Reminder: Do Not Wait

I’m not sure if it’s because I turned fifty in August 2023, but I’m thinking more and reflecting more about life—what I’m doing, where I am, and where I want to go. And with another birthday looming less than three weeks away, I’m feeling a renewed sense of urgency. To do IT now. Write. Run a marathon. Take a cake decorating class. Go kayaking. It doesn’t matter what the IT is. The important thing is this: do not wait.

Life is Short

It’s easier to keep showing up to a job you don’t really like than searching for a new one or starting your own business. The tempting thing is to turn on Netflix and veg on the sofa over putting on your workout clothes and hitting the gym or going for a run. And it’s damn easier to eat that bag of Pull’N’Peel Twizzlers than a handful of cashews (that was me not too long ago…sigh). But all of those things keep you stuck, and hold you back from becoming who you want to be.

There’s no easy fix, no fast-track solution to getting in shape, finding your dream job or starting your own business, or eating healthy. You can take that first step today, whatever it needs to be. But here’s the thing: do not wait. As Ryan Holiday writes in Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control, “You have to do your best while you still have a chance. Life is short. You never know when the game, when your body, will be taken away from you.”¹

Do Not Wait

When I think about life, I often think about my Aunt Nancy who died in March 1995 at the age of forty-five. And my good friend Suzanne who, in June 2022, passed away at forty-six. It reminds me just how short life can be. Now is the time to start doing more of the things we love, to become who we dare to become. Do not wait. Because tomorrow is not guaranteed.

And today, I want to leave you with this last thought…

You are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And, best of all, you do not need anyone’s permission to be—unapologetically—who you are.

1. Holiday, R. (2022). Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control, New York, Portfolio/Penguin, p. 15. [↩]