There Is No Tomorrow
I don’t mean this in the fatalistic, Armageddon sense. But, at the same time, that’s kinda what I mean.
We’ve all had some iteration of the same question posed to us from a meme or a cousin who recently found meditation: if today was your last day alive, how would you spend it?
Presumably, you respond with some mixture of spending time with your loved ones, facing a fear and being completely reckless.
Perhaps you’d make sure to write a love letter to your son chronicling every lesson you want him to learn. Maybe jump from a plane or fly across the country to run barefoot on hot coals. You may be someone who empties their savings account to spend on drugs and sex. No judgement.
While how we all might choose to spend that last 24 hours may vary, I’m pretty sure about how we wouldn’t spend that last day. Saying, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”
That would be complete lunacy, because in this hypothetical scenario, tomorrow does not exist.
Well, tomorrow does not exist in real life.
Or, at least, we don’t know if tomorrow will exist for us. You may be blessed enough to see 10,950 more tomorrows. 30 years. Or you may have 4 or 5 left in you. Unless you’re in possession of the Time Stone, you don’t know what the future holds.
But I promised that this wasn’t going to feel doomsdayish. So, I’ll say…. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow…
However, if you’re prone to bouts of procrastination like me, then it might serve you to look at tomorrow as a bonus and not a guarantee. Look at today as the only thing you know to be true. And do as much as you can and want to do. (I swear I didn’t intend to rhyme.)
I don’t mean this in the exhaustive grind don’t stop, sleep when I’m dead way of thinking. I mean this in the value the gift of life and run fervently in your purpose kind of way. I’ve had to learn that thing that I might need to not put off until tomorrow is rest. I’ve had to, with the help of friends and a self-care accountability partner, realize that part of walking in my purpose is resting in my purpose.
If we go through are days without depending on tomorrow to be here, our todays become fuller. We live with a greater purpose, and we accomplish a great deal more. That “more” can mean more dedicated time for your business or bingeing that show about dwarves on Netflix.
Hug and thank your mama today. Start writing that novel today. Register for that course today. Call that friend that you miss today. Take a nap today.
[Insert clichè, Bible verse or Oprah/Tony Robbins/Gary Vee/Yoda quote here.]
Don’t wait on a day that may never come.