A year from now you’ll wish you started today E132
February 13, 2024
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Today we shine a light on the phrase “A year from now you’ll wish you started today”. You are going to find out what I really think about it and if I think that’s inspirational or incorrect. Stay tuned.
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This episode is going to be a bit different. In the episode title, I made the statement “A year from now you’ll wish you started today”. And this is a statement that most of us have heard before and probably as well agree with. But it does not feel that easy to get behind it, right? And that’s what I reflected on. Why is it so logical to us but we still cannot always follow through?
I do use this phrase regularly to inspire people to finally make the changes in their lives that they so truly desire. But when I stopped myself and reflected on it, I realised that it’s not always a correct statement. It’s all relative and nothing is the truth, even this statement. And I will explain in a second why.
Is this phrase inspiring or incorrect?
I will share with you today common examples we phase in our lives where we can use the phrase “A year from now you’ll wish you started today” as an inspiration to get into action. And then I will reveal how else you can look at these examples that would make this statement incorrect. There are literally two opposite sides to this statement: The inspiring and the incorrect.
Sharing with you examples that you can relate to will make it clear to you and might make you look at certain areas in your life with a new perspective. So let’s dive in.
Example #1 – When you want to start something new
Example #1 is when you have a deep desire to experience something new, and you have this desire for years. You want to create something new in your life but so far you have not started. This could be a new career, a move to a new location or country, a new habit to improve your health, and so on.
The phrase “ A year from now you’ll wish you started today” can inspire you to start today. If you reflect and realize that you had the desire for a while, you will probably have the same desire in one year. So then you have a choice: start today and imagine where you could be in a year’s time. How much progress you will have made in this year’s time? And the other choice is to not start today or tomorrow for that matter and be exactly where you are today in a year. And on top of that probably with feelings of regret and disappointment.
This is the typical and understandable viewpoint of this statement, right? It inspires you to start today because you don’t want to think in a year: “Why did I not start a year ago when I had the desire already? Nothing changed and I just wasted time. “ So this is the inspirational side of this statement.
Everything happens in divine timing
Now I share with you the incorrect side of the statement. Another perspective on how you could look at it, as it’s all relative. Everything happens at the right time for you. You are exactly where you are supposed to be – and that includes the future you in a year who did not yet start bringing the desire to life. And on top of that, I tell you that it’s never too late. You never run out of time. If you just start taking action on your desire in a year from now, that’s perfectly fine, too. So relax and take the pressure off of yourself.
That’s a perspective that I bring more and more into my life now and it actually makes the phrase “A year from now you`ll wish you started today” obsolete. I know, it might feel a bit weird to you, probably because you never thought about it like that. So I invite you to let this new perspective sink in and see if it resonates with you.
Example #2 – When you want to stop something
The good news is I have another 2 examples that explain this new way of thinking about this further. So let’s look at example #2: You wonder if you should let go of something in your life, for example, a job, a career, or a relationship or a particular person. Example 1 was about starting something for your own good and this is about stopping something for your own good.
The inspirational facet of this would be to imagine how your life could be in a year if you make the decision to let go today. You will feel as stuck and trapped in a year as you do today if you wait and do nothing. So again, taking inspiration from the phrase “A year from now you’ll wish you started today, means you begin being brave and courageous and make the hard decision to let go now.
It might not yet be the right time
Another way to look at this example can be that you might not yet have all the necessary information to make the final decision to let go. Something is still to happen in your life that will help you to make the right call. And that’s the reason why you are still hesitating to let go. Something inside of you knows that it’s not yet the right time to make the final decision and that you are still missing some data or experience.
Do you agree with me that you can look at it from both sides? Yes, the first one is logical and inspirational. And the second one is probably more illogical but I have now more and more examples of this being the case. So many by now that I cannot keep ignoring them. And after the third example, I am actually telling you what happened to me this last weekend.
Example #3 – When you want to change something
So, let’s review the third and last example. In this example, it’s a change you want to make in your life. You feel deep inside that it’s going to happen or that it has to happen but you are not sure when the right time is. And that could be something small from getting a new haircut to something bigger like changing your career.
If you apply the statement “A year from now you’ll wish you started today” then you probably get into action as you know that it’s in your future. The more inspired action you take toward that change the earlier you can reap the benefits and bring it into reality. And at the same time stop spending time and energy thinking about it and wondering when the right time is. Makes sense, right? Yes, to me too.
Until I reflected and came to another perspective which is that if you don’t feel called enough yet to make the change now, then it’s not yet the right time for it. Just because you know it’s in your future, does not mean that it has to happen now. Maybe the right time is actually in a year and not now. Similar to the last example, it might be that not all the necessary connections and information are in your environment for this to easily flow to you.
My personal example of divine timing
And that’s what happened to me last weekend. But let me first take a step back and tell you about a vision I have had for years. For about 2-3 years now I have had a vision of my future self. I can see clearly where I live and what it all looks like. And one part of this vision is that I practice handstands on a yoga mat on an outdoor decking behind the house.
It’s very specific that it’s a handstand. And every time I go back to the vision I always just see myself doing handstands. To be honest, I never thought much about it. I do practice yoga on and off and the handstand is something that I always thought of cool to do. But I never practised getting there.
Now, if I would apply the statement “A year from now you’ll wish you started today” I would have started practising more yoga and particularly handstand over the last few years. But I haven’t. And I don’t really know why but it never felt urgent to me even that I knew that at some point in my future, I would do handstands with ease.
Missing information to make the change came to me
Then last weekend, I was with friends and we meditated a lot together. In the last meditation, I received a message that I wanted to spend more time upside down in my life. I know it sounds funny, but that was what I was told. Spend more time with your head down and your legs up in the air. And I was told that I would be able to connect better with my higher self and my spiritual gifts if I would do that.
I told my friends afterwards what happened to me and one of them was not surprised as she had known for a while about this fact. And she would practice headstands or other yoga poses where your head was down on a regular basis because it activated your pineal gland and you therefore connect with the mystical and other dimensions.
Do you see that I now received the information and the reason why I want to start learning handstand and why I saw myself being in handstand in my vision? Now it all makes sense to me and even today I spend a few minutes being upside down. Not in handstand yet, that will take me some time. But I have this Feet-up yoga tool where you can easily be upside down without using your arms.
Reflect on your life and what this new perspective tells you
So what I am trying to make you understand is that you don’t always have to take the logical next step and pressure yourself to go for it. And if you don’t you are supposed to feel regret, disappointment and sadness. Judging yourself for not having taken action. I want you to see another side, the more illogical but kind side of this.
Let all of this you heard today sink in and reflect on where in your life you could benefit from thinking about things in a new way. And if you like more support and further information on how to know when to take action or not, then come and join us inside Energy Academy. Especially if you join the VIP group coaching experience I can guide you and help you to understand if now is the right time to act or not.
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