Putting It Off

Tags

Guitar, Happiness, Paper Route, Present Moment

Its a Guild cutaway acoustic guitar with Fishman pickups. It has an on board tuner and EQ. The sound is big and so is the price tag. The running joke whenever I walk into a guitar shop is, I’m just going in to get some strings… Oh, and they might have a guitar attached.

I imagine all the things that I could do with it. If only I had that guitar.

And so for all of us, this is the search for happiness. Our desire to scratch the itch. If I save my money and get the Guild, then I’ll be happy. The trouble is, I already have a beautiful guitar. Not as nice as the one I’m dreaming of, but wonderful just the same.

What drives us to hitch our happiness to the future? When I pine for the guitar, I seem to be saying, I’m not content right now. But when I get it, boy will I be happy. I end up driving a wedge between happiness and now.

Getting Through the Grind

I remember my first job. I was a paperboy. I delivered the Hartford Courant in my neighborhood starting when I was eleven. I’d be up at 5:00 AM on my bike, winter and summer. The memories are vivid. It was a struggle everyday to get out of bed, especially on cold winter mornings. The mindset I adopted was, just get through this, there will be better days.

We apply this strategy to all aspects of life, get through the grind now, enjoy later. I coped with school, work, and lots of other parts of my life this way. I learned to put it off. “It” being enjoying life.

Living in Our Own Future

What’s ironic is that we’re living in the moments that we planned for in the distant and not so distant past. The time to be happy is now. If we look around we have many of the possessions, relationships and comforts that we hoped for not so long ago.

Sometimes we have to plan for the future. It’s the responsible thing to do. But remember that planning you did yesterday, take some time out to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Be in the moment, be in your relationships, and most of all be in your natural born contentment.

So pick up that guitar, or clarinet, or sing that song that’s on your mind. Grab some friends and play it together. There is so much pleasure to be had, don’t put it off until tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes.