A lot of disappointed people have been left standing on the street corner waiting for the bus marked Perfection.
~ Donald Kennedy
How often do we wait for “perfect” before acting on our desires? That magical Someday when our schedule perfectly aligns, all of our cellulite disappears, our bank account is flush, and we feel invincible? Our house will be clean and our lips will be red and mysterious sultry music will float out from behind a perfect fiddle-leaf fig. THEN, and only then, we will be able to Do The Thing.
So basically, never?
Life is not Instagram. Heck, it’s not even a Finstagram. It’s messy and complicated and undignified and absurd, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something (literally. Probably for clicks.) The whole challenge and joy of this scrabbling existence is to make something beautiful and amazing come from out of the piles of nonsense, despite it being nonsense–perhaps even because it is nonsense.
Ways to Seize Your Moment:
Find the cracks between the boulders and do things there. I get it; you’re swamped. We all are. There’s too much stuff to do on any given day. So instead of trying to wedge in one more big thing, use those little, in-between times to accomplish what you need. Just be smart about it. If you need to clean your room, you can do that by putting three things away every time you’re there. In a week or two, voila! It’s clean. Same for meditation, or sit-ups, or writing that novel.
Be afraid, and do it anyway. When faced with a choice between fear and regret, always choose fear. Sure, making that investment/running for office/setting those boundaries might seem terrifying. But if you don’t, will you regret it when you’re 80? If the answer is “yes,” you already know what to do. Fear dies quick, but Regret hangs around and haunts the place.
Take that Vacation. For the past couple of decades, an increasing number of American employees are choosing not to use their vacation days–which companies are already allotting in smaller and smaller amounts. But taking time off to recharge and connect is essential for our mental and physical health. And taking time off work to do MORE work is NOT a vacation. Say it with me: there is no such thing as a “working vacation.”
Start a doable “Life List.” I hate the term “bucket list” because it mentally links the experiences you most desire to death, and death always seems like “someday,” so it’s easy to put everything off again. Make a Life List instead, and make sure to include things you can readily accomplish (not just trips to Greece.) Then take the weekends to actually start checking things off. Never been skydiving? Schedule a lesson. Never tried sashimi? Head to your nearest Japanese restaurant. Always wanted to get glamor or boudoir photos? Girl, pick up the phone. All of these are doable for you, right now.
The moment is yours. Take it!