Living Your Dream in Short Time

Time (Photo credit: Moyan_Brenn)

“A positive attitude is not going to save you. What it’s going to do, everyday, between now and when you die, whether that is a short time from now or a long time from now, everyday you are going to actually live.” Elizabeth Edwards

“God hath given man but a short time here upon the earth. Yet upon that time depends eternity.” Jeremy Taylor

“Dream as if you would live forever. Live as if you would die tomorrow.” James Dean

While it would be impossible to actually focus on our own dying all the time, regardless of which end of 50 we are, we never know how much “alotted time” we have. Yet, somehow, we all act as if it would be forever.

My husband and I are in the North for a funeral. Within the last three months, two friends have lost spouses. While both of these couples were older, it has led me to think something I have certainly thought before: Don’t wait. Live in the present, but do your dream now, not tomorrow. Don’t put it off. Just do it, whatever it is.

I have seen way too many people who have dreams they never pursue. They want to change jobs, or change careers, or go back to school, have a child, or move, or write a book, and they don’t. For those who make the change, I have heard countless times, “Why did I wait so long?” Others, after years or decades of dreams delayed, finally decided to move forward, only to find the struggle to change unbearably difficult, or the opportunity lost.

The crazy thing is despite having seen all that, the thought of living as if I needed to accomplish what I want to accomplish now, before it’s too late, before I die, or the chance has passed me by, is hard to hang on to. The inertia of living sucks at me, relentless in its demands.

When I was a child procrastinating over a task, to get me started my mother would say, “There’s no time like the present.” Now, as I think about it, I know there is no time but the present. Someday or tomorrow are non-existent until they become today, and even today exists in short time, a blink of the eye.

So, for me, today, I need to get started on book two, or send out one more query on book one. I will do one thing at least to advance my dream. How about you?

CLN – Paul Lenda – Let Go Of Who You Are To Become What You Might Be – 27 October 2013 (lucas2012infos.wordpress.com)
Oliver Emberton: Maybe Tomorrow (konradkonczakislam.wordpress.com)

About joanneeddy

Writer living in North Carolina. Originally from upstate New York. I love my family, my community, and my friends, and embrace 'living deliberately' in the world, trying to make a difference. I have written an as yet unpublished book, The Call, an epic fantasy with historical fiction and folklore elements. My blog is for other writers, for those who love a good read, and for all who, like me, are looking to find and live their call.

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