If You Don’t Do It Now, Then When Will You?

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We live hyper-planned lives these days, bound by calendars, reminders and to-do lists. This leaves little room for impromptu events. Don’t get me wrong. Perusing through my colorful, well-organized calendar gives me immense satisfaction and pride. But I often find myself scrambling and struggling to fit things in, as if our lives have become a giant million-piece puzzle.

But what about things that don’t fit in? Like that trip you always wanted to take, that local restaurant you wanted to visit, the long-lost friend you haven’t called in a while, or the book you never got around to reading.

We push them aside, hoping at some point in our lives they will fit into our schedule and become our priorities. We pin all our hopes to the future. We spend all our present planning and dreaming about the future, hoping that one day our puzzle will be able to contain all the tiny, scattered, unrehearsed pieces of us.

But what if we are never able to fit it all in?

It might help to look at our lives as a mosaic, not a puzzle. A cohesive whole, but not as structured. Organized, but not rigid. We can then treat ourselves to impromptu, uncrafted moments, knowing they will mesh well in our life’s mosaic and find their well-deserved place in our lives.

We need to move away from our hyper-planned lives to actually listen to our urges and sometimes indulge to our soul’s cravings. Because at the end of the day, I hope to go to bed thinking about the moments that made me smile and the moments that made me feel, not appointments and to-do’s crossed off my calendar.

So, go ahead! Book that trip, visit that restaurant, make that call, do whatever you have always wanted to do! Because, if not now, when?