Waiting to Live…

Imagine you found yourself with just three months left to live. After you got past the dread of it all, what would you do? It seems you would seek to spend your remaining time on the things that mattered most. In the front of your mind would be all of the people who you love, with you most assuredly making the commitment to make sure they knew just how much. Your moments would all become precious and you would take nothing for granted. Putting things off for the future would quickly become a thing of the past. You would endeavor to live your last days with all that you are. Well, my friend, you don’t need a death sentence to stop waiting to live…

Most people have become adept at the waiting game. They are waiting for the conditions to be just right. They are waiting to have enough money. They are waiting to reach a certain age or get married or have some kids. They are waiting to feel good or safe. They are always looking to some future day when all they ever wanted will have finally arrived. They are waiting until they get off of work or for the weekend or for that grand vacation next month. But sadly, the majority of your life will be lived in the spaces in-between. Life is found in each new moment of the day. It’s getting ready in the morning. It’s driving to work. It’s getting ready for bed. It’s the mundane and the routine. It’s happiness and struggles, joy and pain. It’s feeling at ease and feeling threatened. It’s having what you need and not having what you need. It’s life and all that goes with it.

It seems logical then, seeing we are all in this thing together, that your job is to learn how to live your life. Your task is to embrace the struggle. Get into the fight. Stop putting off and putting up with everything. Quit waiting for another day. Do the things that matter now. Capitalize on the moments that are now. Use your time available now, not when you get past the next big problem. Choose good thoughts right now, not when it looks like things are lining up. Be happy and uplifting and kind. Love people, bless people, help people! In short, be that wonderful person you really are inside today, not later when circumstances get better; not after you get the promotion; not when people finally treat you right, but right frikkin now, today!

You see, the grand deception is that you will always have more time. You can do it tomorrow, figure it out tomorrow, get better tomorrow. And while you are living with unlimited tomorrows, nothing worthwhile gets done today. Oh you can do important stuff, serious stuff, but do those things really impact your life in meaningful and fulfilling ways? Are those things you focus on today the things that will take your focus when your life becomes very short? None of us have unlimited days (at least not in this life), so our number one priority is to make our days count. Live with purpose, on purpose with all that you have and all that you are! Learn new things. Pursue new goals. Those things where you already excel, excel all the more! Give what you have got to give. All of you! All of the time!

Every one of us is unique and has a special place in the world. No-one can duplicate you and all that you are. But, you have to get busy doing you! You have to move beyond the endless distractions and threats and worries, into something new, namely what you have to offer to the world. What good part of you have you been holding back? What loveliness, what deep love and concern, what passion have you been extinguishing while you wait and wait for that day that never comes? What supreme goodness exists inside of you that you keep waiting to give out? Give yourself! Pour yourself out! Produce what only you can produce. Write it, paint it, sculpt it! Do it! Do it now! If you don’t do it, it won’t get done, at least not in the way you were supposed to do it!

Your mind was designed to thrive in the moments called now. All your energy, your perceptions, your insights, your love, are there for you right now. The thrill in the vast unexplored life exists now. The untapped learning, the excitement of new things, the beauty and unparalleled variety are here right now. But, you can only begin to perceive them when you finally decide to stop waiting to live, waiting to love, waiting for the future, but instead live now! Why not be the best employee; the best husband; the best father or mother; the most loving, kind person, now? Why settle for a 60% version of yourself? Why be satisfied with a C? Why fool yourself into believing you could be all you ever wanted to be, while still holding the best part of you back? Indeed, write the song, invent the tool, start the group, but do it now!

You don’t have to wait to navigate the uncertainty of your time running out soon, to make the decision to live! You can choose to live right now, today! You can go all in! You can leave it all out on the field! You can say what you have always wanted to say, be who you always wanted to be, do all you ever wanted to do, right now with all that you are! Don’t spend another day waiting for a future day to live. Live right now, in this moment, as if it was your last, because in a sense it is your last as you can’t ever get those moments back! Be the person you know to be today! You can! You must! Stop waiting. Live life; your life, now!

I love you…

Just some good thoughts…