We are taught to prepare for tomorrow.

Save for retirement. Plan the career. Finish the degree. Take care of your health. Think about where you want to be five years from now. Set goals. Make plans.

And we should.

There is wisdom in preparing for what comes next.

But somewhere along the way, preparation can quietly become postponement.

We start telling ourselves:

I’ll enjoy myself when I lose the weight.

I’ll wear that when I feel more confident.

I’ll travel when I have more money.

I’ll celebrate when I reach the goal.

I’ll be happy when the relationship is settled.

I’ll start living when life finally looks the way I imagined it.

And without realizing it, we place our lives in a waiting room.

We are present, but not quite living. Always waiting for our name to be called.

Tomorrow Is a Plan, Not a Promise

I believe in planning.

I believe in goals, discipline, responsibility, and thinking beyond the present moment. Some of the things I am most proud of in my life required me to sacrifice today for something I wanted tomorrow.

But I’ve also learned something else:

Having plans for tomorrow is no reason to make tomorrow a prerequisite for enjoying today.

Tomorrow is never owed to any one of us.

That isn’t a reason to become careless with today. It is a reason to become more conscious of it.

Prepare for tomorrow, certainly.

Put something away for the future. Take the class. Work toward the promotion. Exercise. Build the business. Repair what needs repairing. Make the appointment. Set the alarm.

But laugh today.

Wear something that makes you feel beautiful today.

Call someone you love today.

Drink your tea slowly.

Play the music.

Take the picture.

Send the silly message.

Use the good perfume.

Celebrate the small accomplishment.

Enjoy who you are becoming while you are becoming her.

You Don’t Have to Arrive Before You’re Allowed to Live

Perhaps one of the quietest forms of freedom is realizing that life doesn’t have to be perfect before it can be good.

You can still want more.

You can want a healthier body and appreciate the body carrying you today.

You can want greater financial security and still enjoy something within your means.

You can desire deeper relationships while appreciating the love that exists in your life now.

You can have ambitions without treating your present life as merely the hallway leading to somewhere more important.

Growth and gratitude are not enemies.

Neither are ambition and contentment.

You don’t have to choose between building tomorrow and inhabiting today.

Leave the Waiting Room

There will probably always be another milestone.

Another goal.

Another problem to solve.

Another version of ourselves we’re working toward.

If we require everything to fall perfectly into place before giving ourselves permission to live fully, we may spend years waiting for a moment that keeps moving further away.

So yes, I have plans for tomorrow.

Quite a few of them.

But I’m learning not to make tomorrow a prerequisite for enjoying my life today.

I’ll prepare for what may come while remaining present for what is already here.

Because tomorrow deserves preparation.

But today deserves me.

And I refuse to keep my whole life in the waiting room.