The Perils of Someday, One Day or Next Year

When I announced my recent trip to New York, I noticed a few similar responses from people.

They went something like this.

‘I’ve always wanted to go to New York. One day I’ll get there.’

‘I’ll go someday.’

‘Maybe next year.’

The common theme in most of these statements – the words and implication of one day or someday.

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As many of us know only too well, someday or one day rarely ever comes.

Both of these words belong to a place in time, far off in the distance that we often can’t visualize or comprehend. Someday and one day are simply too vague to motivate us into taking immediate action.

Which leads me to wonder, why do we leave something we desperately want up to a time frame so incredibly vague?

It can be easy to fall into the someday trap. I’m guilty of it myself.

It’s an extreme form of putting things off until tomorrow which I have written about here before.

Sometimes it can be a simple case of what we say we want and what we actually want are two different things.

You will have a lot more motivation to follow through on your goals if you know exactly what they are.

Need help with your goal planning? 

The Slay Your Goals Planner is a great resource to help you work out the why (very important!), when and how of your goals. You can read my review of the planner here. You can download the free Slay Your Goals Guide to get a feel for the planner.

Often it is a case of changing priorities, which is normal since we all need to prioritize both our time and money. Life changes and we need to change along with it.

Making an event happen someday takes actual work, planning and in some cases sacrifice.

Whether we like to admit it or not, getting what we truly want can often involve making sacrifices.

Unfortunately, we can’t have everything (as much as some media outlets like to tell us otherwise in their efforts to sell the ‘you can have it all’ with your credit card lifestyle). Usually, we need to sacrifice something, even if it’s on a short-term basis.

Have you ever heard someone constantly say they were going to do something and know instinctively that it was never going to happen? This is a situation people generally don’t want to be in.

We like to think our word means something, that our promises, commitments, and words have substance.

Even the expression, ‘I’ll do it next year’ can be dangerous without a plan or actual motivation to back it up.

If you have enrolled in a course for next year or started a savings account with automatic deductions for your holiday next year, then you are on the right track. No matter how far in the distance your big dream or event is if you start working on an actionable plan (complete with due dates for delivery) you are heading in the right direction.

When you hear yourself using the words someday or one day think about how much you want this particular event or action.

How strongly you want to go to New York, start your university degree or work on your small business side hustle will have a big impact on whether or not you take the action steps to make it happen.

Try to erase someday from your vocabulary.

Understand this word can become toxic. It can keep you living in limbo, feeling like your life will start at some predestined point in the future.

Your life is happening right now.

Choose to make the most of today as well as planning for tomorrow.

Start paying more attention to when you use the word someday. Ask yourself, how badly do I want this? When you know exactly what you want, put steps in place to make it a reality.

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