The time is now.

Over the past few months, while spending some time away from the office, I found myself reflecting on life. And, like so many of us do, it happened during the usual scrolling online. I came across a short clip by Jay Shetty that stopped me in my tracks. It was simple, yet incredibly powerful.

He said that "we spend all day waiting for five o’clock, all week waiting for Friday, all year waiting for the next holiday, the next season, the next year… and somehow, we spend most of our lives waiting for “someday.”

And the question that stayed with me was: how much of life have we lost while waiting?

Waiting to be less busy. Waiting for things to calm down. Waiting for retirement. Waiting for the “right time” to finally live.

The truth is, life was never only meant to happen in the big moments.

It is hidden in the ordinary Tuesdays we barely notice. It happens during the cup of coffee shared with a colleague during the usual office small talk. The everyday good morning texts from your aunt that have been forwarded a million times to her entire contact list. The things that, at the time, feel like routine and background noise. The kind of stuff you scroll past or answer without thinking.

Those are the moments that quietly become our lives.

Yet we rush through them, constantly chasing the next milestone, the next achievement, the next “big thing,” believing that real life will somehow begin later. Until one day, the messages stop. The desk next to yours stays empty, the small talk disappears, and you realise those little everyday moments were never little at all.

You realise the moments we miss most were never the so-called “big occasions,” which sometimes turn out to be far less spectacular than we imagined, but rather the small, ordinary moments we did not fully appreciate while we were living them.

And on the other side of this, when we are not constantly living for the next big thing, we often find ourselves trapped in the past.

Our minds become occupied with “what if” and “if only.” The conversations we wish had gone differently. The mistakes we wish we could undo.

We are often so quick to judge our younger selves for decisions made without the wisdom we only gained later in life. We carry guilt for lessons that life itself had to teach us.

But we need to let go and forgive ourselves for not knowing earlier what only time could teach us. We cannot change the past. We cannot relive missed moments. We cannot go back and become the person we are today any earlier than we did. And honestly, that realisation hits hard.

But what we can do is choose now. Choose to be present. Choose to notice the little things. Choose to stop postponing joy. Choose to stop waiting for life to finally begin.

Because life is already happening.

It is happening in the chaos. In the ordinary routines. In the fully booked calendar and in the traffic. In the messy homes and the tired evenings. In the laughter, the tears, the silence, and the small moments in between.

And one day, these ordinary moments will become the memories we wish we could hold onto just a little longer.

So maybe the time is now. Not next year. Not when things are perfect. Not “someday.”

But now.

Michelle van Dalen | Conveyancer

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