What Progress Have You Made So Far?

The Clock Is Ticking

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The clock is running

“You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again.”-Benjamin Franklin

We are at the end of January, 2023. One month into the new year.

What do you have to show for it?

What progress have you made?

What have you accomplished so far?

Paradoxically we look forward to a new year as it provides a fresh start but when we are given this opportunity to begin, we squander it.

The gym membership that lasts for a few weeks.

The new business that doesn’t get past the idea stage.

The goals that are looked into but never pursued.

The career pivot that remains a fantasy.

You may tell yourself that there is plenty of time. After all, you have an entire year, don’t you? There will always be more time, more chances, and more opportunities.

Until there isn’t.

Time may be infinite but to us, it is the opposite. It is our rarest resource and the one we want the most…only for it to be wasted.

Only for it to be devoured by the Time Eater, the beast that stalks us all.

The omnipresent threat to existence.

The more we delay, the more harm we do to ourselves.

This must stop. If you want to make 2023 the year of YOU, the year of being a true YOUTOPIAN, then you must act.

And act now!

You must have a now or never mentality. Your approach should be one of urgency. You must recognize what is important and what is truly needed. Separate your meaningful activities from the meaningless. Discard what is useless and embrace the useful.

For every single person, this is different. No two people are the same. For you it could be avoiding weekends where you do nothing of merit while for others it could be avoiding toxic people. Whatever it is that holds you back from utilizing your time and living to the fullest extent, you must avoid it like the plague.

Once you achieve this, you will recognize the open gaps, the free slots, the missing drama. You will then be able to use your time and focus on what truly matters.

Because you need to have something that matters, something that allows you to be the light against the growing darkness that seems more obscure every day. Once you do this, you become an entirely different person. No longer are you pulled into wasting your time on something you won’t remember a week later. Now you will be able to focus on your goals and the future.

“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we begin it so late.”-William Mather Lewis

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What matters to you?

“Human life is truly a short affair. It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.”-Tsunetomo Yamamoto, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

What matters to you?

What is some goal that you must accomplish?

What is it that you truly want to do?

More importantly, when will you take action?

You have to choose.

You have to act.

Not making a choice is in itself a choice.

There are so many of us that are waiting to begin, making excuses, hoping for circumstances, and waiting for their chance.

There are no better circumstances.

There are no other chances.

Yet we wait, each of us hoping that today will be the day.

The students who can’t begin until they’ve graduated, whether it be from high school or college. They need that degree, that PhD, that piece of paper that gives them permission and authority.

The single people among us who can’t begin until they have found that perfect soul mate, the one who will complete them and give them the strength to start.

The employees who can’t take a chance on themselves until they have risen high enough in the organization so they can leave it.

The entrepreneurs who can’t make an impact without an investor backing them.

The writers who can’t begin until they have an agent and a publishing deal before committing their great work to paper.

The unhealthy people who can’t begin until they are well enough, fit enough, and physically strong enough to try, yet make no attempt to become healthy in the first place.

The failures who have given up too soon and too easily and who won’t take another risk, even though this may be the success that has long eluded them.

And the mediocre majority, who pay no attention to beginning anything at all.

This is no way to live, let alone work on something that is worthy of your time.

“The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.”-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You can no longer put off tomorrow what you can accomplish today. The excuses you have will only bog you down. They will infect your mindset and forever anchor you to being powerless.

You will always be searching for the right circumstances. You will need the stars to align, the right people to be put in place, for opportunities to knock, fortune to favor you, and so on. But this will never happen. And time doesn’t stop running. The clock is always ticking. The Time Eater is always there.

Begin immediately.

Take action immediately.

Fail immediately.

Rise immediately.

Only you can do it.

Only you can achieve your unique goals and live your own unique life.

Don’t wait for tomorrow. Don’t wait for next month. And certainly don’t wait for summer.

Take action now. Today. This very minute.

You will be better off because of it.

“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow, and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune's control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”-Seneca