Stop Waiting For The Future, Because All You Have Is Now

“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you will escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.” – John Greene

Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for everything. When the world gives you lemons, it’s okay to fantasize about making lemonade, but maybe you need to wait until next week (the juicer isn’t working right now). However, every single week should not be giving you lemons.

You shouldn’t be catching yourself every Sunday night, dreading that another week will begin, another repetition, another mini-lunar cycle.

You shouldn’t feel like you have gained the superpower of precognition (knowing the future), because you know what each day is going to look like. You shouldn’t feel life is laid out for you, that you are a character in your story instead of the author.

You shouldn’t feel like a mouse running on his wheel, fruitlessly fighting to get somewhere but in actuality not moving, not changing, not progressing. Stuck.

We are all just dreaming of the future, aren’t we? You’ll start the gym membership next month, when things settle down. You look at the pottery class, or the dance class online, thinking you’ll sign up later. If you can just keep this job going for another five years, then you’ll have saved up enough to go on that dream vacation, or work less, or have a family, or, or, or.

Five years is a long time. Hell, this coming week is a long time. 168 hours.

This week is not a pre-planned list, created for you by an overbearing parent (unless it is, because you are still young enough to be considered “a kid”), rather, it’s an opportunity to do something different, to be someone different. Talk to the stranger in the grocery line instead of playing on your phone. Try out the new restaurant down the street, the one you said you were going to try six months ago. Go to the gym today. Sign up for that dance class now. Just do something. Don’t let passivity inhibit your ability to be the author of your own story. There’s always something behind every closed door (even if it’s just air), and you don’t have to wait until next week to open it.

Life doesn’t slow down; the work week hours will remain the same, responsibilities are not going to disappear. The job that you should be grateful to have will still be there, and if you don’t like yours? Find something else; apply for something different today.

We gain nothing from wishing on a future, and we gain everything for living for today.

Stop waiting for your life to happen to you; stop waiting for the next thing. We don’t have a guaranteed future. We have a now.

“Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.” – Hugh Laurie