We tend to prepare too much for life while forgetting to actually live it. We generate wealth for future generations, learn from gurus how to live a good life, compromise peace today to guarantee peace tomorrow, and do work we dislike to secure a “safe” future. But has it ever occurred to you that you might be over-preparing for the future while completely missing the present? Most people do not have needs that cannot already be fulfilled with what they have today.
When I was living in Pune at the beginning of my career, I did not go hiking very often. I kept telling myself I could do it tomorrow—why hurry? Later, when I moved to Bangalore, I realized how beautiful the Western Ghats were and how completely I had missed experiencing them. To make up for that mistake, I started going on hikes alone, sometimes with complete strangers. Those experiences filled me with gratitude and realization—the realization that life is meant to be lived today, not tomorrow. Do not postpone living, because you may not have the same opportunity or the same zeal again. I realized this habit of postponing life was not unique to me—it was something deeply normalized around us.
Parents often invest enormous time, effort, and money in raising their children. They want their kids to be successful, sometimes while ignoring the child’s own ambitions. They imagine a future when they will finally feel “free”—when the kids get married, get jobs, and live happy lives. In the process, they give up travel because someone has to look after the child, or because the child might miss school. A school that often teaches little beyond factual knowledge of the outside world—knowledge that is largely redundant and unusable if the child does not even understand how to apply it.
Some parents compromise on work as well, doing jobs they do not like to secure their child’s future. When asked about their hobbies, they say, “Oh, we have a kid—no time for us.” They prepare a future for someone else, often without that person’s consent, while unknowingly piling expectations onto the child.
A regular employee spends their youth working for someone else. In the process, they rarely take long vacations. When they have energy, they do not go on long hikes, do not try adventurous sports, and do not prioritize their health. Why? Because they believe this is the time to make money and secure the future. They do not take random days off to meet friends. They do not skip meetings. They do not skip work when it’s raining outside and they want to go for a walk. They do not sign off early to meet loved ones who are in town. They do not pursue childhood hobbies because they “don’t have time.” They postpone living today because they are busy preparing for tomorrow.
In today’s social-media-driven world, a new generation of teachers has emerged—teaching people how to live. While their intentions may be good, we spend too much time learning how to live and too little time actually living. The best way to learn how to live is to live—fail fast, reflect, and try again differently. Life is too short to live someone else’s version of it.
Answers to your questions can only come from your own experiences. That is why I admire The Story of My Experiments with the Truth. The author experiments, fails, and tries again—quickly. What others think of your life on social media does not matter. What matters is how you feel inside. If your life feels authentic, it is the right life. Any life borrowed from others will eventually feel fabricated.
Life will not arrive tomorrow. It is here today. Play that instrument you always wanted to play. Write that letter to the people you love. Quit the job you hate. Learn the sport you have been postponing. Leave that meeting to pursue your hobby. Experiment and learn about yourself. You can copy material ambitions, but you cannot copy life. It is something only you can create. Time is too short to spend it preparing for life. Live it—today.
