Making the Most of Now

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" - Teddy Roosevelt.

I, for one, can say this has been hugely affecting me recently. I always talk about making the most of now, and living in the moment. But if I'm honest, I'm only getting better at procrastinating; and it's so frustrating. I waste all this time on useless nothings, and then spend even more time regretting all the things I should've done that are now way behind schedule. The biggest downer is, you are the only one responsible, the only one getting frustrated, and the only one who has the power to change it. 

The funny thing about me is, I have told myself so many times that my brain only works at night. So I waste the day away (if I'm home), mauling over all the things I should be doing that I'm not. Then I try to console myself with the pathetic "my-brain-only-works-at-night" mantra I use to make sense of it all, when in reality, I should actually be getting off my butt and putting some work into more productive things. 
I don't expect that you will be using the same excuse to procrastinate, but we all make excuses for why we put things off.
Don't deny it. 

I know it's also very easy to fall into denial about the whole excuse thing; and people will swear that it's not an 'excuse', but a 'reason'. The truth is, if you're not serious enough about something to admit that you're making excuses, you'll never get it done. This blog may sound a lot like tough love, but I'm talking to myself here, too. We all do it. We make excuses and put things off until the very last minute, because it's the only time your brain works that fast. I get it; I really do.

The truth is, life only gets harder as you get older. What I mean is, in primary/elementary, you have a bunch of teachers checking your homework every week, and making sure you're on-track. You go to high school, and again, you have teachers, peers and parents all prodding you about your homework, assignments and study sessions. They all want to know how much you're putting into it. But once you get to University/Tafe/College, nobody cares anymore. Whether you fail or not, your tutors will still get payed.

Don't misunderstand me -- they're happy to help if you chase them up, but no one looks after you to make sure you're up-to-date with it all. It's your job to seek help once you're out of school. So it's really important that you learn to take control of your priorities while you're still surrounded by support. I got really independent in 11th & 12th grade, and I still struggle to motivate myself sometimes now. It's tough. You're on your own in the big, bad world, trying to figure out who you are and what you want. The point I'm getting at is that it's normal to feel a bit lost and generally confused. You're held by the hand for twelve years, then dropped into the deep end. It's hard, I know.

But if you remember the 15-year-old version of yourself, who believed in their dreams and vowed to let nothing get in the way of them, then you need to understand this is the exact point where you need to fight for those dreams the hardest. It's when you least want to do things that you need to try your hardest to do them. Why? Because only the fittest make it to the top of the food chain, and this means you need to learn to adapt to your environment, which includes self-motivation. Regardless of how hopeless and far away your dreams seem, you need to know that they can be achieved. They can. 

The main reason so many people never achieve their goals, is because they try for a little while and fade out down the line. They realise how hard it is and decide it's too much for them. I can't say I've achieved all of my goals, because I'm still learning and growing, but I know for sure, that everything I have managed to achieve, did not come easily. Achievements would not be achievements if they were easy to obtain. Everyone would be successful if that was the case. The sad truth about being successful is that it's an often lonely road. It's really hard to hold on, because you won't see results until your blood, sweat and tears have earned them; and you have no one to push you but yourself. Everyone else is occupied with their own goals.

I also think the whole "Making the Most of Now" concept has been classified under the YOLO category, and left there. Making the most of now applies to every area of your life, not just the fun, adventurous parts. No matter who you are and where in the world you live, you can make the most of everything you have in every moment, even if you feel like you have nothing. Some of the most successful people in the world came from nothing, so don't let that excuse you from what we're talking about. Absolutely everyone can take a leaf from this blog and apply it to their lives. It doesn't matter if you're not at the same level as the people around you, or if you're not where you hoped you'd be. What matters is that you just keep swimming! Snails are slow, but they still get places. What's my point? Just because you can't see it now, doesn't mean it won't happen. The catch, of course, is that you don't stop, especially when it's the hardest. The only walls that stop you from achieving what you want, are the ones you build yourself.

So forget where you are and who's beating you. I'll tell you quite harshly (and honestly), that someone will always be better than you at whatever you do. That's not the point. The best thing you can do for yourself in life, is to make the best you can out of whatever you have in each and every moment. If any of you ever had to make things out of piles of rubbish in primary school, you'll see my point. The teacher gives you a bunch of empty boxes, bottle caps, pipe cleaners and milk cartons, telling you to make something out of it. You look at the items at first thinking it's not going to amount to much. But as your robot/airplane/alien/whatever starts to take shape, you get really into it, and you realise you could make something awesome. By the time you finish, you have a ridiculous smile plastered ear-to-ear across your little face, and you feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. You think, Wow, I made this!

The idea is using what you have to make the best out of it, even if all you have is a pile of useless items. It's creating something unique with these things that makes the difference, rather than the quality of what you have. We don't all have the best resources available to us, but if we make the most of what we have right now, we can create something really unique. There's nothing more valuable than time, and we all have the same amount of it in every day. Procrastination is time's worst enemy, and it doesn't want you to do anything great. It wants to hold you back and see you throw in the towel. You can't let it win. Life is far too short and your dreams too important. You don't know when you'll run out of this precious resource, so it's up to you, and only you, to spend it wisely. Make the most of now.

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