IF NOT NOW WHEN?

You’re wasting time.

None of you, none of us, are getting any younger.

As a human, you are dying.

There is nothing you can do to stop the aging process.

Death is imminent for all of us.

Yet, much of the population lives as if holding out until they (we) get old is the goal worth pursuing.

This thought process for me was sparked due to a conversation I was having with Joelle, the woman to whom I am currently married.

She was lamenting some on a few problems she is trying to resolve…and frankly…has been for a few years.

She was talking about how frustrated she is that at 48 she seems stuck in so many ways. So many things in life she has ignored, put off, not finished and it’s catching up to her mentally and emotionally.

One of them revolves some around her own personal fitness.

This then got me thinking about how terrible I think it is, how much my heart aches for so many people that put things off, and off, and off, and off…and then, it’s too late.

“If this…then that” seems to be the rationale. Once I get __________ <———here…then I will be able to go there ———-> _________ or do that —————-> ____________.

Yet, no guarantees are presented to grant us much past today.

Well, that’s swell.

BUT, are you doing anything about it?

Are you doing anything today to make your life a little better tomorrow?

Are you embracing what you have today, in the event you lose it all tomorrow?

What do I mean?

A woman overweight and unhappy calls me for life advice.

I give her 3 very simple things she needs to start doing. Once she consistently did them for 3 weeks or so, she was to call me so we could add to the list.

1) Drink 64 oz of water every day

2) Make her bed every day (she hadn’t been)

3) I think I told her to start walking 5 days per week

4 years later, still over weight, has seen no progress, did not a single thing I suggested.

What you put off today, will turn into next week, into next month, and before you know it another year has gone past. You are not any younger, the shape you are in didn’t magically change, and you are one day closer to not being able to do what you could today, ever again in your life.

Why?

Why do we put it off and then wonder “Where did the past year go”?

One of the best pieces of advice my grandfather gave to me in one of our many Rob’s Office talks when I was running the shop on Michigan avenue was this.

Enjoy what I can today. As I age, the years will pass faster and faster. I likely will be able to do less and less, and before you know it you will be staring down the barrel of the end of your life before you.

He was not wrong.

I hope today you will consider starting something you have been putting off. I hope today you will make the choice to do now what you have been putting off for the past few years.

Look at yourself in the mirror long and hard. Have a conversation with yourself. Has putting it off made your life any better? Or, in your vain pursuits of safety, security, or simply just laziness, have you lost countless months and years you can never get back with no change for the better…perhaps even only change for the worse?

None of us are getting any younger.

Procrastination creates Stagnation making Frustration part of every day you live.

Why not start today doing what it is you are for whatever reason putting off til some other time?

rob out