Your life isn't what happens after you get everything figured out. Your life is what's happening right now, with uncertainty, incomplete plans, and messy problems.
"Your days aren't the rough draft." Justin, I needed this today. I have always saved to be able to leave my job and do full-time writing, but all I did was plan and save. No real work. I have been sitting on my book for almost three years now. Never ran the corners to find the publishers or did any self-marketing so people could find me. I hope I take the real steps now and start treating my days as the final life I will live.
This is so true. In my 30s, there’s a very visible gulf between those in my peer group who waited for things to happen, and those who allowed curiosity to guide them down one baby step after another. Those in the 2nd group have now found themselves in an entirely different world as a result of those baby steps. It can be tough, though. I’ve decided that I want to get into Substack writing and film. Both are very different than what I’ve done before, and require a looot of baby steps :)
I like the Anne Dillard quote. It's apt. We live our lives second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day. Days add to weeks, weeks to months and months to quarters and years. Waiting for the perfect moment is where the majority of people get it utterly wrong. There will never be a perfect moment. The perfect moment begins the moment you start. Half the battle is won the moment you start. You begin to learn what works and what doesn't. The issue with life is this, life is not about where you're today, but where and how you end up. To end up at the right side of life, you have to take your destiny into your own hands - doing the things that will enable you to live life on your own terms.
This was so good Justin. Something I have been thinking about a lot the last few years and trying to put into practice on a daily basis (as well as more macro scale like monthly/yearly/etc). I have begun to really question the idea of "retirement". It's a broken model IMO. Not only the delayed gratification piece, but also simply shutting down all of the experience, skill and good a person can contribute to the world purely because they reached a certain age. Although we're still a ways off, my wife and I have started to adopt the mindset of "refirement". Moving into a new phase of life when we get to THAT age. Too many people have too much life still in them and too much to offer to just park it and watch grass grow until they die.
Of course, the implications are significant beyond the retirement discussion as well.
Thanks for the perspective and speaking into the less traditional viewpoints.
Totally agree - I’ve been thinking a lot about this, too (as I hit my early 50s 😬). For me, a happy ‘retirement’ is doing the work I want to do, when I want to do it. 💪
Love this, Justin! I think one thing that's missing for me in this is that "just doing it" (whatever "it" might be for you), isn't necessarily some big thing. I think living your life the way you want to now comes in the small things—writing for an hour vs. writing a book, working on your side hustle after work vs. quitting your day job to work for yourself, taking a day off vs. taking that big vacation. It's the small steps that then add up to the bigger things—the hour of writing regularly leads to the book, the after-hours side hustle eventually turns into a larger thing, the days off add up to loads of time spend away from work and with family. It's like, in some ways, the stars will never align (there will never be the perfect moment for those big things), but in other ways, the stars are always aligned enough for you to do the small things.
Dylan, absolutely, the stars always align enough to do the small things.
Here are the few small things I've tried:
1. I wrote my first two books while still working full time. Today, I've written 8 in all.
2. I jumped into the training field when I knew little about the subjects I was teaching. Today I have over 10,000 students trained to show for it.
3. I started training others how to write and publish books when I knew next to nothing about the publishing industry and today I'm a publisher.
4. I started training my friends on digital marketing when I didn't know what a lead magnet was. Today I have over 750 students and I've created my own training frameworks.
I believe what keeps the majority of people from trying anything is "waiting for permission" and perhaps, imposter syndrome.
Wow. Just wow. Thanks for the reminder, Justin. This IS it. No dress rehearsal. Gotta’ prioritize the health thing every day to hopefully have 600 more months to savor on this planet.
It's very difficult to figure out when to stop delaying and start enjoying a little. In the run up to things, we always forget that we started our hustle for a reason. However after a lot of time, our brain get's habituated to our stressful way of living and then hustle becomes our life.
At almost 56, it is definitely time to start DOING things on my bucket list instead of adding more things to it! Sending you cheer- 💌
Amanda this is wishing God's speed.
Half the battle is won once you start.
Love this! It reminds me of that quote -- "The past is history. The future is a mystery. Today is a gift; that's why it's called the 'present'."
Life is all about that moment 💯 this moment right now.
I'm glad I have this urgency for years now that I start doing, else I would be really unhappy and stuck in a mediocre job
"Your days aren't the rough draft." Justin, I needed this today. I have always saved to be able to leave my job and do full-time writing, but all I did was plan and save. No real work. I have been sitting on my book for almost three years now. Never ran the corners to find the publishers or did any self-marketing so people could find me. I hope I take the real steps now and start treating my days as the final life I will live.
