Are You Living in ‘Once-I’?

Life is hard; there is no doubt. People lose their jobs, they dump each other with no explanation, they can’t drive in bad weather; credit card interest rates increase, parents age. Fast food isn’t food.  Life is just not the bowl of cherries that most thought it was.

As a result people start living in ‘Once I’. I’m sure you know how it goes: ‘Once I am married life will be great. Once the kids are gone we will travel. Once I get my promotion my career will be on track. Once I win American Idol I will be someone. Once I pay off my credit cards I can get that new vehicle. Once I lose weight I will be pretty. Once I buy a house…….’

The sad thing about living in this mindset is that it’s a trap.  There will always be something after the one ‘Once I’ that keeps you where you are. What if instead of ‘Once I’ it was changed to ‘I am’?

‘I am  living life for today. I am great as a single person. I am traveling even though I have children. I am enjoying my career now. I am someone. I am……’

I fell into the trap too. I used to think that once I graduated with my degree that life would begin. I used to think that once I started my career as a speech professor that life would be great. I used to think that once I made my first million that everything would be easier. I used to think that that once I met the wonderful man God has for me life would be complete. I used to think that once I got to the next place that life would be better than it was. In reality; it only proved that I was never living in the moment of where I actually was or am.

So what about you? What are you not seeing that you could be because you are living for a place you are not even at or don’t know if you will ever get to? Are you living in ‘Once I’ thinking that it will be better? And what about it will be so? You will still be who you are although just perhaps more of it. Why not spend the time today living for what and who you are becoming instead of waiting for a perpetual cycle of ‘Once I”s that never end?  In the end you will see there is more life in it than what you have thought!