What Are You Putting Off till Later?

There was a great headline in the Evening Standard a couple of weeks ago “101 things to do before we die, just one to go and we’re not even 30”. It caught my eye – in the newspaper of the person sitting next to me on the tube and I was very happy that as she left, she left behind the newspaper so I could get a good read!

These two friends had made a list of challenges they promised to achieve over a lifetime. And in the doing of them they got so inspired that they have done them all except one. This list included joining football team, skydiving, going in a wind tunnel, training as a life guard, working on an organic bee farm, working on a conservation project, the list goes on and on. One of the most intriguing ones was saying yes to everything for a month – I wonder how that worked out!

As of one of the girls said “there is nothing worse than regret, Sam and I swore we would make the most out of every minute of our lives. Once we have completed this list, (only working at a lion park in South Africa left to do and they are out there now) we will start on our second 101 things to do”.

Couple of things stood out for me in this story. These girls were obviously passionate about living life to the full and nothing has stopped them. They are not rich, they work like most of us, and yet they have been creative enough to find the time and the finances to live their dreams. A lot of the time they managed to swap, barter or volunteer their way forward. They stayed focused on what they wanted to do and made it happen. And they didn’t let anyone tell them that it was not possible.

The other thing that stood out for me was that this list was for a lifetime and yet at 30 they have done it all. Once you get going on a project often the momentum helps move things along. As you achieve the milestones along the way you begin to believe that it is very possible to do what you want. That belief is a key ingredient in any goal. One of the things that we do in the Passion Test is to ask people to create markers – evidence that they are living their passions – so that as they actually live them they can tick off the passion in their minds. This reminds them that things that they had no idea how they were going to achieve are actually achievable. And more often than not earlier than they thought.

I’m sure that the two girls in the article did not know how they were going to achieve all the things on their list. They simply committed to doing it. And as they began to achieve more and more they came to see that this wasn’t going to take a lifetime, how inspiring must that have been?

Reading this made me ask myself, where am I putting of things till later? Things that I could be doing now? I found myself telling someone yesterday how my dream holiday was to go to Montana and do the cattle drive down to the winter pastures. Gotta look into that now☺

How about you? What have you been putting off? What are you telling yourself is not possible? Now this may be work related - like going for that big opportunity even if it has come a little earlier than you wished for. Or it could be the holiday you have been promising yourself for the past ten years but never quite found the time. Make your list – but just like these two inspiring women, don’t wait. If they can do 101 things by the time they are 30, you’ve got no excuse!