Last week I went on a road trip to visit some new places and re-visit some old. I’m working on visiting all National Parks in the US and had never been to Death Valley National Park. However, the week before my trip was one of those uber-busy times and I was exhausted. I seriously contemplated staying home and almost did. But you know when you decide to go to that party despite wanting to stay home and you have a great time? Deep down inside I knew this was one of those times and I would regret not going. Instead of saying “I’ll go there later” I decided to jump in the car and go. I’m so glad I did. Death Valley National Park is one of the most amazing places I have ever been too (for more on my road trip to Death Valley National Park visit my travel blog).
One of the things I do when I’m indecisive or contemplating doing it later is to remind myself to live my life with a sense of urgency. It’s so easy to say “I’ll do it later…I’ll do it someday…” but since we don’t know what the future holds we need to remember that we may not have later but we have now. Time is something we cannot reverse or get more of. I don’t want to wake up years from now wishing I had done more. Visiting Death Valley National Park was something I really wanted to do now instead of later in my life. Plus I knew if I put it off then summer would come around and well, it’s definitely not the peak time to visit the park, especially for someone like me that melts when it gets above 80 degrees.
Since the reality is that we cannot do everything now that we want to do, it comes down to priority. If you were told you only had a certain amount of time to live, what are the things you really would want to accomplish during that time? What are the things you would want to do? What places would you want to visit? Who would you want to see or spend time with? If you didn’t do these things would you regret it? For me I have things on my list that I really would regret if I didn’t do. I also have some that I would like to do but that are of lower priority. I try to live my life based on that list of priority. I want to have as few regrets as possible.
Don’t wait until later to do the things you want to do. Including the small but significant things like telling someone you love them, interfering when needed, taking action, making a difference, showing kindness. Remember, you may not have later, but you have now. Don’t put it off. Live your life with a sense of urgency.
Are you living your life or putting it off? What motivations do you use to try to live in the now?
I have been putting something of for the last couple of weeks just because it’s a bit outside of my comfort zone. But then I read your post and told myself “Hey it’s time to get things moving now, you can’t just be talking about doing all these things, you need to take some action in the right direction”. So last night finally begun working again on a project I really what to accomplish 🙂 Your post motivated me!
Yay! That’s awesome. Thank you for telling me my post motivated you to move forward on something you want to accomplish! That makes my day! 🙂