Here’s the thing: One day, you are going to die. It’s a fact. It will happen to me and it will happen to you.
Here’s another thing: You will spend most of your life pissing time right up the wall like time will never end. You, (and when I say ‘you’, I also mean ‘me’), will waste hours, days, months and years doing shit you don’t want to be doing. You will also spend hours, days, months and years not doing the shit you actually want to be doing. Tick tock. This is your life. Just the one. You won’t get another. Every moment of time you waste is a moment you will never get back.
So do it. Right now. Stop waiting. Stop putting it off. There will never be a good enough time. Not next Monday, or in a month or when you’ve lost the weight or got yourself settled or on January 1st. Start now. If you want to write that book, quit talking about it and start actually writing it. If you want to leave your job, send a letter to the company you actually want to work for and tell them why you’re so fucking awesome and why they’d be crazy to not employ you. If you want to start running, go and run. Right now. Put some shoes on, open the door, step outside and jog to the end of your street and back. If you can’t jog, walk.
You are not lazy or lacking in motivation. You just keep telling yourself that you are. Maybe you’re just scared of failing, or maybe you’re actually just scared of truly stepping up and making a change because change is terrifying. It is. Stop staying small. Say yes more. Say no more. Ask why. Don’t settle. Stop blaming others. Stop blaming your parents. Yes, they fucked you up, but so did their parents and their parents and their parents. Take responsibility for yourself. Own it. Give more. Find your people. If you surround yourself with naysayers and those who make excuse after excuse, you will also start to become a naysayer and someone who makes excuse after excuse. Be inspired by others. And if you are indeed inspired by another, write to that person and tell them. It’ll make you feel good and it’ll make them feel good too. Respect other people’s time. Stop telling people you’ll visit or turn up or be there if you don’t really mean it. Do what you say you are going to do. If it doesn’t work out first time round? Try again. A toddler will fall down so many times before it finally figures out how to walk. Don’t give up the moment you stumble. Keep this in mind.
Tell that person you love them. Call your grandma. Don’t put it off. If you want to start your own business but don’t know what to do, make a list of the things you have that other people want.. If you want to sell your wedding dress on eBay then sell it. Complete that form that’s pinned to your fridge, the one you keep saying you’ll do when you have a spare moment. Turn off the television. If you don’t know how to do something but you’d really like to know how, then learn how to do it. Commit. If you’re scared, admit it. We’re all fucking scared. If you wake up at 2am, heart racing and can’t stop thinking about it, it’s probably something you really want, even though it makes your palms sweat.
Be honest. Show up. Be yourself, because you really are lovely and brilliant and people really like you. They do.
If you are not living the life you want to be living, work out what it is that you want. Push and challenge yourself. It’s never going to be easy. If it was? Every single person would have exactly what they want. We’d all be be living in that dream house on the beach or ripped with a six-pack or living in a mountain town and running hills all day long or traveling the world or getting paid to do what makes us come alive. If you want something, you have to put the work in.
It really is that simple.
Tick tock.
Do it now.