There was a time when I would never go out. You ask my friends nowadays and they'd say: 'What? That guy? He can party and go on adventures with the best of 'em.' But, sadly, there was a time when this simply wasn't so.
You see, there used to be a time when I would always find reasons why I couldn't do things. Sure I always tried to find ways to beat these things too, but it usually didn't work. Because when you're looking for reasons why something isn't possible, you're sure to find them.
There was this really stupid Jim Carey movie called Yes Man. In the movie, Jim's character listens to an inspirational speaker who tells him to say yes to everything, and Jim listens. From that moment forward, Jim doesn't say no to any opportunity, any offer, any question, no matter what.
Predictably this leads to some pretty absurd hi-jinks, but the moral of the movie is an important one: most people say no to everything so much that they are missing out on a significant portion of joy to be had in life. It wasn't actually the movie that gave me the epiphany, but some personal reflection that I had back in my late teens/early twenties.
I just realized: 'man, I'm always finding reasons I can't do things.' Honestly, some of those reasons were probably valid. But I started doing the things I wanted to do, anyway. Life isn't some nice and neat spreadsheet where everything falls in order and nothing every gets messy. It's more important to have a vision than a plan, to have the next few steps planned out fast and loose than to have everything set in stone from the start.
About two months ago I made myself a promise: at least one Steemit post every day. I'm pleased to say that I've kept that promise, come hell or high water. For me, that's the next step.
But tonight, an old friend called me up and said that he wanted to go out and have some drinks. My mind immediately got to work, as it usually does (telling me I'm broke and shouldn't go, all my time should be spent on work at this time, etc.) because though I've learned to push past it, some part of that voice is still within me. I think it's a good thing. That voice is there for a reason, but I know not to let it run my life.
So tonight, I'm going out. I'm going to have a fantastic time celebrating my birthday one weekend early. The times, the opportunities that you have now will never come again. And you never know when you'll have to say goodbye either to a friend or to the world. Every moment is too precious to be spent locked up in insecurities.
Now if you're anything like me a large part of you bristled in protest. "But... Science!" It shouts out. Yes it's true that there are some very exciting technologies in the pipeline. It may be that you could live for a 1,000 years if even a few of these technologies come through. But even if you lived for a million years, or even a hundred million, mark my words: your big day is on the way. Even if it somehow didn't, by the end of such a period of time you would be so different that this version of you could effectively be considered dead.
So make a vision. Make it big, bold, fantastical, great. Do whatever the next thing you need to do is to get closer to that thing. And don't let your life get sucked up by the bullshit. However long it is, I guarantee you'll still find it isn't nearly long enough.
Saturday, November 11th, 2017
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