Cultivate a habit of impatience about things you most want to do.

A friend is diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer last week. The rogue cells in her body have become enemies that are eating her body away. She is 33 years old. When a dear friend is fighting for her life, you’re reminded of the fleetingness of life.

Life is short.

And yet, we say these things all the time…

“I will leave that job I hate “someday”. I will travel “someday”. I will visit my parents more “someday”. I will rekindle important friendships “someday.” I will start a new blog and share something I’ve been interested in since I was a kid “someday”. I will start running a business I care about “someday.””

We live life as if we have all the time in the world. We shove things we care about more than anything else in the world into a non-existent “someday.”

We do this more often than we realize. In fact, you might even be doing it right now.

None of us knows which day is going to be our last.

“I need more experience. More money. More time. More talent. More something.”

We sit around and think about “someday,” separating ourselves from it with a whole set of excuses. We imagine we will do things that matter to us when “the right time” comes. When we are ready enough. When we are talented enough. When we have enough resources.

The list of excuses goes on…

Like my friend’s excuse that stood in her way of achieving her dreams. She had always wanted to open a designer shop. This dream is important to her. Every time we meet, she talks about opening her designer shop “one day”.

And yet…

Excuses kept her from pursuing her dream. Now, my friend’s biggest regret is shoving her important dream into a vague “someday”.

Are you putting things that matter to you on hold for “someday”?

Certainly, constraints do hold us back. We might not have enough money to start a business. We might have little time to put in time and effort into a side business. But, usually, the constraint is not what stands in our way.

Our attitude is the problem. We carry this “we have all the time in the world,” attitude on our shoulders preventing us from doing things that matter to us. We push things that matter far off into a distant archive in our minds. And we seal it in a lockbox.

None of us knows which day is going to be our last.

And yet…

I am not writing this to make you think of death. I’m not telling you to live in fear. I’m telling you to cultivate a habit of impatience about things that matter to you.

Don’t wait to do things that matter to you.

Don’t wait for “someday” – when you have enough experiences, when you are old enough, when you have enough money, when you have time – to do things that matter to you.

We don’t have all the time in the world.

Especially for things that matter to us. Our relationships. Our family. Our dreams and passion. Our creativity. Our unique talent. Our interests. And, those things my friends, is why we should cultivate a habit of impatience about important things. We should not put these things that matter to us in a box named “someday”.

No one has said it better than Seneca on the danger of putting things off,

“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours.” – Seneca, In the Shortness of Life

Don’t put things that matter to you in a gift box where you will open it “someday”. Are you putting time and effort into important relationships? Today? Now? Are you doing your best to do things that matter to you?

You might have great aspirations. You might have great hopes and dreams. You might have goals to achieve. But I hope you realize tomorrow is not promised to any of us. I hope you take each day as a most precious gift and do things that matter to you. I hope you cultivate a habit of impatience about things you most want to do. I hope you squeeze the marrow out of life today.

I hope you don’t wait before climbing that mountain or writing that book or visiting your mother.