illusion.
Today’s perfection rapidly dissolves into tomorrow’s ‘not enough.’
There always will be an excuse as long we allow one to stand in our way.
My father passed away just before he turned 46 (that’s him pictured above, holding my left hand as he takes my siblings and me on a toy run during the rare break from working in our family restaurant). Fourteen at the time of his death, I didn’t have then a true appreciation for how young he was. Now that I have siblings, friends and colleagues who are even older than my father was at the time of his passing, I see more starkly than ever how short his life was cut.
My father enjoying his favorite leisure time activity, fishing.
My father never had a chance to live his dream to buy a camper and spend lazy days by the water, to fish to his heart’s content without any regard for time.
Weeks of debilitating chemotherapy to treat lung cancer finally motivated him to see that his “someday” could wait no more. I vividly remember our conversation when he told me that as soon as he got the doctor’s all-clear, he was going to make it happen. What he didn’t tell my tender, naive heart was that his days were numbered. He wasn’t able to shift quickly enough from recovery to action, and pneumonia claimed his weakened body before he could claim his dream.
My father’s story underscores life’s demand that we live now, fully present with each precious breath we take.
I’m all in for trading my somedays for today, for right now. Are you with me?
Go wear that special dress you’ve been saving for the perfect occasion, take that trip to the place you’ve visited so often in your daydreams, start learning that hobby that’s always interested you.
There will be no time more perfect than today.
