Do you have a dream that just keeps getting put off until tomorrow?

Maybe it’s a great business idea, or a creative passion that you long to pursue. Maybe it’s proposing to the one you love, or having a baby and starting a family. Whatever it is—it’s big. It’s the one thing you would ask for if you could have anything on earth. The one thing that you want more than anything else.

But you’re not ready.

At least that’s what you tell yourself, over and over again. I’m not ready. Maybe next year, after I get some money saved up. Maybe after I get my degree. Maybe after the kids move out. Maybe…

But probably not.

Because tomorrow never comes. You dream and hope and wish and wait for a big break that never happens. Days turn into weeks, turn into months, turn into years, and somehow you never quite get around to doing anything besides just getting by. Because you’re not ready.

The truth is, you will never be ready. There is no such thing as “ready.”

The more I see and do in this world, the more people that I meet and talk to, the more I realize that no is ever ready. For anything. Ever. Everyone is pretty much faking it, making it up as they go along, and trying their best to make it look like they’ve got their shit together.

But they don’t.

Life’s major shifts and quantum leaps always catch us off guard. We have no idea what it takes to accomplish something until we actually do it. No amount of studying, planning, saving and preparing will ever make you ready.

The truth is, being ready is a decision. You are ready when decide to be. When you stop making excuses and grab the damn bull by the horns.

Sure it’s a risk. It isn’t easy. You might fall flat on your face. So be it. Give yourself permission to fail. Take the exquisite risk. Give yourself a green light. Gather all your courage and go for it.

It’s now or never.

Whatever you are doing with your life today, you can be sure that tomorrow will bring you more of the same. If you want to see or do or be something in this world before you die, you’d better start making it happen right now! Or it won’t happen at all.

Don’t wait until you’re ready. Stop spending the precious, holy moments of your life doing what you “should” do, or what everybody else thinks is best for you. Start living your own life, and going after what you want most, deep down.

Ready or not.

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Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: Pink Sherbet Photography at Flickr