When I was a kid, my parents and extended family would throw around the word “someday” as if it was a magical destination. “Someday, my ship will come in.” “Yeah, we’ll do that; someday.”
Everyone seemed to be okay with this, but me. As if saying “someday”, sedated them. I quickly developed a dislike for “someday; a word of appeasement, not of action. It was hopeless hope. Someday meant it’s not going to happen, but … whatever.
“Someday” is in the future and the future isn’t real. Not yet. It will be; it can be; but not right now. The past isn’t real either. Not anymore. It was, but not right now. Only now is now and we can’t get to an actual “someday” without it.
But when is “now”? Now is always. It was then, it is now, and it will be tomorrow.
Without now, someday is just an abstract thought. In martial arts, a black-belt is merely a symbol of achievement; a result earned through the process. In Aikido or Hapkido, the “Do” is “the way”; living, studying, learning, and training in the process. That’s where the mastery lies, not in the result.
So, if we’re going to have a goal, then the goal should be the way, because the way is the goal. A graduated continuum of the “now”. Do this right and “someday” becomes today. In fact, we’ll lose the need for someday altogether, because we’re living it.
Now that’s an achievement!
Enjoy the journey.
Photo by Basil Samuel Lade on Unsplash.
I Am No Yogi 