BEEEEEP…. BEEEEEEP…. BEEEEEP. My alarm went off at 5:30am and I promptly reached over to my nightstand, grabbed my phone and tapped it all in one fell swoop with my eyes closed, to silence that sound that most of us have grown to hate. 10 minutes pass and the phone lights up my nightstand again to entice me out of bed, but again I hit the snooze button. This goes on for 40 more minutes before I finally roll out of bed to the sound of my 2 year old calling my name to come get him out of bed.
That’s the exact way I started my day for the majority of 2013-2014.
On those days, the first 45 mins of my day was always reactionary and rushed. Getting the kids ready. Getting myself ready. And out the door.
Now, I really didn’t think this was a big deal. In fact, I haven’t had a consistent morning ritual for the past 5 years. Do I like it when I wake up early and get a good start to the day? Yep! I sure do. But I was doing just fine financially, pretty happy, and got more done each day than 90% of everyone else I knew.
But something big was missing.
I felt like I was rolling through life, doing pretty darn good… but I could feel that I was shooting too low. Not doing my best. And that feeling is terrible.
You may be feeling the same thing.
You may be planning out 12 months, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years… maybe even 20+ years.
You may have this dream for what you want your life to be like “someday”.
You may have some goals that you’ll get started on “pretty soon”.
But will “someday” and “pretty soon” ever actually come?
Will you ever start that business you have in your mind?
Will you ever transform your current business that may be dragging you down?
Life isn’t a practice round.
I know at times I’ve treated it like it is. Like I can just give life another go someday. Like there is all the time in the world to get stuff done… so it’s “no biggie if I wait until next week” to actually start.
If you’re not living the life you want to live. Start living it.
If you’re not taking a chance on yourself and starting that company you’ve been thinking about for years. Go out and start it.
If you’re taking all of the steps society has told us that we need to take (college, spouse and 2.5 kids, job, 401(k), then retirement at 65), but you know that path will lead you to a life of mediocrity. Make the change today.
This is the real deal. We only get one shot. If you’re reading this article and feel a pit in your gut. I wrote this for you. Because sometimes facing the fact that we’ll only be on this earth for a short amount of time helps us create that urgency we need to get off our duff and make epic stuff happen. This isn’t a practice. We’re all in the game as we speak. And it’ll be over before we know it. Don’t let time slip away with making your mark on the world.