Your dreams won't wait for you

Over the last years, I have come to realize that you should never wait to start working on your dreams. Never wait to become perfect or for the ideal moment. You will never attain perfection, nor will the right time ever come. At the end of the day, you only have one moment, and that’s today. Or to be more precise, you only have now.

This exact hour, this precise minute when we come to realize that we are never guaranteed to have another moment. We do not even know what will happen tomorrow and whether we will live to see the day, so what can be said about the next month or even next week?

We simply assume that our life will continue like this forever, even though, we know perfectly well that death awaits all of us. Yet, we pretend as if we have eternity before us. And that our dreams can wait. Tomorrow, next week, next year. Then, one day, we wake up and find ourselves on our deathbed, and wishing we can relive our life again. Differently this time. But, no one gets a second chance in life.

The most common regret of all elderly people is that they have waited too long until it became too late. They feared to take risks; they promised themselves that once they save enough or work hard enough, then, from that day, they’ll pursue their dreams. However, before they knew it, life happened, and they had a family to take care of, and they told themselves that they’ll wait till their children grow up and leave the house, and this time, for sure, they’ll focus on their dream goal. For others, problems arose and their dreams were put on the back-burner. Some others, unfortunately, simply didn’t make it to that day.

For life waits for no one, least of all for people who believe they have the privilege of forever in front of them. They are convinced that, somehow, that time will treat them differently. But time simply goes forward, ticking each hour away, leaving behind everyone who is not running to try to catch up to it.

My grandmother used to tell me that you can never gain back yesterday, even if you exchange all the gold in the world. Being a child of eight, I never understood why she was always saying this phrase, but today, as I reflect on all the time lost, all the wasted opportunities, all the unproductive days, the wisdom of these words hit me with a clarity I could never grasp before.

Looking back, I feel a deep sense of loss for all the beautiful years that went by without me even taking them into account. Without once stopping to appreciate the warmth of the summer evening or the moonless starry night or even take the time to be grateful for everything I had. A loving family that cared for me. A beautiful house that sheltered me. The food I took for granted, assuming it was only natural to have it all, never pausing to think about those who didn’t. All this privilege. All the entitlement.

The same entitlement many of us have for the present moment. We never consider that we should be glad to have this moment. We wholeheartedly believe that we will wake up to see tomorrow, and thus, overlook this present moment. We are too busy dreaming of a better future to pay attention to what we have now and what we should be doing instead to make sure that this dreamy future that we keep envisioning happens.

We all love to buy cute planners and come up with big resolutions when New Year arrives. Yet, a pitiful few of us follow through with the plans until the end of the year. We’re lucky if we make it past January. The inspiration that comes from the grand goals we set ourselves up to is not enough, and we come crashing down when the high fades.

The problem is that we do not focus on the present. The present moment that will us carry through to the next. We underestimate the importance of now and the power of focusing on each hour at hand. This is why meditation and praying routines encourage one to be fully present in the moment. To be fully aware of our breathing and being mindful of our thoughts. Instead of letting them race and scatter all over. Meditating allows us to ground our minds. To focus. As we become aware that all there is to life is this moment, our perspective and mindset shift.

As we become aware of our finiteness, we start to value the priceless worth of time. And how little we have of it. Human life is pitifully short, and none of us are guaranteed the privilege of living to see old age. Tragedies and loss make you humble and mindful of everything we have that we took for granted for so long, too long.

If I can give one piece of advice, it’s this: do not waste your time. Wasting time is equivalent to wasting your life. Do not come to your deathbed filled with regrets and wishing you can redo life over again. Pleading that this time, you’ll do it the right way. For all the riches of the universe, you will never have your life back again. That’s why you should seize the day now and fulfill your dreams now. Not tomorrow or some distant future away. Now. Because at the end of the day, you only have now.