#TheUpsideNow is an exclusive Notable.ca weekly column written by our Founder, Julian Brass. Tweet to him @JulianBrass with your comments or leave one below.
Think about it for a moment. Every second from right now until your last second of life is sitting right in front of you, right now, this second.
Take a breath.
The past is behind you. Good, bad or brutal, it’s behind you. But what lies in front of you is a blank canvas. You can do anything you want with it. Paint the picture of your life and make it bloody spectacular.
Your whole life is waiting for you. It’s looking at you and it’s yours.
This dawned on me just the other day. I was holding my new baby nephew (who coincidentally has become a mini celebrity on my Facebook profile) looking into his beautiful blue eyes and thinking to myself, “Kid, you’ve got your whole life just waiting right in front of you. You can do anything you want, be who you want to be, create what you want to create.” I thought this to myself and for a moment actually felt saddened when I thought about how free he is and how structured my life and everyone else’s life is. It’s as though once you become an adult, your freedom goes and your life becomes nothing more than following an order of rules…but then I snapped out of it and smiled at my nephew (and to myself) as I realized that my life is also in the palm of my hand.
Anything I want or don’t want, that’s up to me. I could walk away from Notable.ca tomorrow to pursue my love for surfing and the beach or to write songs under the moonlight – that would be a choice that I make or don’t make. Either way, my entire life is right in front of me.
Think about that again: our lives are right in front of us, just waiting…
So when someone dedicates himself or herself to something, while they may complain about how hard the work is and how confined they now are, remember that they have a choice. And that is the choice that they made. If that is you, you deserve a pat on the back and a drink on me next time we meet.
When the person who didn’t have the focus and perseverance to dedicate himself or herself to the pursuit of owning their craft passes judgment on the one who did have it, there is no reason for it – it’s not warranted. Instead, transfer the jealousy and envy in to inspiration to remember that you have your whole life right in front of you, too, and, that it is never too late to grab your paintbrush and start creating.
Like my baby nephew’s entire life is right in front of him, so is mine and so is yours. Decide decisively and purposefully where and what you want to be doing and go after it. While we have our whole life right in front of us, each day we do lose a bit of time.
Why wait?
Your whole life is right in front of you. Go get it!
Julian Brass
Founder and Publisher, Notable.ca