Life is Short ...

So Don’t Put Off What You Want To Do

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

—Henry David Thoreau

In honor of Mom’s birthday, which is coming up on Monday, we thought we’d share this lesson from Ella about living your life now. Mom learned that you never know whether or not there will be a tomorrow when she survived a heart attack at 31 years old. Stop putting things off to “later” because you never know how long you have.

Ella

Generally speaking, humans get to spend a lot more time on Earth than us dogs. Our life spans are usually fifteen years or less, while many humans live to be eighty years old. That said, there are no guarantees. You never know what tomorrow will bring, so you need to live your life now. Don’t sit on the sidelines waiting for the perfect time. The time is now. You only get one chance, so you might as well spend your time on what you love.

I’ve told you in previous posts about the things that made me happy, and how I focused my energy on joy, and having adventures. I lived a full life. I saw and did many things that a lot of people don’t ever see and do. It’s a shame to spend your life on the things that don’t matter. If you expend all of your energy worrying about the little things, there will be no time left to enjoy the things that make life worth living.

Some people prioritize work in the hopes that when they retire, they can do all of the things that they put off their entire lives. But what if retirement never comes, or by the time you get there you’re too ill or injured to adventure? Sure, I get that humans need to make money to have a home and food. However, money isn’t everything. Life experiences are important too. If you spend all of your time working, you’ll miss out on moments of joy with your friends and family. You’ll get to the end and realize how much you missed by working late just to get a project done that probably wasn’t that big of a deal anyway.

Before she left the corporate world to start her own business Mom used to work a lot of hours. During those years she went into the office all day, she would often bring her computer home to continue working after we had dinner and went for a walk. It wasn’t until after her heart attack that she realized how much she had been sacrificing for her job. She started to take more vacations, including one that lasted for six weeks! I missed her when she was traveling around South and Central America during her sabbatical, but I also applauded her for adventuring and expanding her horizons. She created memories that she’ll look back on in old age and be glad that she got to walk the Inca trail, see Machu Picchu, scuba dive with hammerhead sharks, and bike between wineries in Argentina and Chile. She’ll always remember her time learning to teach yoga in Costa Rica, and the people she met there. I was proud of her for turning her priorities around, and therefore, her life! She started living. It was even better when I got to go along on adventures.

We did so many fun things in the time that we had together. I’m glad that Mom realized how precious life is, and valued spending time on the things that we loved. She traveled the world, and I would give her a big greeting when she returned. She usually brought something back for me because she felt bad that I couldn’t join her for all of those adventures. When we could drive to a fun place, we’d go together. I was great in the car because I knew it meant that we were getting to do something fun.

Stop postponing your life. Start doing what you want to do. Make a list of the things you want to do, the places you want to see, and the experiences you want to have. Then start doing them. Some might take more time and effort than others, but some might be easier to do. Start living the life you want, so that you don’t end up looking back someday and realizing that you never really lived. That would be the greatest tragedy.