It’s tempting to plan for the future. But that’s often precisely what stops us from achieving the life we most desire.
Who ever said you have to wait around for the good life?
Making all your careful plans… Thinking about what you are and aren’t “allowed” to do…
It’s all bullshit.
This isn’t you being careful, or respectful, or anything else that you dress it up as to sound virtuous. This is flat out avoiding the issue.
You have the chance to dive right in and start living right now. Right now! Instead of just hoping that things will be more convenient in some future time.
You’re not ready? Well you’ll never get ready by just thinking about it. Dive in!
The time or situation isn’t right? Well there will never be a perfect time or situation. Dive In!
You feel you need ‘permission’? This is your life. There are no rules! Give up on all that crap. Just dive in!
Life is already flowing by. It’s not going to wait until you’re ready to engage with it fully. And it’s never going to graciously change to accommodate your preferences.
What’s better: to wait on the sidelines while you try and work it all out in theory in advance, and only then allow yourself to start living? Or to dive right into the present moment, and learn as you swim through life’s rich current?
I know which one seems like a life well lived to me.
The good life isn’t an abstract concept in the future. It’s something concrete you do today. It’s so simple when you get it — and yet it’s incredibly difficult to act on this insight.
I have realised all this thousands of times over. Each time my life improves massively for a while. At least an hour — maybe even a day or two if I’m lucky.
But I always drift back into delusion and need waking up again. My mind can’t hack this for some reason. It always finds something else for me to worry about, or some other distraction.
So I’ve accepted that this is how it is — not something I’ll ever ‘finish’, but an ongoing practice. I’ll never escape from the need to remind myself to come back to the present moment and recognise that it’s already perfect.
The future is beyond your control. No matter how good your plans are you can never know for sure you’ll get the chance to put them into practice. All this thinking and planning to ‘do life right’ might ultimately be wasted.
But nothing can ever stop you from starting right now.
Why not start now?