What the hell are you waiting for? Time to live NOW
Just do what you love.
Follow your bliss.
Let your vocation be your vacation.
Yep, you’ve heard all the sayings before. So… what are you waiting for?
When you’re doing things you love you are re-energizing yourself. Every time you do something you love, you invest in yourself. You grow. Ultimately you create an endless circle of productivity within your passion.
So why not do things we love all the time? Easy right? Well…. I’ve found that one of my hugest struggles is getting over “doing things at the right time”. Too often, I convince myself that “if I only set aside a chunk of time later this week” or “if I only plan to give myself half a day to focus on this tomorrow”, then I could do things better; like bang out this design project, or write a blog post. What really happens is that I miss out on valuable time. I miss out on opportunities.
When I think about this perspective in terms of business, I laugh. If entrepreneurs always waited for the “right time” there would be no such terms as “beta version” or “MVP”. Everyone would wait to pull the red curtain to unveil their perfectly finished product. We know this isn’t the case. We know this doesn’t work. It makes most sense to strip your product down to the bones and get it out there, while its “hot”.
1. Start at the core. Find what works for you.
Starting at the core is essential. I’ve done this with my mobile startup. I’ve done it so well I still get squeamish explaining the raw functionality of it to users. But why haven’t I done this in my life?
Well that’s what I did. Except, I didn’t reap the satisfaction of checking them all off. I failed to even check half of them off. I wondered where I went wrong.
I failed at going to bed by Midnight. I even failed at going to bed by 1 am. That was my back up. How did that happen?
All these things were pretty awesome. I don’t regret doing them. And I’m not sorry about going to bed late. My creative juices were flowing and I had just enough ambition to complete these projects and share them with the world, fresh out of the creative oven.
I found a defect in the habits I set up for myself. Defect #1: I was I trying to do too much at once. Defect #2: I was trying to do things that didn’t benefit me. Maybe going to bed early helps you get up at the crack of dawn, eat a healthy breakfast and jump on the early train for work. But for me, grinding away into the wee hours of the night helps me clear my head, narrow in on my focus, and crush life. I realized I needed to start making habits that worked for me. That benefited me.
Strict schedules work for some people while others need more flexibility. Goal setting benefits some people, yet others find them limiting.
Find what works for you. There’s a million resources out there, a million different ways to be productive, to be efficient, to hit Beast Mode. Find the habits that benefit you. Stick to them. If they’re not working, change them. It’s your life. Your productivity. Your dreams on the line. Take control.
2. Recognize your values & reflect on them
I thought back to my list of values. Connecting– feeling connected to people positively. Family, friends–> embracing human qualities, laughter, trust, love, listening and feeling passionate…Continued Growth– being a student of life, helping others and being around others that elevate me, meeting new people, opening up to new experiences……
When I zoned in on these I asked why I came up with them in the first place. What they meant and how they helped. I realized that my end goal in life is to achieve success. And success to me is valued by happiness. These values are what brings me happiness. Living parallel with these values, letting them be injected into my life, into my business, is what propels me on my path towards success.
To stick to my values, and stay true to myself, I reflect. I reflect on my wants and needs as a person, my dreams and goals. I do the things that will help get me there. These change over time. That’s okay.
The more you continue to pursue the choices that resonate with your values, the more you will continue on your path to success.
This is what I call, the “passion pursuit”.
3. JUST. TAKE. ACTION. NOW.
No more waiting around. A new habit for me is to not let perfect be the enemy of “good enough”. By waiting around I miss my chances. One way to kick the habit is to make things public. Share everything you’re up to with your “cluster of comfort”. You’ll end up completing tasks earlier because you have committed to them publicly to friends and family. It’s time I start not only doing things I love, but start doing them now.
Remember it will never be the ‘perfect time’. The perfect time is now.
