Ep 86: Doing that thing...NOW!

You are listening to solo episode number 86, Breaking Through Now. I'm Travia Steward, and I want to help you move past barriers and obstacles that are preventing you from getting what you want in life. This is Breakthrough. A few weeks ago, I ran across a quote online. And this quote said, "There are 7 days in a week, and someday isn't one of them." And that really hit home for me because I know I've been guilty of, you know, someday when I get healthy, I'm going to do that thing. Ooh, someday when I find, you know, enough courage and confidence, I'm going to go after the love. That I know I deserve. Someday I'm going to take that trip. Someday, maybe after I retire, I will travel around the world, you know, when I have time, when I, when I'm not stressed about the everyday, you know. But how would your life change if we completely got rid of that someday mentality? Because someday doesn't actually exist, right? And like I said, I've been guilty of this myself. You know, just a few days ago, I was messaging this, this, this sweet lady that I met online. Actually, I met her at, um, at a speaking event at the Ultimate Experience, and we were messaging on IG, and we're talking about, you know, kind of spending some time getting to know each other, like learning about each other's journey, just kind of connecting, right? And One of my top values is love and connection. And so we were messaging back and forth, and I said, oh, let's do it soon. Well, what does soon really mean? You know, soon can mean a lot of things, right? I had a flat on my, my SUV, and then because we have AAA, AAA, you know, they— you call in to get service, and then AAA sends you a text and goes, oh, "Your repairman is on his way and he'll be there soon." Well, at first it starts out with like, "Oh, he's 15 minutes away." And then it gets to a point, it's like, "Soon." Well, what does soon mean? Is he a mile away? Is he 2 minutes away? What does soon mean? And when we get together with other people, we're like, "We're gonna hang out soon." What does soon mean? To some, soon could be, This year we're going to hang out. This year we're going to go grab a bite to eat. Soon could mean a month for someone. Soon could mean a week. What is soon and how do we define it? You know, like, just like there's no someday where we can put it on a calendar because there's no day that says someday, there's also no time on the clock or no day on the calendar that says soon as well. You know, And for some, constantly putting things off can lead to a life of regret, you know, where we think we're going to keep waiting and waiting and waiting. And then the window of opportunity for that thing that we once liked, that we're going to wait until after it happens, and then that window begins to close, right? Now, I'm not saying that looking to the future with hope and optimism isn't important, because it is. I'm a person who loves to create a vision for what I want my life to look like down the road. But I don't just wait to start that, right? It's important to start those things today. We have to start now. That's what I mean when I say breaking through now, because I don't want us to wait until someday, because now is all we have, you know. So the point that I want to make today is I want you to think about how your life would change if you live for right now like there is no someday. Because we're not guaranteed to be here, you know, in an hour, tomorrow, next week, in 2023. We're not guaranteed for those things. But if we started living today like, man, everything that I do right now today, I'm going to leave it all on the table. Just like you're playing a game, right? We're not going to leave it for the playoffs. We're not going to leave our performance until the people are coming to watch a Tony, right? We're going to do it today. And so what if we took time to create in our daily lives what truly matters without postponement, without waiting? But if we took the action to create a life that we really want to live beginning today, where do we begin when we do this? I know each of us have examples of people who were putting things off. You know, my spouse's uncle had a massive heart attack at the age of 40. You know, one of my best friends, her dad was a firefighter, and he was just hanging out with the guys one day and lost his life. Fell back, hit his head on a picnic bench. Now that was so freakish, right? But he lost his life. You know, those of you who listen to the podcast regularly know I talk about my mom quite a bit. And there are some things when I go, okay, I'm not going to follow in her footsteps with that. But you know, one thing that I can say about my mom— my mom lived to be 85. And I tell you what, if I can be— you know, you've heard me say I'm gonna be 100. You know, if I can live to be at least 85 I— she didn't have the someday attitude. She did what she wanted in the moment, you know. I remember, you know, when she was a diabetic, and if somebody came in with a pie, like a cherry pie, an apple pie, a pecan pie— Lord, especially a pecan pie— she would tear that pie up. And I would call and say, you know, girl, you better check your sugar. I don't want you to be in a diabetic coma after you— and she would say, I've lived 85 years. I'm not going to live another 85. And so I'm going to eat what I want. And you know, and I can laugh about it now. And in the moment, it didn't seem, you know, comical at all. But right now, as I reflect, I go, huh, I can take a lesson from that, from her living in the moment and not putting off to someday, not postponing. She wanted that pie in the moment. And so she rewarded herself with that, you know. And a lot of times we also think we have to wait someday to do the things that we want to do because we are constrained. Like, there are areas in our life where fear takes over, where we feel like we can't do the things that we really want to do because of some fear or because of criticism or judgment, whatever that thing is. But it constrains us to where we're not free to be who we are. And then that also becomes a reason why we put off things someday. You know, I know that the older that I've gotten, the more confident, the more bold that I have become, because you just get to a certain age and like, I don't give a shit what people think, you know, and you can be yourself. And then if you are someone who is putting off someday because of some internal fear, because of something that we think people are judging us, because I know I've been guilty of that. I want you to just go with what is present right now in this moment. What do I want in my life right now? Because that's all we have right now in this moment, is all we have. And how can we make right now the best that it can be? Well, A few years ago, I started composing, compiling a list of 100 things, and it was a combination. It is a combination of several things, you know, like it's a, it's, it's, it's, so it's not 50/50, right? There, there's a list of things that I am sure that I'm going to accomplish, right? And then there is also a number of things that I feel like are completely unreasonable. Quitting my teaching job and working as a full-time life coach was one of those unreasonable items that I thought would happen someday. And sometimes there's a fire that gets