I realized something today. When you’re younger, you know that there will always be time in the future to do things.

• Want to write a book? Don’t have to do it now … Don’t know enough anyway, I’ll do that eventually
• Want to learn how to play an instrument?* You can learn that later on when you’re in a different stage of life.*
• Want to visit other countries? *You’ll do that when you have money and vacation time. *
• Want to get married? You’ll meet someone, you’ll see. It will just happen someday.
• Want to get in shape or build your body? I’ll start that eventually, just not today. Too many video games to play.
• Want to get to know your parents & grandparents better? I’ll talk to them in a year or two, once that stuff becomes important to me.

As children, we put off all the things we are powerless to do because we have a good excuse-we don’t have the money, experience or resources to do them. We put off the things we don’t want to do because we just don’t see the point. And, perhaps most importantly, we realize that we have plenty of time to accomplish any goal we please once we’ve decided what to do with our lives.

As we get older, we realize “You know, I wish I would have forced myself to study more”, or “I wish my parents would have made me learn how to play that instrument better”, because most of us find that our adult lives are quite a bit emptier than our childhoods. Time starts to become a valuable resource as we spend most of our days yearning for the next.

Then, life gets to a point where you realize that these things aren’t going to happen unless you make them happen. You have to take active steps to accomplish each of them, because contrary to what people say, they’re not just going to happen on their own. When you’re older, your life gets put into fast forward quite gradually at a pace where you don’t even notice it happening. Then you continue to move forward without change looking in front of yourself and realizing that you can see the golden years of your life clearly and unobstructed by obstacles.

Evolution has given us this wonderful gift called *dissatisfaction. *You must learn to recognize this feature in your life and harness its power to motivate yourself to move forward and quite literally make a difference in your life. Then, and only through your own volition, the golden sunset will be hidden by the vast mountain tops, valleys and cliffs that await you.