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“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb ~ English author of ‘Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather’
We have all heard of the benefits of compounding interest. When we save our money appropriately we are able to add interest to our principal lump sum. By reinvesting the interest we have accrued we are able to increase our initial sum that much more quickly.
But the same holds true for the interest that we accrue in our daily lives. The work that we put into today will increase our long-term benefits tenfold. Our success ultimately lies in the understanding that what we do now will dramatically affect who we are, and what we are able to accomplish a year from now.
The problem is that as human beings we are always putting things off until tomorrow. That can wait until tomorrow, or I’ll do that when I have time, are phrases we have all uttered. The notion of procrastination likely showed its ugly head when we were young and restless in our days at school. It was rarely enjoyable to do our homework once we got home from school, and so many of us would put it off to that last second possible.
Work is never fun because in defining it as “work”, we are doing something that takes us away from what we really want to be doing. We put our time, and our focus, into the things in life that bring us the most joy. Unfortunately, that joy is normally short-lived because we do the things that make us happy in the short term rather than that which will bring us the deepest, and most long-lasting happiness.
It is the time that we invest today towards something greater than just a momentary feeling of ecstasy that will inevitably lead to true joy, not just for ourselves, but for those around us as well. It all comes down to our ability to invest in the future, not just in the present moment.
We are constantly looking back at our lives wishing we would have done this, or knowing that if we would have started that thing sooner we would be in a much different place today. It is in the realization that what we do today will so affect our tomorrow that drives us to want more, and to work harder for that which we want so badly.
What are you doing today, not just for yourself but also for those around you, that will disallow for you to look back regretfully? What are you doing today to invest in your future?
We always wish we would have done this or that. We wish that we would have invented that new-fangled technology, or spent more time diving into that area of expertise that now would have paid off immensely.
But it is that thought process that stops us from doing today, from realizing that the only time that matters is right now, and if we focus on what we can do, and not on what we didn’t do, that we can change our lives immeasurably.
What do you wish you would have done sooner? What do you think about that drives you crazy because you never started? And more importantly, what have you learned from not starting that will make you do it differently today?
If tomorrow is not guaranteed, we need to use this day to make a change, this day to no longer have regret.
When we focus on what we can do, instead of what we wish we had done, we realize that life is just a series of choices. It is on us now to choose a life where we invest in the future, rather than regret the past.
It’s not just about what’s best for us, it’s about what’s best for those around us. Make a change today and the ripple effect that it will have on your tomorrow may change the world.
(What will happen a year from now depends on what you do today, image by Satbir Singh via #Flickr)
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This is one of the pictures of my exhibition at Six/Eight Kafe, Temple Row, Birmingham. If you'd like to see more images then please head to my blog: starttoday.tumblr.com
Please pop in to take a look and have a drink, and if you like anything then all the work is for sale :)