why spend days or years doing things you don’t want to do?
by bill reeb
“time passes anyway” is a phrase commonly tossed around at my mentor john’s martial arts school. it is the reminder that change comes from doing the work and therefore we need to make every workout count.
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days will pass – 30, 60, 90 – in what feels like the blink of an eye, and when you make every day count, before you know it, you will be a lot better. whether you use your days well or simply throw them away, know that time passes anyway and that time can never be reclaimed!
my wife, michaelle, had a desire to earn her ph.d., but one of the reasons she expressed early on as to why she shouldn’t make a career change was because she was too old. she also said, “why should i go to school to get my ph.d. this late in my career? no one is looking for a new professor at my age.” well, she was clearly wrong on both counts.
remember, time passes anyway, whether or not you take action to achieve your desires. when she first mentioned earning her doctorate, she was in her early 30s and she thought she was too old then. she ended up making the change in her early 40s.
however, if michaelle were 60 and this challenge was important to her from a self-fulfillment perspective, then she wouldn’t have been too old then, either. age doesn’t matter – it is about doing whatever makes you feel happy or successful. while it was another four years before she began working as a professor, she has been living that dream for almost 15 years and is right now starting phased retirement over the next five years.
look at it this way. would you voluntarily go to prison and live there for 10 years? of course not! why would anyone confine themselves for 10 years doing something they do not want to do?
so i ask you, unless you are doing exactly what you want to do right now, why are you giving up your freedom and voluntarily staying in your own personal jail? time passes anyway. if you don’t take action now, if you don’t rethink your priorities now, months or even years will pass by without your ever putting your hands on the steering wheel guiding your life. if you act now, within a few short weeks, months or years, rather than putting off the goal you want to attain, you will be either closer to or have already achieved it. instead of lamenting changes you need to make in the future, you will be able to relax, reflect and enjoy the transformation you have already experienced.
assess yourself on your awareness that time passes anyway as you make choices. circle how you feel you are doing. on this subject, i:
- need a lot of work
- need a little work
- am okay
- feel good where i am
time passes anyway, so don’t let it pass without taking full advantage of every minute of it.
- what am i currently putting my life on hold for or waiting for it to pass before i move on?
- what do i want to do but feel time has already passed me by?
- because time passes anyway, what i am going to do differently?