lit up under you, like Cancer. Cancer is a fire that gets lit under you, and it's like, someday? I better do that now, right? And so when I began making my list, I started thinking about, well, what are the things that I value? What do I want to put on the list? I don't want to just put things that I've heard other people put, you know? And it's not like it's a bucket list because whenever I think of a bucket list, I think of doing all these, you know, oh, I'm going to bungee jump. Oh, I'm going to travel to Australia. Oh, I'm going to canoe the Mississippi River. I don't know who want to do that, that muddy mess. But anyway, that can be on somebody's bucket list, right? And so I started composing a list of things that I value in my life. And so I started with my purpose, right? And my purpose on this earth, which I know 100%, is to empower and inspire as many people as I can to live the highest version of their life without settling. Because I want you to create your more right now, right? I don't want us to wait until after we retire. I don't want us to wait until we're 90 and go, oh my God, I want to do that thing now. Because the window of opportunity when you can do it your best begins to kind of close, right? And so we're going to think about what matters in our life. I want you to think about your values. For me, my top values are my health. Health and wellness is number one. And then it's the success. It's success because at this moment in my life, I've never felt more alive. So the success that I am after, that I am working in every single day, that I'm tasting and I'm ruminating on, right? It helps me to keep growing and evolving. And then my third value is love and connection. And so the reason why they are in that order is love and connection used to be first. But then I realized, if you are working through and allowing time in your day for your highest value priorities, then the first thing that I would do, I would make time for in the day, is love and connection. Well, without my health, I really can't work on my business. I can't serve my clients, and I can't connect with other people. And so I recognize that my health needed to be first. And so there are times when, like this morning, right, I chose to sleep in. And for me, sleep— sleeping in is like 7, right? Because generally I wake up without an alarm clock. And when I wake up without an alarm clock, that sometimes is— today it was 7, sometimes it's 5:30, sometimes it's 6. But I love that window of where my body's like, okay, You have, you know, you've slept enough and I feel refreshed. Well, because I chose to sleep until 7 and I had some other commitments that I had to do, so now I had a choice of, you know, am I gonna do my meditation this morning? Am I gonna do my journaling? Am I gonna do, you know, my reading? Well, I hadn't done my health and I only had an hour. And so because health is my highest value priority, I have to be conscious of making the decision for my— my health comes first. So I chose to get on the treadmill. I chose to do my cardio first. And then later on, you know, I will meditate before bed. And so when it comes down to the order in which you do things, you can put whatever time you want on it, right? You can, you know, if it's a third of your day, if it's half of your day, we just want to make sure we touch those things. Because if we say these are our values, Then how do we back that up? We only back that up with action. We back that up with who we are being. And if I am being healthy, that's what I wanna exemplify. If I am being the flower that's growing and blooming, growing and evolving, that's my business success. And I also wanna be the person who love and connection is important to. So ask yourself, are you spending time aligned with your values, incorporating even some of the passions that you have, the things that you love doing that makes time stand still for you? Or are you waiting for someday? You know, is it important to you to not miss moments, precious moments in life like birthdays, milestones, anniversaries, those time when you get together with friends and you laugh until you piss your pants almost, right? Are we missing those things? But maybe love and connection is not important to you. But figuring out what is important to you and delegating the time to make those things happen today. And I'm not saying that in order to start doing the things that you dream of, the things that create your life, I'm not saying that they have to be huge things, right? I'm not talking about like, I'm not talking about, oh, win the lottery, then I'm going to travel, you know. But if you have a list of 100 things that you can pull from, and maybe if travel is on it, you know, like I live in Arizona, maybe traveling, you know, this month isn't to, you know, Niagara Falls. Maybe it's just to Sedona. So it's all in how we frame things, the perspective. But the point is, is living now, living life to the fullest today, and doing a little bit of something that gets me closer to that end goal. And then, of course, there's, you know, I keep moving it because I want to keep living today like there is no tomorrow, living today like I don't want to ruminate on yesterday. Right? And so, my IG friend, we're going to put a date on that calendar. We're not going to just go "soon." I will follow up on that because I don't want to leave it to chance, because "soon" could mean so many different things. So I am challenging you today to make your list. Make your list. If you were to live 100, what are the things that when you look back on that life that you'll be like, yeah, I did that. I experienced love in the depths of my soul. I bungee jumped. I, you know, jumped out of airplanes, whatever the thing is, you know, I started that business. You know, I had, you know, two beautiful kids, whatever that thing is. You can begin today taking one small action every day to begin taking you towards those goals rather than not doing anything, which won't get you closer to your goals, right? Not get you closer to the things that you want to create in your life. So my challenge to you today, is live today fully, 100%, sooner rather than someday. So live today like there is no someday, and then the regrets we have at the end of life disappear. As I wrap up this episode, What I want to share with you is I have made space in my calendar to serve 3 people. And that 3 people, I want to help you break through something that's holding you back, break through that glass ceiling that's keeping you stuck in some area of your life. And so I want to give that to. I want to serve again because my purpose is to inspire and empower as many people as I can to live the highest version of their life without settling. So if you've been listening to the podcast and you feel like, you know, my message resonates with you and you would like to just experience coaching, my gift to you, to 3 different people, 30-minute where I serve you on the call and help you break through that barrier. So if you feel called to this, click the link that's located in the show notes. It will be under Spring Forward for Your Breakthrough, because after all, guys, it is March. It was springing forward soon on the time. So thank you for listening. And I hope you have a fantastic day, and I appreciate each and every one of you.