by Norissa Williams,PhD

In my 20’s I found myself saying, “If I just had the space, I would do yoga at home every day.” And since I didn’t, I clearly had to wait until my next move. I would definitely have the space, then. As life would have it, I did move into another apartment eventually and had a huge living room with open space.

You know what I thought, then? “Well, if had a room that was solely for yoga, meditation and centering, I would do it everyday.” I mean…after all, my—then husband was always in the living room walking in and out. These were just not the right circumstances. It was obvious that I needed my very own yoga space.

See what I did there?

Yup! I found another reason why I couldn’t start living the life I wanted to live! Now, years later I live in a bigger apartment, but my living room and bedroom are smaller and there are more people in my space. Best believe I’ve been tempted to find yet another reason (similar to what I said 15 years ago) as to why I couldn’t start doing what I wanted to do. The truth of the matter is, that there will always be reasons. Always!

These reasons will be sound and logical. They will soothe you—rocking you gently to sleep. They’ll hold you back from starting businesses, writing books, exercising regularly, going to certain social events that you know will advance you and they will keep you from maximizing your potential in certain ways. We’ve got to stop waiting for the perfect circumstance and start living.

My first blog post here at the Frugal Feminista was about blooming where you are planted. A friend of mine read it a year ago when I wrote it. In that post I share similar sentiments. He took what I said to heart. At that time, he had gotten a job that was great for his current station in life—a recent PhD graduate, under 30. There was a lot to be happy about. Yet at the same time it was in another state—far from everything he knew and might not have been as presitgious an organization as he had hoped to work for. There were plenty of reasons why he could have thought…I’ll wait until I get to the station in life that is the most ideal to really try and expand.

However, the sentiments of that blog resonated with him…”Bloom where you are planted,” …take full opportunity of your current circumstance to grow and/or start the things you have always wanted to start in order to live your best life.

About a month ago I got a voicemail from this friend. He thanked me for the wisdom of that post. Despite not being in the circumstances that he had initially desired, he decided to do away with the same kind of defeatist thinking that we’re talking about (that often costs us years) and to go full force with doing everything he would have done had he been in circumstances he perceived to be ideal. As part of that he applied for a 2 million dollar grant to do some research that he is passionate about. And guess what friends?? He was awarded recently awarded the grant!!

In short, there will always be reasons not to do something you have always desired to do, but you have to take full advantage of the opportunities before you in any given moment. Live life NOW!

What are some things you’ve put off?

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