When "Later" becomes "Never"

It's amazing how time flies.

Not all that long ago, I can clearly remember my son's birth, him learning to crawl, him learning to walk, him learning his first words... and the first time he showed interest in a kettlebell. :-)

Today is Squealie's 2nd birthday.

And I can't help but reflect on how many times I thought that little milestones passed me by, and that leads me to think back on my dear friend Rannoch Donald RKC's words... "Later has a way of quickly becoming never."

Funny how that works for all aspects of our life, ain't it?

It's all too easy for us to procrastinate and put things off until a more convenient time, a time when we're more rested, a time when we feel more motivated, a time when traffic's not so bad, a time when money's not as tight, a time when it's not so hot or not so chilly, a time when gas prices are a little lower. There's no shortage of excuses that we can use.

The bottom line is that we've got ONE life that's subject to the inexorable march of time. And just like Rannoch said, "later" does have an unsettling way of becoming "never". In other words, "I'll do this later" often becomes "I never did that" regrettably.

The list of things I want/need to do are formidable. Improve my own kettlebell & Naked Warrior (bodyweight training methods) strength, study more of Gray Cook's Functional Movement Screen technologies and travel to his FMS seminars & cert (which I'll write more on in my next post), improve/review/refine my own combative martial arts skills with just the systems I'm already familiar with (nevermind the new stuff out there that I haven't been exposed to yet.... so yeah, I'll blog on this topic of martial arts styles & training in the near future before I roll out to Scotland), and certainly spend more time with my family (as my wife & son spend most of their week an hour away - without traffic - because of my wife's medical residency program).

It's funny that nowhere in that list was "make more money", isn't it?

I've been fortunate enough to love what I'm interested in enough to be able to make a good living through my participation in those fields. I've had the best of the best when it comes to my teachers and mentors. And perhaps most importantly, I got a quote from someone I respect greatly to help distill many of life's decisions down to a crystal clear lens.

One of my big brothers, Chiefmaster Taejoon Lee, the son of Dr. Joo Bang Lee, the founder of Hwa Rang Do, told me that his father once gave him very simple advice when it came to making a living: "Let the money chase the man, not the man chase the money."



When I started to implement that motto in my decision making process, I found out that I had a lot more time to do what I loved and a lot more energy & resources to do those things with. If you live your life in a way such that you are passionate about what you do, you exude the energy to not only do your own work, but also motivate others to do it too. Money follows you. And perhaps most importantly, you find a real balance between having to say "later" and "now"!