Tomorrow never comes. It is an illusion. It's full of hopes, possibilities and things to accomplish (most of which were things we were supposed to accomplish today). Tomorrow is full of new places to go and new people to meet. Or at least that is what we think. Don’t get stuck living in tomorrow, instead of living for today. We spend so much time planning and romanticizing tomorrow, but once tomorrow becomes today, the cycle starts over and we are planning and waiting all over again.
We forget to appreciate the time we have today because we are constantly too busy just trying to get through the day. We push things off until tomorrow like writing that article, cleaning our room, visiting our parents, or calling about that job. But what’s stopping us from doing these things today?
We spend so much time waiting and wishing for Friday, the weekend, vacation. The average vacation is generally one week a year. So that means we spend 51 weeks, 357 days, every single year, relying on vacation to get us through the rest of our work weeks. There are 52 weekends in a year, that's 104 days. So that's roughly 261 days we spend at work or school yearning for the weekend. It's a dangerous, problematic cycle and those days we spend wishing for tomorrow, or the weekend, or vacation are days that we will never get back.
Stop letting this cycle continue. If you haven't already, stop wishing your life away. One day, you won't have a tomorrow and you'll be wishing that you didn't spend so much of your time waiting. You'll realize that while you were wishing for the weekend, your parents were getting older. You'll think of all the things you pushed off until tomorrow that you never actually got around to accomplishing. You'll think of the life you missed out on living just because you were just trying to survive until the next weekend or vacation. You’ll look around and realize that your kids are suddenly all grown up and that your best friend that you used to call weekly is now a stranger somehow. I just hope that when you think about all the vacations and weekends that you’ll say they were worth wishing away the rest of your days for.
So try to enjoy your 8-4 shift at a job that you may or may not like. Try to find something enjoyable where you usually see bleakness. Get to know your coworkers or classmates, ask them about their families and lives. Get that thing done that’s been hanging over your head for a while. Savor the meal you eat with your family every night. Hug a little tighter and kiss a little longer. Make your menial, everyday tasks into something enjoyable. Realize that your life is happening now, not tomorrow, not next weekend, not next time you go on vacation. Don’t wait until you’re out of tomorrows to realize that every moment is fleeting and irreplacable.
