Are you guilty of the putting off doing something you've always wanted to do, until "this" happens....or until "that" happens?

Maybe your excuse is you will do it after you retire, have a certain amount of money saved, your baby turns two, your children graduate from high school, you get that next promotion, or you lose ten pounds?

How often do we stop ourselves from doing the things that really matter to us and delay experiencing joy for some time in the uncertain future? I bet we can all admit to regretting not having done something when we had the chance.

The reality of our procrastination of joy is that we could get time off from work to travel now, or pay for a vacation next month with credit, or take out a loan to buy a cottage while our kids are still young enough to want to go there with us (if we really wanted to). Think of it another way, would we figure out a way to make something happen if we knew our time was limited and we'd never get another chance? 

What holds us back from living life to the fullest when we can? Are we simply being financially responsible? Are we afraid that if we allow ourselves joy right now, we won't have anything to look forward to later? Do we fool ourselves into thinking that our workplaces or our families cannot function without us for a week or two? Or are we just better at dreaming, than actually doing?

We can use lack of time, shortage of money, responsibility to our jobs, or being over committed as our excuse for why we don't do things... but aren't we really our own roadblocks?

I was guilty of putting things off for years, and I convinced myself that when "this" happens.. then "this" can finally happen. Big things, and little ones. I even put off much needed relaxing time because the house wasn't clean or the laundry wasn't done (yet). Now I want all that time back because I have learned those things are never actually done.

The truth is we cannot control what happens in the future, nor do we know how we will feel when we get to that point in the future. Maybe what we once thought would be important to us "then" isn't even relevant anymore.

I'll bet you can think of some examples from your own life where you put something off...until. Or when someone you know worked hard to put away money to use for fun after they retired only to pass away unexpectedly.  Or maybe you heard about a couple who waited to travel the world (as they'd always wanted) only to have one of them become ill and no longer able to travel together at all?

The moral of the story: don't deny yourself the joy of now.

I once grumbled about spending $150 to fix a water stain in our first house's ceiling-- a necessary thing to get done before we attempted to sell that house --only to be completely amazed at how much better the place looked after we did it. Why hadn't we just done that while we lived there so we could enjoy the view?

So stop putting off the things that matter most. Take that vacation. Start that new hobby. Get that boat, or fix that ceiling. Feed your soul with the big and little things you want to do right now. We can't always be worried about the what if's and prepare for the what then's, or we will miss all the joy of the right now.

We have the power to alter, redirect and begin to enjoy our lives at any moment. So, what are you still putting off for someday?