Stop Pretending to Do Tomorrow What You Could Do Today

We’re all guilty of it. Tomorrow, next week, next month, next year… next something I will do something. The harsh truth is, in most cases, that this something will never happen. For a long time time, I have promised myself that I would try to learn about farming by committing to volunteering and living on a farm. As I believe that one of the best ways to learn is by doing, this seemed like a good thing to do.

Yet I first said I would do this thing several years ago. I was pretending to myself that I would do it later, when in reality, I was getting no closer to actually doing it. There was nothing to stop me, except myself. I kept choosing other pursuits over the idea of learning farming. In 2012, I actually had a farming placement arranged in Italy… but I didn’t make it happen (which you can read about in my story).

Until now.

After living in Korea for nearly half a year, my visa was expiring and I wasn’t prepared to do another Japanese visa run. It would only be prolonging the inevitable and after several months of living on an island, swimming in the sea, playing outside, and spending time with good people, all it took was a couple of hours to commit to something I have wanted to do for a long time – finding a farm.

I logged onto the internet, searched through volunteering opportunities on WorkAway, and found a farm in Norway. Then I emailed them, booked flights to England and France to visit my family, got an email back and completed an application form, got accepted, then booked flights to Norway.

I was lured in by the title, “Volunteer with a sailing community on an organic farm in Norway” and the follow-up sentence, “Interested in self-sufficiency? Want to help build a community? Love the sea?” Yes, yes, and yes.

So here I am, getting on a plane to Norway, happy in the knowledge that I am doing something that I want to do and have wanted to do for a long time – learning about self-sufficiency, permaculture farming, living in an eco community, keeping bees, and even building a sailing boat. I have only committed to a month on the farm and I may not like it as much as I imagined, but thing is for sure, I won’t have to regret not trying it. What else would I be doing with this month if it wasn’t this? Sometimes we spend too long looking at the big picture. We ask ourselves, ‘What do I want from life?’ which is a very difficult question to answer, when in fact we should be asking ourselves questions such as:

– What do I want from today?
– What do I want from next week?
– What do I want from next month?

Take care of the little things and the big things will sort themselves out. What was stopping me doing this before? Only myself.

Stop pretending that you will do tomorrow, what you could do today. Make something happen. What is stopping you?

What do you want from today?

If you are interested in learning more about where I will be for the next month, check out the WorkAway listing here.

By | 2014-07-05T03:00:47+00:00 July 5th, 2014|Thoughts and Inspiration|2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Scott-muthfuckin'-Warren 07/07/2015 at 05:19 - Reply

    Yeah buddy! Cat-traps for life!

  2. Steven 05/07/2014 at 15:32 - Reply

    Sounds fun and exciting. Can’t wait to hear all about it.

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