Living Life

I use a site called the Brat Factor that sends inspirational quotes and advice each day for dealing with your "inner brat." I loved today's quote and decided to share it here:

For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to
begin (real life) but there was always some obstacle in
the way, something to be gotten through first, some
unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to
be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles
were my life.

Alfred D'Souza

If I had a nickel...even a penny for every time I heard someone (including myself) say, "I will do ____ as soon as I ____," I would be able to pay off a good chunk of the national debt. We always seem to be waiting for the perfect conditions to have a child, take a special trip, write that novel, etc. We trip along over our obstacles, blaming them for stopping us from living the life we always wanted, but we are the only ones stopping us!
Yesterday, I posted my 90th comic strip. Who was here when I printed the first? Raise your hand! That was one of the scariest days of my life. I had started writing ideas and drawing the strips when Marina was a first grader. It took me six years to write and draw a handful of strips because I wanted them to be perfect and I wanted to have so many done, I wanted to wait until I had more time to work on them and know exactly the right way to present them. Guess what? In six years I had ten strips and half weren't inked in. I was so busy waiting for the road to smooth in front of me, for every obstacle to be removed, I hadn't noticed the miles slowly stretching out behind me. When I finally decided not to wait for the world to stop, not to worry about what other people thought of my work (these are all based on personal experiences so who's to judge?), and not concern myself with making a buck off of my drawings, that was when I started to make progress! I've done over 80 strips in 7 months!
What dreams have you put on hold until ____? Wake up friends! We don't have to wait!

The Brat Factor