I just had a conversation with
a friend of mine who wants to do something very special. He wants to do a
lot of traveling with his wife, but the demands of work and home ownership keep
him from doing what he really wants to do. "I don't have time right
now," he says. "We'll start traveling when I have time."
My wife was there during the
conversation. On the way home, she said, "He reminds me of my
grandfather. He and my grandmother were always planning to travel as soon
as he retired. They were going to buy a motor home and take off and see
the country during their retirement years. He died when he was 61, though,
before he had a chance to retire. So they never got a chance to do any
traveling together."
Not everyone wants to travel,
of course, but the lesson here is important to all of us. None of us know
for sure just how much time we have on this planet, so if there's a dream that
you want to go for, then what are you waiting for? We're not put on this
planet simply to wish that we could be doing something else other than what
we're doing--we're put on a planet full of potential and possibility and
opportunity. Our limitations are our own, based on beliefs that we develop
on our own. "I own the house, so I can't leave it."
"I have to have money in the bank, so I have to keep working."
All of these beliefs may be fine for some people, but are they really fine for
everyone? Do they really serve everyone extremely well? If they keep
us from living our dreams and following our hearts, then I suppose the answer
must be "no." And of course, if your dream is to own a home and
have consistency in your life, then there's no problem with doing that!
I never put anything off until
I have time. Time is something that none of us are guaranteed, and
assuming that we're going to have plenty of it is simply a method of fooling
ourselves, of making ourselves feel better about putting off what we really,
truly want to do with our lives. That won't always turn out well--just ask
my wife's grandparents.
No comments:
Post a Comment