Right Now

Much of our thinking is consumed by the future. Delaying gratification; contriving plans; toiling away in the darkness while eroticizing the image of ourselves as we may one day be.

I've done plenty of this myself: "One day I'll be confident and experienced and rich enough to ask that girl for her number." Or: "Sure, that's a great idea for a company, but I should really gain a few years' more experience before I take the leap." And even: "Even though I was planning on taking that six week work trip to western Europe, I have more pressing work here now, and in any case I can always do it another time."

I'm not ready. I'll be way more equipped to accomplish that later. I don't feel comfortable trying until I know I'll succeed.

What bullshit. It's like a hazing ritual, and you're the pledge.

Not that I begrudge the concept of putting in the reps. Grit and hard work are essential. This isn't about turning down that Saturday night party invitation because you're consumed with finishing the first draft of the next great American novel. This is about turning down that Saturday night party invitation in order to stay in and fantasize about how you're going to totally crush it at the party next week.

We're so wrapped up in who we want to become that we forget to live right now. Think about the very best time you had during your freshman year of college. On the morning of that day, you woke up feeling just like you did this morning. Now it's crystallized past, just like today will be when you're seventy. How many things did you postpone at age 18, telling yourself that you would be ready to do them when you're 25? And now that you're 25, are you still telling yourself that you'll be ready by age 30?

Trust me on this: You are ready right now. If not now, then when?

Some additional thoughts on the subject follow. From Brett & Kate:

Memento mori is Latin for “Remember death.” The phrase is believed to originate from an ancient Roman tradition in which a servant would be tasked with standing behind a victorious general as he paraded though town. As the general basked in the glory of the cheering crowds, the servant would whisper in the general’s ear: “Respice post te! Hominem te esse memento! Memento mori!” = “Look behind you! Remember that you are but a man! Remember that you will die!”

And:

It at once becomes starkly clear the great tragedy in always waiting for your life to begin. If you wait for your life to start, it never will. This is your life, right now. Whether you’re in a college dorm room, or your first apartment, or a brand new house in the burbs. Whether you’re single, dating, or married. This is your life. Whatever it is you want to do, whatever it is you want to change about yourself, whatever it is you want to see and feel and experience in this lifetime, you can’t put it off until your life begins or it will never happen. Get started now.

From Cal:

Am I living well now or preparing to live well later?

If you’re not trying to live well now, what are you waiting for?

And from Seneca (via Tim):

You will hear many men saying: “After my fiftieth year I shall retire into leisure, my sixtieth year shall release me from public duties.” And what guarantee, pray, have you that your life will last longer? Who will suffer your course to be just as you plan it? Are you not ashamed to reserve for yourself only the remnant of life, and to set apart for wisdom only that time which cannot be devoted to any business? How late it is to begin to live just when we must cease to live! 

The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.