How often do we say to ourselves, “when.. (fill in the blank) things will be different.” When our kids are grown, when we get a promotion, when we change jobs, when we retire, when some magic time in the future comes we will start living our real life; for now, we will just go through this dress rehearsal until the real show starts.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, this is your life.
You don’t get a warm up session before the big game. You don’t get a trial run. This is it.
Make a list of the things you will do today. Are you slugging through them or are you performing them like this is the real show? The things on this list make up your life. You won’t be excited about a lot of them and some of them will be things you do simply because they have to be done, but they are worth doing with proper attention and care.
Pay attention to the things in your daily life you approach with dread or contempt. Having contempt for your daily tasks is no different than feeling contempt for your life, as these things are your life. There isn’t going to be a magical time when all of your daily tasks fall to the wayside and you finally arrive at Narnia. There will be plenty of new tasks to replace the ones you loathed because that is what life is.
Perform today like it matters because it does. Each task you encounter, ask yourself if this is a means to an end or the end itself. When we approach each day as a means to an end, we make progress towards what it is we really want to achieve with our lives.
Today is the real show. The curtain is up and the spotlights are on. How will you perform?