Stop Postponing Your Happiness: Do What You Want Now
There’s never been a better time
I remember when my friend Rowena was on a diet. Hard to forget, because she was always on a diet. “Goals can be useful,” I told her. “But, why must you wait until you’re slim to have fun?”
Rowena had a favorite saying: “I’m too fat for that.” Demeaning, I know. But the point is that she put off happiness, forgoing special moments until she reached her weight loss goal.
Maybe you’re not on a diet. But, no doubt, you’re postponing a special moment too. You may want to travel but decide you can’t until you earn more money.
Or, you hope to learn a new language or a different skill, yet, you won’t try until you retire, move home, or the children have grown. Or you’re waiting to get married, divorced, or reach another milestone before you do whatever you long to do.
The problem is that you can’t guess what the future holds. Circumstances won’t always change in your favor, and another obstacle might fall in your path.
At the same time, what’s wrong with the present? You might be a few pounds over (or under) weight, have ingrown toenails, or live in a bedsit. Maybe your finances aren’t impressive, you’re busy, or your responsibilities weigh you down, but then again…
Sometimes, we use excuses to avoid things we desire out of fear. We’re scared we might fail. Or, what we thought we wanted won’t be as good as we hoped. Or we worry no one will support us, or worse still, they might laugh at our effort.
Summoning the courage to take up challenges is hard if we fear the outcome of doing so. Keeping the dream alive by postponing it might seem to serve us. We don’t face the possibility of making mistakes.
But, in another way, postponement hurts. It leaves us with the notion we aren’t up to the challenge. All the time we put off striving, we entertain the idea we aren’t capable of starting a business, traveling the globe, writing a novel, or something else. And our insecurity haunts us.
We can fool other people, stringing them along, telling them we can’t climb a mountain, run a marathon, or take up painting, but we can’t fool ourselves. Our psyches drip with self-doubt unless we take the plunge and prove our inner critic wrong.
What’s more, maybe we can’t afford to turn down the chance of fun, love, or whatever we might gain if we face challenges and succeed. How long have we got?
And even if we are unsuccessful, the journey could be worthwhile. We might gain wisdom, if nothing else, from our venture into the unknown.
Whether you want to shed your cocoon and become a healthier version of yourself, learn a skill, or use an untapped existing skill, why wait? Quit making excuses and do it now. You’ve more to lose by postponing your success, happiness, and knowledge-gathering than you have from stepping into possibility.
Bridget Webber is a writer and nature lover, often found in the woodland, meadow, and other wild places. She writes poetry and stories and pens psychology articles; her love of discovering what rests inside the thicket and the brain compels her to delve deep. She’s appeared in many leading publications and ghostwrites for professionals who can’t spare the time to pen compositions.
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