If Not Now, When?

If not now, when? Wow, what a motivating phrase don’t you think? And a phrase that goes well with “Spring”, effort and new beginnings. It is a question we should ask ourselves often to keep us on track.

I have been thinking about doing a triathlon for about a year and I have always been able to come up with some excuse to avoid the work and in essence the gain that comes with hard work. So I decided to do it this year and have been training to the best of my ability for a month now. The race will be in June and I am excited. It is hard work but I feel stronger and I keep asking myself, “If not now, when?” I am not getting any younger. This is the question I ask myself every morning at 5:00am when the alarm goes off, and you know what? I get up and I am happy.

How can this help us with our everyday thinking? Well it helps us be present, set goals, work towards our goals, and procrastinate less. It also makes us take responsibility for our actions or lack of actions. We can always come up the excuses not do something but if we choose that then we really have relinquished our right to complain. Everyone will say I have no time but really we do if we set our priorities differently – again effort!

We can use this train of thought to even get the mundane things done like laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping and cooking. Since it is the first day of spring we can use this thought “If not now, when?” and begin to tackle our spring cleaning! It may not be our favorite thing to do but it sure is great once it is done and everything is where it should be – life is so much easier then don’t you think? So let’s throw open the windows, string the clothesline outside, fill the buckets and get to work!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, that you choose to be more productive during your day and that you root for Syracuse University during “March Madness!”
Namaste.