Imagine that you have reached the end of your life – you are sitting in your rocking chair, looking back down all the days of your life and thinking, “I wish i had taken the initiative and gone after that foolish idea I had back then.” Tragic, right? If there is anything you need when you reach old age, it is the knowledge that you did everything possible to live your dreams while you were still able to.
And yet – we always have an excuse for not living our dreams right at this moment. Most of us live by the deferred life plan, meaning that we first do what we have to do (earn enough money), and only then do we do what we want to do.
This leads you to try to get rich fast, and then only do you attempt to live your dreams .
The reality, and it is usually a very bitter reality at that, is that the vast majority of people never get rich. Instead we live our lives chasing our paychecks, while our dreams and our aspirations fall by the wayside.
When we use a lack of time, a lack of money, or a lack of education as an excuse, this just keeps us stuck where we are. And even worse : we feel justified in not chasing our dreams!
Think of yourself at 80 again. As the saying goes, you are not going to regret what you did, but what you did not do.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon used to remind himself of this mantra to help him decide to chase his dreams. By imagining himself as an elderly man looking back on his life, he was able to leave his job on wall street to found Amazon.
In doing so, he walked away from his annual bonus at the end of the year. He could have waited, got his bonus, and then left the company. But Jeff realised it would not be the missed bonus that he regretted, but that somebody else might figure out his idea of selling books online before he did.
So remember Jeff Bezos example and let your future regret serve as your imperative today!
One you have made the decision to commit, then take the next steps in bringing your idea to life.