Everything Is Finite

A farmer said to my Dad who was removing weeds from a property, 'Why do you do this? Ten million years ago this was a volcano in a million years time who knows what it will be. What's the point?' my Dad replied, 'Everything is finite, and our lives will end eventually, but I love what I do, and I'm happy doing it now and I know that what I do today is making a difference in this moment.'

Which made me think of a quote (sorry I don't know who said it), which is, 'If you worry about what might be and wonder what might have been, you will ignore what is'. I have been trying to be more mindful recently because there is no 'one day', I won't wake up one day and be happy or fulfilled or satisfied if I'm not living the way I want to be now, which means being honest with myself, not hiding and having courage. 

If we are scared it means we are trying, it means we are working, it means we are living. I have a lot of anxiety and fear, and I worry a lot, sometimes that fear is paralysing. But I keep moving, I move through the fear and by doing that I realise that what I'm scared of often won't even happen and if it does I can survive it.

Anyone who knows my story, and knows the chances I took to get my job at Deloitte will know that even when I'm faced with fear and the unknown I will keep going (even if there are a couple of speed bumps). Sometimes that means I make mistakes or I fail, sometimes that means I get hurt or disappointed. But I would rather fail because I've tried, I would rather be hurt because I've put myself out there and taken a chance. 

When I come to the end of my life and I'm looking back I will know that I have lived with courage and that I have been honest and lived each moment being the best version of myself I can be.

And so to finish, here's my Dad's favourite quote by David Henry Thoreau, 'Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.'

So be scared, jump even if you don't have a parachute, sing your song and be in the moment. 

There is no one day. Only now.