Dear Reader,
Is there something you've wanted to create, but keep telling yourself you don't have time for it?
A client of mine has wanted to write his book for a long time now. He knows what it's about. He's talked about it with me more than once.
But he's never actually sat down to start. There's always something more important, a deadline at work, a family situation, one more fire he has to put out first.
So for years now, the book has stayed a conversation instead of becoming a page.
None of those things are wrong to attend to. They're real, and they matter.
But years have passed this way, one urgent thing after another, and the book is still just an idea.
Here's what I've noticed, both with him and in my own life:
The things our heart wants us to create don't go away just because we're busy.
They wait.
And the longer they wait, the more that quiet ache starts to turn into something heavier.
Now let's get ALIGNED...
Inspirational Quote
"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul."
- Dieter F. Uchtdorf
The Story
I've known this client for many years now.
We don't talk about the book often. Most of our sessions focus on whatever is most pressing at the time...work, family, the things that can't wait.
But every once in a while, the book comes up.
And every time it does, he says it the same way, like something he knows he needs to do, that he has to do.
Then he tells me why he can't right now, usually something urgent at work or at home, and how he'll get to it once things finally settle down.
The problem is, things never really calm down. There's always another fire.
A few months ago, after saying this again, he added something that stayed with me. "I keep telling myself I'll get to it. But I'm starting to wonder if I ever will."
He didn't sound frustrated. He sounded like someone already grieving something that he hadn't even lost yet.
Because somewhere underneath the busyness, he already knows what's happening.
Every year that passes without starting isn't neutral.
It isn't just a delay. It's quietly becoming a loss he'll have to reckon with eventually, whether he starts the book or not.
The Spiritual Lesson
The urgent things we all have in life aren't wrong. They're real, and most days they genuinely do need our attention first.
But here's what I think is actually happening.
Urgent things get to go first because they come with a deadline attached, whether that's a client waiting or a bill due by Friday.
For my client, the book doesn't have a deadline. No one is waiting on it but him.
So it keeps losing, not because it matters less, but because nothing is forcing him to choose it.
The things our heart calls us toward rarely show up with urgency.
They show up as a quiet pull, easy to postpone because nothing falls apart today if we do.
But nothing falling apart today isn't the same as nothing being at stake.
Every time he chooses the fire in front of him over the book, he tells himself it's just for now, just until this season passes.
The trouble is what happens underneath, year after year of choosing that way.
The call doesn't get quieter. It waits, and it keeps asking.
And eventually, the cost of not answering it stops feeling like a delay and starts feeling like a version of himself he didn't get to become.
That's what I heard in his voice that day. It wasn't stress, but grief for the writer he still hasn't let himself be.
Your Call to Action
This week, notice the next time you catch yourself thinking "once things calm down."
Maybe it's a book.
Maybe it's a conversation you've been meaning to have, a skill you've been meaning to pick back up, or a version of your life you keep setting aside for a quieter season.
Before you file it away again, try asking yourself this instead:
"What if I don't wait for the deadline that isn't coming?"
You don't have to clear your whole calendar. You just have to stop pretending the pull will wait forever without a cost.
That's where the choosing actually happens, not at some future date, but now.
May this be the week you stop waiting for permission that was never going to come.
Abundant Blessings and Namaste.
Abundant Good News and Notes
One-on-One Coaching: So many of the people I work with come to coaching not because something is falling apart, but because they've noticed something has been waiting, a creative pull, a project, a version of themselves they keep setting aside for a quieter season that never comes. That's exactly the kind of conversation I have with clients. Together we slow down, look at what's pulling at you versus what's actually calling you, and help you find a way to finally give that call some room. If that sounds like what you need right now, just hit reply and let's talk.
Thanks for reading ALIGNED!
If you have any questions or want to share what you thought about this newsletter, hit reply and let me know.
Abundant Blessings,
Joselito Laudencia
Spiritual Life Coach, Teacher, Speaker
Author, The Creative Impulse: Answering the Highest Calling of Your Heart
www.abundantgood.com
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