Tomorrow Is Not A Suitable Day For Doing Things

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Tomorrow is not a suitable day for doing things by David Kane. For 2 years, I've been trying to do most of my writing tomorrow. This has never worked. I can't think of a single time I've been able to do my writing anytime other than today. Historically, I've avoided doing it today of all days because I'm afraid of certain moments that can only happen when I write today.

I can be halfway through an article and realize it's going nowhere. Then it's either toss it and start again or try to massage it into something I don't hate. That's always a painful moment, and I never want it to happen today. Sometimes, it's an even more painful version of that moment. I might have the thought that not only does this current piece suck, but most of them do.

I don't usually think that, but when I do, it hurts. Those moments aren't scary at all when I know they can't happen today. When they're tomorrow's problems, they become remarkably easy to deal with. So my strategy, most of the time, has been to write tomorrow. Normally, I only write today when I have to.

Some Saturday morning, I stopped wanting to write tomorrow. I only wanna write today now. Mentally, it's a really different place than I'm used to, much more upbeat, much more inspiring. And I landed there after finally facing a heavy, unforgiving fact. I can't write tomorrow.

It's a mechanical impossibility. There's nothing you can do tomorrow. I've never done anything tomorrow and neither have you. If doing it today might hurt, then either you open yourself to that pain or you decide it's not something you're prepared to do at all. Maybe you don't write but I'd bet money that there's something important to you that you're always trying to do tomorrow.

Good luck. Tomorrow is not a suitable day for doing your things. Tomorrow is not a suitable time for doing things, but how often do we put our hopes and our fears and our dreams into tomorrow? And tomorrow here is just a shorthand for saying in the future. You may not actually think I'm gonna start working on my dream tomorrow, But I think a lot of people say I'm gonna start working on my dream soon.

Well, if I can just if I can just have these few things line up, then I can start really doing what it is I wanna do. I can't do it today because I got a bunch of other stuff I gotta do. So I'm just gonna dump my dreams and my goals into tomorrow. I'll I'll definitely take care of them tomorrow. But somehow, all of these tomorrows eventually become yesterdays with no todays in the middle.

Right? All these things we say we're gonna do in the future, and suddenly it's been a year, and we've never done them. One of my favorite sayings on this topic is, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. And the author's right.

There really is no tomorrow. There's only a series of todays. And so if you're gonna start your thing, you're gonna have to do it today. Now I definitely understand what he's talking about about the fear of writing today. Well, I don't wanna write today because what if I get into it and it's no good?

Or he says, what if I start writing the article today and then I realize that every article I've ever written is terrible? I think that's more my fear is that I'm gonna start in on some project and suddenly realize I'm terrible. I have no idea what I'm doing, and this idea is stupid. And so I don't wanna address those fears, so I say, yeah. I've got this idea, and I'm gonna start on it tomorrow.

Because tomorrow is a safe place. Tomorrow doesn't actually require work. Tomorrow doesn't require addressing fears. Tomorrow lets you actually still be, like, excited and hopeful and optimistic and say, oh, yeah. I'm gonna start tomorrow.

Today, on the other hand, is nasty. Today is a blank text editor. It's an empty recording. It's a canvas with no paint on it, and you just get to sit there and stare at it. And that's hard.

That's no fun. But if you start today, then tomorrow, you're already a day into it. And better yet, if you start today, a year from now, you'll be a year into it. This quote is from Steve Martin about playing the banjo. He says, I remember getting my first banjo and reading the book saying, this is how you play a C chord.' I put my fingers down to play the C chord, and I couldn't tell the difference.

But I told myself, just stick with this. Just keep playing, and one day, you'll have been playing for 40 years. And at this point, you'll know how to play. And, 50 years after he picked up the banjo, he won a Grammy for his album The Crow not too far off from the 40 year estimate. So you can't start tomorrow.

At some point, you just have to decide, I'm gonna do it today. Today is the day I'm gonna start. And at some point, you'll look back and say, man. I am so glad I started that long ago. Because at some point today, whatever day it is that you're listening to this on, at some point today is gonna be last week.

At some point today is gonna be last year. And at some point, today is gonna be 10 years ago. So don't you wanna start today? The Music Makers podcast is released twice weekly on Mondays Thursdays at 10 AM CST. Here's a sneak peek from the next episode, Confessions of a Recovering Life Hacker.

I don't ever worry about socks. Never. Never worry about socks. You can subscribe in iTunes by searching for The Music Makers or visit us online by going to musicmakers.fm. And as always, you can reach me at Aaron@musicmakers.fm.