Do it.
I wish I could write like you. Thank you.
Me too, but I think the way to get there is to start. Go for it.
This is so true. In my 30s, there’s a very visible gulf between those in my peer group who waited for things to happen, and those who allowed curiosity to guide them down one baby step after another. Those in the 2nd group have now found themselves in an entirely different world as a result of those baby steps. It can be tough, though. I’ve decided that I want to get into Substack writing and film. Both are very different than what I’ve done before, and require a looot of baby steps :)
Getting into the film....you mean script writing?
I'm currently writing, directing and producing a few shorts
Fantastic..
I like the Anne Dillard quote. It's apt. We live our lives second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day. Days add to weeks, weeks to months and months to quarters and years. Waiting for the perfect moment is where the majority of people get it utterly wrong. There will never be a perfect moment. The perfect moment begins the moment you start. Half the battle is won the moment you start. You begin to learn what works and what doesn't. The issue with life is this, life is not about where you're today, but where and how you end up. To end up at the right side of life, you have to take your destiny into your own hands - doing the things that will enable you to live life on your own terms.
Iteration is the secret sauce to progress, I reckon. 👌
This was so good Justin. Something I have been thinking about a lot the last few years and trying to put into practice on a daily basis (as well as more macro scale like monthly/yearly/etc). I have begun to really question the idea of "retirement". It's a broken model IMO. Not only the delayed gratification piece, but also simply shutting down all of the experience, skill and good a person can contribute to the world purely because they reached a certain age. Although we're still a ways off, my wife and I have started to adopt the mindset of "refirement". Moving into a new phase of life when we get to THAT age. Too many people have too much life still in them and too much to offer to just park it and watch grass grow until they die.
Of course, the implications are significant beyond the retirement discussion as well.
Thanks for the perspective and speaking into the less traditional viewpoints.
Totally agree - I’ve been thinking a lot about this, too (as I hit my early 50s 😬). For me, a happy ‘retirement’ is doing the work I want to do, when I want to do it. 💪
This is a great reminder Justin. Even though we know that we should be in the present. We hardly ever are.
Life is now and in the little moments, and it is all good, whatever is happening.
I read a great line the other day (may even be another of Justin’s posts): “the good old days are now.”
Love this, Justin! I think one thing that's missing for me in this is that "just doing it" (whatever "it" might be for you), isn't necessarily some big thing. I think living your life the way you want to now comes in the small things—writing for an hour vs. writing a book, working on your side hustle after work vs. quitting your day job to work for yourself, taking a day off vs. taking that big vacation. It's the small steps that then add up to the bigger things—the hour of writing regularly leads to the book, the after-hours side hustle eventually turns into a larger thing, the days off add up to loads of time spend away from work and with family. It's like, in some ways, the stars will never align (there will never be the perfect moment for those big things), but in other ways, the stars are always aligned enough for you to do the small things.
Dylan, absolutely, the stars always align enough to do the small things.
Here are the few small things I've tried:
1. I wrote my first two books while still working full time. Today, I've written 8 in all.
2. I jumped into the training field when I knew little about the subjects I was teaching. Today I have over 10,000 students trained to show for it.
3. I started training others how to write and publish books when I knew next to nothing about the publishing industry and today I'm a publisher.
4. I started training my friends on digital marketing when I didn't know what a lead magnet was. Today I have over 750 students and I've created my own training frameworks.
I believe what keeps the majority of people from trying anything is "waiting for permission" and perhaps, imposter syndrome.
What an incredible list of accomplishments, Paul! Congratulations!
Wow. Just wow. Thanks for the reminder, Justin. This IS it. No dress rehearsal. Gotta’ prioritize the health thing every day to hopefully have 600 more months to savor on this planet.
I run my business on LinkedIn. And it can be easy to say that:
"I'll write this post tomorrow"
"I'll do my DMs later"
And whatnot...
But, what if that "tomorrow" or "later" never comes again?
That's the real question :)
> Start that fun side project, even if you don't have all the details completely ironed out.
It's so illogical that I keep delaying exactly what I would enjoy doing the most – exploring, building, having fun with my side project.
Thank you for the reminder, Justin!
Do it. 💪
The best time to do something is... NOW!
This hits deep. And because it hits deep, that means it’s true.
There is never going to be a right time to do something. We have to face our fear of the unknown and just go for it!
It's very difficult to figure out when to stop delaying and start enjoying a little. In the run up to things, we always forget that we started our hustle for a reason. However after a lot of time, our brain get's habituated to our stressful way of living and then hustle becomes our life.