You might be one of those people that has everything in perspective. You have a handle on your money and identity. You know who you are and where you are going. If that is you, you can stop reading. Or you can help me get it right.
Ruth and I both know people that were planning on a life someday. The problem is that their someday never arrived. They got sick and died. The retirement they were counting on evaporated. Loved ones became ill and needed extensive care. In short, the someday they hoped for never came. Life is too short.
The more I thought about those people, the less I wanted to wait to have a life. Here are four ideas I have about learning to make more time for today instead of waiting for someday.
- Remember that you are replaceable at work. Most of us, if not all, are replaceable. Someone either had your job before you, or someone will have your job after you.
- Find your identity outside of work. One professional football player asked me if he should retire. Why he asked me is still a mystery, but I did give him an answer. I said that unless he knew who he was without football, he had better not retire right away. We will be alive a lot longer than anyone of us will work.
- Keep materialism at arms length. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with having things. But, don’t let these things dictate your worth as a person. Keeping up with the Jones’ is a recipe for disaster and not freedom. Reassess your ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ and start finding life right now.
- Quit worrying about what other people think about you. That should be obvious, but it isn’t. What’s the saying? Haters gotta hate…you cannot make everyone happy. Not everyone is going to like you. It’s funny that I can obsess about the one person that really dislikes me and forget about the four or five that do like me.
Life is too short. It is way too short to get caught up in things that one day will not matter. What matters is today. Sure I have a retirement plan. If everything goes well, I can retire when I’m 124. But I am not waiting until I retire to have a good life.
I don’t want a life someday. That day may not come. I can have a life today. These simple things have helped
move me to more deliberate living and an enjoyable life right now.
What would you add to the list?
What is keeping you from a today life?
Skin Ministries 
DG- Dealing with a family today who are picking up the pieces left behind after a suicide. In this man’s case, the last three things are true, but no one can replace you within your own home and family. I think that if he had kept the last three things in focus, he might be with us still. When our focus is on the externals, whether they are football or money or people’s opinions or anything else, we lose the value of ourselves.
Sometimes we are irreplaceable. We just need to know and hear that before we’re gone.
Your absolutely right. Because of that, I modified the first one. Thank you.