You are being unrealistic. Tedium is part of adulthood.

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(If you can’t see the video, view the original post.)

A friend of mine posed an interesting question: what if 2012 were the last year of your life?

Of course, that’s kind of the theme of 17000 Days, but somehow, thinking about it from the perspective of knowing you have only one year to live feels a little different to me. If I knew I had only a year left, my biggest change would be to stop thinking about money. I have enough money for one year; it’s the rest of my life I’m worried about. But even if I didn’t, if I was dying, would I care about money? Probably not.

Also, I would visit my family and friends more, and hopefully they’d visit me more. There are a few experiences I’d like to have before I go, too: hang gliding, sky diving, a cruise on the Mediterranean.

Realizing these things, I’ll make more of an effort to do them now, instead of waiting for a “someday” I might not see. But other than that, if this is the last year of my life, I mostly want to do exactly what I’m doing now: write a lot and go for long walk every afternoon. I’d just do it at a more relaxed pace, sometimes from a ski chalet or a beach house, and stop worrying whether other people like my work.

It’s no accident that I wouldn’t change much. I’ve already done a lot of sculpting on my life. I won’t lie–it’s been hard and scary, but so worth it.

We often try to escape our problems by shopping, or drinking, or buying a bigger house. We know it won’t make us happy, but on some level, we hope it will. When I still had my job and unhappy marriage, I can’t tell you how much yarn I bought, as if somehow that would change my life.

But worst of all is the idea that our problems will magically solve themselves if we wait long enough. How many people do you know who just keep trudging through life, doing the same things over and over, not liking any of it but not doing anything to change it? If you’re like me, too many!

We know nothing is likely to change unless we act… yet we keep putting it off. It’s too hard, too scary. Maybe tomorrow we’ll figure it out.

That’s how it is when you’re stuck. If you wouldn’t want to live your last year as you are now, help is on its way. I’m officially launching my new guide, Getting Unstuck, tomorrow.

In fact, this page was going to be one of those teaser “Coming soon–oooh, suspense!”-type things. But how stupid would that be when my whole message is “don’t wait–change your life now!”?

If you’d like some help now, here’s your chance to sneak in early.

Meanwhile, I’m wishing you many happy years of living just how you want.