How To Beat the “Later” Trap (It’s Lying to You)

Because when is later?
Why later?
And what has later actually done for you lately? Stop playing, I’m GenX, you know I had to do it!

We’re locked in on our second chapter now, and I’ve decided this one is going to be A Best. Not The Best, because there were beautiful moments in the others too. Plenty of rough ones I could’ve skipped, no doubt, but still some good’uns. But this is the chapter we’re in now, it’s all ours, so what exactly are we still waiting for?

More importantly, what are we waiting on?

Yeah… What Are We Waiting On?

Take finances off the table just for a hot second, because that part is for real valid and deserves its own conversation. Only the rich get to spew ‘money isn’t everything, you know.’ Shut the hell up!

But outside of that, how many things are we still casually pushing further and further away from ourselves? The things we still want.

The hard conversation. The uncomfortable change. The apprehensive start. The exciting risk. The pure joy.

I’ve done it too casually and too often myself, which is by far the dumbest part. But once you really see it, refliect on the past, clock the present, then envision the road ahead of us… what are we waiting on?

• If what we want is financially out of reach right now, can we alter the plan?
• If we’re not physically able to manage the entire task, can we scale it down some?
• If it’s going to take more than just us to get it done, can we pull back on the scope for now?

‘Later’ is The Lie

And it keeps us stuck.

Most of us hate being lied to. Lord knows it’s one of my biggest icks; I’m mini-raging just thinking about it. But in quieter and far more socially acceptable ways, we do it to ourselves all the time.

We can’t deny that we find the time for what we want or what’s comfortable. Naps and snacks, binge-watching, and happy hours included. And we’re still keeping all of those. Bootleg therapy is on par with breathing, so she’s staying, too.

So I know we can make space, even a tiny bit of it, so our thing doesn’t entirely die in “later-land”.

Starting where we are, let’s give it a whirl, quit on later, and mean it. Don’t overthink it… just pick a couple of things you’ve been ‘later-ing’, and get them across the line.

So…

Book the thing.
Clear the thing.
Have the conversation.
Protect your time.

Done and done.

Because later isn’t always guaranteed, and perfect moments ain’t dropping from the sky any time soon. But today still showed up and so can you.

So what are you really waiting on? What’s your “later” right now?