Start Now

Don’t Wait For a Wake Up Call to Start Living Your Life, Start Now!

August 15, 2013 by Joe Martino

We see it time and time again, people go on living life in a state that could be described as robotic until suddenly something major happens in their life that kicks them into LIVING. Whether it is a death of someone close to them, a serious illness, an accident, getting fired from a job or loss of a relationship, usually these events can be life changing because they make us reflect. Let’s stop right now. Ask yourself, are you living life the way you want to be living it? Set aside financial factors for the time being and start simple. Is your job what you want? Is you lifestyle ideal? Do you spend enough time with the people you love? Do you have dreams and aspirations you are looking to explore? Finally, why are you not doing these things right now?

One of the greatest regrets we hear from older people is that they did not live life to the fullest when they had the chance. They took life too seriously and always pushed their dreams aside to continue building their career or “ideal” life even though it wasn’t what they truly wanted. It’s not always our fault though, we are told that early in our lives that we must go to school, get a good education, get a good job, get married, buy a house, start a family and live happily ever after. But is this truly what life is all about? Does this path automatically lead to happiness? Are we drastically limiting our life by chasing this path? I of course cannot answer this question for you and nor would I attempt to, but I can encourage you to reflect on it and that is the purpose of these questions.

When we take a look at the idea of school, job, marriage, house, retire = happy, we recognize some very interesting factors that can easily promote a very limited lifestyle. The moment we carry on with this lifestyle we begin to create large amounts of debt. That debt then traps us in our current jobs/situation and doesn’t leave us much room for sudden changes to follow our dreams. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just that there is a clear limitation set the moment we start living life under this mentality. Now I am not saying having kids and a family is a bad thing, I’m just asking if it is a rush? Do we need to follow a timeline and do what society expects of us? Is it the ultimate goal of life? Ultimately, are we living our own dreams? Or are we pursuing someone else’s dreams considering we follow what we were told to follow?

Don’t Wait For a Major Wake Up Call

The purpose of this reflection is to encourage each of us to start living NOW. Why do we keep putting what we want to do off? “I’m just not ready.” “I don’t have enough money.” “I am too busy.” “The right thing hasn’t presented yet.” Sometimes these are valid answers, but a lot of times they are simply excuses the mind comes up with to sidetrack us. It can be hard, but imagine yourself with a serious illness and a few months to live, would you be living life exactly how you are? No. So why does it take a big wake up call to change? It doesn’t. We simply have to kick the fear aside and start taking steps to make things happen. You will think of all the excuses in the world as to why you should not begin now, but it is likely that there is a solution to every single one.

Do something you love today. Tell someone close to you how you feel about them. Look into that one thing you’ve always wanted to do, and begin exploring it.

Living Examples

Think it’s not possible? Look at all of the people in the world who currently live a lifestyle similar to the idea presented. They follow their dreams, aspirations and desires even though it represents a different path. They are fluid with their choices and open to change as it presents. We commonly judge, envy or categorize these people as being unrealistic but are they really? In my own life, I was told heavily that I needed to follow a specific path when growing up. I was presented with all the fears that are normally put on people “You won’t have any money.” “You can’t just do what you want.” “You need to wake up to the real world.” When I decided to leave college for the last time I worked a job for a few years before finally leaving that to follow my desire to be more fluid and start this website. 4 years later I am having a great time and at a point where I can follow my inner most desires. Along the way there were always answers, a solution and a means to keep me going. I learned to trust and understood that when I followed my hearts desires things would be taken care of. I, along with others, are living proof that we can all follow our dreams and begin living life now. I could have made the choice to wait, to listen to what everyone else told me and to simply hope that one day I could do what I wanted, but what would the waiting have done? Just provided me with the experience of waiting, that’s it. If I was able to take the leap of faith, so can you, cause we are no different. I’m not saying you can’t plan and wait as that plan unfolds, but you are at least taking action during that time to make it happen.

Exercise

Write down all of the things you want to do in life; call it a bucket list if you must. Be sure to tap into YOUR dreams and not the dreams and aspirations of others that you think might make you feel happy if you had them. It’s important to dig into our deepest desires and not simply chase things we THINK we want. When you begin writing, don’t worry if you are unsure of what you want to do right away. Start by writing anything that comes to mind, whether it’s traveling to a certain place, an ideal job, relationship or starting a new hobby; just write it down. Once you are done, look back and begin thinking about how each one feels to you. What does it represent? Do you really want it? For the ones that truly hit home, leave them as is and cross off the rest. Now you will have a list of things you truly want to experience. Next thing to do is start small with each one, what will it take to get the ball rolling for each? Write that down if you need to and then start taking the steps. You will notice how amazing this feels and that when you are in alignment with your deepest desires, things will flow and fall into place quite effortlessly.

Don’t wait any longer to start living, it is entirely possible now, so start being!