The myth of tomorrow

Bled Sunrise by bslmmrs - CC BY 2.0

I just got an email from a listener who is telling me how much ISBW has helped him. (I love these, they really help keep me going.) But he had one quote that was just amazing:

I would talk about tomorrow but it was a far off concept more than a reality.

And that really says it all. We talk about tomorrow as if it is a new day and a new opportunity. It’s on a lot of inspirational posters. But tomorrow is simply 24 hours from now. If you think nothing will change in the next hour, or the next two, or the next six… then why think the world will shift to accommodate your new plan in 24 hours? You don’t automatically reboot every day, a new blank slate to start afresh. Sure, the weather may be different. A very tiny percentage may have shifts in their lives, (marriage change, job change, new life or a death in the family) but for most of us, the movement from day to day sparks no change.

This is one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves. The external “tomorrow” is not the opportunity here. Something has to shift within YOU.

I fall prey to this all the time. My big thing is I want to get up before the family morning chaos. And with that time I’ll run, or do housework, or get writing done. But every day I don’t do it, and every day I say I will tomorrow. And sure, right now, at 9:45am, it’s easy to say tomorrow will be different. And then tomorrow morning, 6am Mur will give the finger to idealistic 9:45 Mur and roll over for more sleep.

It’s so freaking easy to say something “will” be. Tomorrow lives in an eternal state of “will” – “I WILL get up early, I WILL work out, I WILL eat better, I WILL cancel that credit card.”

Tomorrow is the wuss’s way out. Today is when you ARE. If there’s something you can do right now, do it. If you’re like me and the big change can only come at a certain time, prepare as much as possible (For example, I can go to bed early, drinking herbal tea to calm me down, and remember to set my alarm) and then when the time comes, there’s no WILL. There’s ARE and AM and NOW.

Think that tomorrow you’ll start writing? Bull****. Start now. Start on your lunch break. Start when you get home. The next time you have a free moment, don’t think “I WILL do this later.” Say “I AM doing it now.”