“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire” ― Lucius Annaeus Seneca

When, exactly, is the right time to get after what you want?

Rabbits and lights

When I was little, I used to go to the farm with my dad and friends to hunt rabbits, so much fun. We had a huge flat piece of land full of rabbits and coyotes running all over the place. The way you hunted rabbits was the following: We got into the truck, one driver and one co-pilot, two people in the trunk with rifles pointing forward. Then the driver would drive through the esplanade until he discovered a rabbit and then he would flash him with the lights of the truck. The rabbit would freeze and stay still, doing absolutely nothing, just waiting to be shot, you shot and you had rabbit for supper.

To this day, I’m amazed by the rabbit’s freeze. We are so much alike.

The reason I’m telling you this story is that of the shameful similarity in our lives, when it comes to decision-making, just like the rabbit, we freeze. There are so many things that we can do or be, that just like the rabbit in the lights, we freeze and do absolutely nothing. Just think about all your goals and the time you’ve wasted by not making the decision to do something about them.

Afraid of not taking the right choice. We act like mortals in all that we fear and like immortals in everything we desire. Thinking, stupidly, that we have all the time in the world. Never making the choice to start.

What If I’m wrong? What if I don’t like it? What if I’m not good at it?

You have to be wrong to know what is right

A couple of months ago, I had a girlfriend that kept asking me one question that angered so much, to the point of becoming a problem in the relationship: What do you want out of life?

I hate that question, it forces you to be so specific when life is so vast and complicated. It leaves very little room for experimentation. What did she expect the answer to be? world peace?

A better frame of the question would be: What do you do not want out of life? This question, I can answer, for instance, I can say that I definitely do not want to live in abject poverty, I don’t want to be an asshole and I definitely would not like to leave absolutely nothing to humanity.

Now, this is a start point, I cannot put specifically into words what I want but I have an idea of where I want to go. This “hint”, this small light on the horizon is all I need.

It is all I need because I just need it to guide me. This light is not a specific and closed term such as “I specifically want this and that” but it is an instinct and a post I can follow. I just need to start and discover the way as I’m going through the journey, explore what works and what doesn’t, for me.

If you set specificities, you are going to be disappointed, many times. Life is all but static, it changes, and you change with life as well.

The one thing you can trust is your intuition, this feeling is hardly put into specific words, but you can certainly trust it.

Beware, failing is a necessity. If you don’t fail you are never going to know if something is good or not for you. In the lights of this sense, failure can be seen as a necessity to move forward. By discovering what you do not like you are coming closer to what you do like.

The key is not to be the rabbit. Start, literally, act. If you get even the slightest hint of liking something, then do something about it. It’s better to know that you don’t like it and then proceed to the next thing that to freeze and do nothing like the rabbit just so you know, the rabbit is dead.

“The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”

― Seneca,

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