Don't Wait For A Handout; Your Time Is Now

One month after the New Year and I will bet my future Ferrari that most of you have already forgotten what your resolution was. Another year and another failure. Seeing a pattern? We all end the year thinking about all the things that we should have done but didn't have the courage to do.

Then we make a list — a plan — of all the things that we “will” do the upcoming year. This list is basically the same every year, which is weird because a to-do list is meant to be done. Having the same to-do list every year means that you're not completing the goals that you set out for yourself; in other words, you're failing.

Now, I have a question for you: Aren't you tired of it yet? Seriously, aren't you sick of planning to do things that in all honesty you know you will never get around to doing? Or are you that delusionally illogical that you feel that you can make progress without making changes? Maybe you're not tired of it yet, but I most definitely am.

I am tired of seeing people — especially those close to me — making elaborate plans on how they will accomplish their goals and then after a month or two, pretending that they never made any promises to themselves in the first place. You did make promises to yourself and you broke those promises; you are lying to yourself.

If at this moment, this second, you're not entirely focused on your goals, then you are already setting yourself up for failure. What most people don't realize is that success is more than a full-time job; it's a full-time lifestyle. Consider what you are trying to do — you're trying to change your life because you are not happy with it.

What does that entail? It entails you getting out of your comfort zone. It entails you pushing yourself off the track that you are currently following and onto an unpaved road leading in a different direction entirely. Changing directions so drastically won't be easy; the laws of physics do apply.

You won't be able to feel it, but you are currently traveling down whatever path with a force. You may not be accelerating, but you are traveling at a constant velocity. In order for you to be able to change your direction, you will need to apply a considerable force — meaning that changing your direction will require a considerable amount of strength and effort because the comfortable path you are following will resist change.

In other words, it won't be easy. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe you all think that you can change your life, your destiny, with the wave of your hand? The truth is that you can; but the hand you're waving has a 50-pound weight chained to it.

The 50-pound weight started out much lighter, but since you haven't had the courage to make any changes over the years, what started out as a one-pound pebble is now a 50-pound brick. The longer you wait, the heavier it will get. The longer that you stay static, the more comfortable you get and the more difficult it will be to get yourself out of your routine.

The time for you to change is now — not tomorrow, not next week or next month, and definitely not next January 1st — if you want change then you have to act now. Now is the only time that exists. Yesterday, the last hour, the last millisecond, is gone and will never again return. Tomorrow, on the other hand, is not guaranteed. If you want to change then you must act now; you may not get a tomorrow.

Are you waiting for a break? Waiting for the right time to make your move? Then — pardon my French — you're a fucking idiot. The perfect conditions do not exist; they will never exist. And by that I mean the perfect conditions always exist. If there really is no time when conditions are truly “perfect,” then now is just as good a time as any other.

The right time is when you decide it is. You can postpone your success for months or years if you'd like, but remember that you will have to live with yourself and your lifestyle until you decide to finally make your move. And like I said before, the longer you wait, the more comfortable you get and the more effort will be required for you to make the changes that you are desperate to make.

Or maybe that's it? Maybe you just aren't desperate enough for change. Maybe you haven't have enough of the lies that you tell yourself. Maybe you prefer living in the conditions that you constantly complain about. In that case, stop complaining — you chose to live this way, so live with it.

Paul Hudson | Elite. 

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