Now is the new later.

Sometimes we have this tendency to put things off until we feel we’re ready or fully prepared to deal with them. We wait until the start of a new year, month, week or day before we _____________. You know what belongs on that line for yourself. I know what belongs on that line for myself.

We’re wasting our precious moments away when we do that. The moment we are in becomes less desirable, productive, and important because we say it is not worthy of our energy and passion.

I’ve been really convicted by this idea for the past month or so – I ALWAYS think “that will start tomorrow,” or “when I get back from the trip I’m taking next week” or “with my next paycheck….” and every time, it cheapens every moment between now and that THING I think will be the key to my success.

That THING is called NOW, because tomorrow I’ll wake up and be faced with a NOW that I can choose to accept or reject, and if I don’t start to train myself in the habit of now, I’ll end up with a string of unfulfilled hopes and I will ask myself “why didn’t I do that?”

Every so often I get on this “I should lose some weight” kick. and I look at before/after pictures of people like on instagram and I think back to what I was doing 6 weeks ago and see what they’ve accomplished in 6 weeks and wonder why I didn’t start 6 weeks ago – and if I start today, what would I have to show for 6 weeks…. and then I rarely start. I think “tomorrow.” or “next week.” and then 6 weeks pass and I see another picture of that person who embraced NOW and they continue to look different, while I stay the same.

I think it’s easy to talk about with things like weight loss, budgeting… things you can SEE, but there’s this huge pool of unseen habits and vices waiting to be tackled. I’m currently working on figuring out the best cleaning schedule for myself because I don’t work well in chaos. and I guess I should admit that while I sit here encouraging all of you to take on NOW with full force – I haven’t used my NOW’s to make a cleaning schedule or put stamps on letters or respond to e-mails.

Our discipline won’t magically appear next Monday, February 1st, or tomorrow morning when my alarm goes off. Our discipline is exercised in the ordinary moments that don’t always feel fresh and new.

And with that… I’m off to take on the day.