future – Anna Down South

We save so much for tomorrow, so much for when we feel better, or and this is the big one, when we’re “ready”. Now, we’ve all heard it before. Live the life you’d live if you were going to die tomorrow, and that’s great in theory. It’s nice to think of life on a day to day basis, but some things take a lot more time. Somethings can’t be achieved in a day, and some things have some not-so-fun steps to get to the good part. So living like there is no tomorrow isn’t a very functional thing in this world. Than again, neither is planning just for the future. That’s clear, so how do you live in a way that’s not saving things for tomorrow and not living in the future. It’s a really hard balance to find. Here’s how I’ve found mine, at least this year, who knows where I will be in one or two more.

Realize that you’re never going to do something if you’re waiting till you’re ready: Seriously, no matter how much more prepared you might be in fifteen years, you’ll have other dilemma’s that hold you back. There is never going to be perfect timing to start something. You can learn to fly on the way down.
If it effects your health, just don’t: Okay, this one is a big one in the “YOLO” culture (or carpe deim for those who want to sound somewhat educated) the drinking, drugs, and all that. I’m not saying that a drink is going to kill you, but I’m saying that all the bottle of vodka a Saturday, late nights out, running on two hours of sleep, and wearing yourself down with stress to the point a cough across the room can get you sick. It’s not worth it, and if it’s super important you can…
Replace priorities: There are only so many hours in the day, and while there are a ton of them, sometimes you just overflow. You need to pick and choose. Sacrifice is a thing, make sure you lose the one that means the lease to you.
Beat off the idea of “not me”: If not you than who? Isn’t that the saying we always hear? Lets go with another one, if you don’t try how will you know you can’t. The thing is, even if you can’t make it, trying too almost always leads you to something else great, or shows you what was wrong with your plan, and how you can try again. It’s time to let go of the “I can’t’s” because honestly chances are if you’re passionate about it you can, but…
Keep it realistic: Not by saying I can’t, but by saying that you’d be satisfied somewhere. If you keep going bigger and bigger you’ll never be happy. The same thing goes with making you’re goal the biggest one possible, if you don’t make it, the progress you made won’t mean anything to you. Don’t let that happen.
Chart it out: Know the steps. You don’t want to live in the future, but to get to the future you have to start today. So know what’s the first step, the second one. You might find that you have to add in a few steps, and that’s fine, sometimes it takes us a little longer to make it up the steps, and that’s okay. What’s not is to only know what’s at the top and have no way to get there.

We’ve been told since birth that we pick one thing to do with our lives, and at some point, our dreams stop fighting back. We want to be a doctor, a blogger, and a mother. A writer and a graphic designer, and a photographer. A… the list goes on and on. We think that we have to pick one trade to do all our life, because that’s what’s been instilled in us. Whether it be because we were told that we couldn’t make money any other way or it be because we wouldn’t have enough time to do both.

It’s false. You can do at least half a dozen things with your life. Some people are more talented at juggling them, but anyone can learn how too. A lot of time it does result in us doing one or two things for money and then the rest as hobbies, but if you work it right there is no reason why they can’t go hand in hand. See, most people don’t look to terribly far into how they can combine their interests. Maybe you’re a doctor with a weird schedule but in your down time you blog about the time spent with your daughter, and blog about balancing work with motherhood. A lot of hobbies/interests have more in common than you’d imagine. Try spending some time researching all the types of jobs that combine them, whether it be on google or in a book (there are books written on everything). When it comes having time, I’ll repeat what every other person does: you pick your priorities and you have the same twenty-four hours as everyone else. People do these thing all the time. Figure out how to make it work for you.