Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

It’s never too late to get started!

Do you remember when you were a kid and every day was new and fresh. All you wanted was to wake up and get going on whatever made you happy on that morning. Then along came maturity and slapped you in the face with the belief you had to be dependable, or at the very least predictable. Magnificent dreams gave way to being a solid performer at work, a good care giver at home, and always being “a good role model”, what ever that means.

Is it any wonder that millions of people now start the day wondering if there is something more out there? Did they make the right decision when they gave up dancing for accounting? Where did the last several years go? Wasn’t this just supposed to be the job that held me over until my big break happened?

It is not too late to go find what makes you happy if you start today!

Oh I see you sitting there thinking “Right I will just walk in to the office tomorrow and quit. I’ll just pack up the kids in the SUV and head for Borneo.” If that is what it will take to make you happy then my answer is yes by all means go for it. But the reality is that probably is not what you are really looking for.

I have a hunch that no matter how thrilling that prospect sounds it will not make you happy. After a few days you will start to miss the comfort of a fully stocked refrigerator, the kids will tire of frolicking on the beach and need to be entertained, the conversation of peers around the water cooler will not seem as inane as it once did now that you are talking to yourself in your mud hut.

In all likely hood what you really long for is one or more of the following. The adventure of discovering something new for the first time, the pride in having set a goal and made progress toward it’s accomplishment, the sheer joy of helping someone else, or the rush of creating something of your very own from scratch. When you look back weren’t these things the real joys of those early years.

So how do we get them back? The first thing you have to do is find a way to carve out some selfish time just for you. It doesn’t have to be a lot just an hour or so every couple of days. Get up early, stay up late, let the laundry go one more day (you have plenty of not so dirty cloths if you look). Do what ever it takes but find that time.

Now that you have that hour what can you do?

Well for adventure and discovery how about reading a book or better yet take a class. Not something goal related either, just open the catalog and pick the first title that sounds interesting. Hmmm why not spend 1 hour a week for the next 3 weeks learning about pigmy frogs in the Amazon? Or go to that lecture at the library on Great Architecture of North Carolina? Remember the whole idea is to explore something you don’t know anything about but sounds interesting. What if you are wrong, it cost you an hour and you at least got a great story to tell about how bad it was.

Another option is to go ahead and start that project you keep putting off. The difference is this time make yourself a schedule and use your 1 hour to dedicate to the effort. True it will take years to finish that novel you want to write, but each hour you will be closer then if you sit on the couch and do nothing.

For that extra rush of adrenaline why not volunteer. There are schools, parks and recreation associations, civic and social groups that always are in need of an extra pair of hands. You don’t have to be good you just have to be willing. It is amazing how much you will get in return for giving just a little time and effort for someone else.

The bottom line is it is never too late to get started. And who knows when you are out there exploring, working on your dreams or volunteering you may find your One True Thing that brings the joy back into your life. You may even find a way to make a living at it. If all else fails there is always Borneo.

Don’t die with your music still inside you.
- Steve Farmer

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