Maybe it’s a typical type A personality or some nonsense like that thing, but I think it happens to all of us: we live with our eyes on the future. We work hard and spend little to get the number of zeros on our savings account to a comfortable level and we politely refuse the piece of chocolate cake at a party to keep our weight healthy and cholesterol in check, always keeping the future in mind, whether it’s near or years off. It makes sense, right? If we work hard now, we’ll live comfortably later and thank ourselves for all the sensible decisions we’ve made.

Lately I’ve been asking myself whether it’s really that sensible, though. I mean, when is ‘later’? When have I worked hard enough to finally let the reigns loosen a bit? By the time what I now think of as later has arrived, I will most likely keep doing what I do for the sake of later. And what if later never comes? The future is unpredictable: if you think about it, you could die or lose control over your limbs at any second. What if you’ve been putting your life off for later, only for later to never come?

If we’re not careful, we find ourselves waiting our entire life for ‘the perfect moment’, pushing things forward because it’s not the right time yet. When will it click that the perfect moment doesn’t exist? There will always be a reason to not to it right now, especially if you’re afraid, whether that’s subconsciously or out in the open.

What got me thinking about this, was a tattoo. I’ve been planning to get a tattoo since I was a tiny girl in middle school, always thinking about what I would get etched on my skin – there you have it – later. I mean, in that moment the ‘later’ made sense, since I wasn’t yet old enough to legally hop into a tattoo parlor and get some inks, but I’ve been old enough for a while now yet still only planning, never following through. This year, I thought I would finally push myself and get one. So, in September, I said I’d get it in December. December comes around, and guess what? I pushed it to March. And here’s the thing: if I keep going like this, I highly doubt I will ever get a tattoo at all, always pushing it off because later might be a better moment. 

I think we should collectively shift our focus from the future to the present. In fact, it’s clear that we’ve been longing to do so for a while now. How long have mindfulness and meditating becoming more normal, right? But while it might be doable to focus on the present on the yoga mat, it’s proven a lot harder to implement that same amount of presence in our day to day life.

If you recognize yourself in what I’m writing – take this as a reminder. Don’t miss out on life because you have tunnel vision for the future. Loosen the reigns on yourself a bit: it’s not a crime to treat yourself, to spend some of that hard-earned money on a thing you actually like, to take a break and spend quality time with friends or go on a trip. Right now is all you’ve got.