On the whole I abhor trite positivity. I have always found it at the very least mildly repellent. Motivational statements that offer broad encouragement. Sound-bites that are all bark. Riffs and arrangements on the phrase You Can Do It. The Best Is Yet To Come. Just Keep Going. Printed on a poster, often adorned with a cute animal. One that is struggling to achieve some kind of ambitious task. Because it is tiny. And adorable. But you feel might just push on through and do that thing, thanks in no small part to it's indomitable spirit. These blasts of synthetic optimism may have a role to play in the world but they leave me cold. We may wish to be the field mouse, valiantly striving to reach that high barley corn but it doesn't change the fact that we are ever on the cusp of becoming a kestrels breakfast.
That being said, it is hard to deny the fact that these 'pearls of positivity' are formed around a gritty grain of truth. There is a reason the placard would read “hope is the wind upon which we soar” as opposed to “you can literally jump off the roof and fly if you believe hard enough.” So here's one for you. “The only time it is too late to start something is tomorrow.” I came up with that this morning. And before you start telling me “hey man, ummmm, I think that might have been said before...” of course it has. I am 100% stealing that. Not directly, I didn't glimpse it on a greeting card whilst walking past Paperchase and reproduce it here for your delectation. I have no doubt absorbed it in all it's various permutations and my mind regurgitated at an opportune moment. I'm not pleased about it, but damn it if it doesn't ring true.
If I didn't believe it, I wouldn't have worried about it. I certainly wouldn't be sitting here right now waxing on the subject. But I couldn't shake it. Every day is the longest we have ever been alive and the further on we pass down the road the road, the more our perspective shifts on the distance we have travelled. If you think you should have started something 10 years ago but the moment has since passed, just remember there is every chance another version of you might come around 10 years later with other opinions on the matter. Presuming you know what future you would consider a worthy investment of time and energy is a good way to fall out with yourself. Something started today may not amaze on the scale of something that has been crafted for a decade but right now it's far more more impressive than anything you are considering starting tomorrow. That's a fact. Can't you just picture the twinkle in my eye as I write this? It's enough to make you ill.
Naturally after dwelling on this statement for a short minute, I slipped it towards the back of mind and went about my days activities. What a good notion to explore at a later date. Maybe some time this week? Can't say when exactly, but I'm sure the right moment will occur organically. When I'm in the mood. If you want to know how well that theory works in practice, just check the date of my last post. See what I mean? I knew deep down that if I postponed action on this principal I would be relegating it to a practical abyss, in to which so many iterations of 'get up' and 'go' have been cast previously. If I was going to work with it, like it or not, it had to be now. So here I am. It may not be much, but it's a start. And that is good enough for today.
