The Time Will Pass Anyway

Project 365, Day 20

Want to know my mantra, the phrase I keep telling myself every day to get me through writing?” I proclaimed to him, not really a question but leaving the invitation open for him to pry. When we feel like we can peel ourselves away from work to take a walk around the neighborhood before the sun sets, we do just that. This was one of those days. I tend to be very philosophical during walks. Maybe the blood pumping through my body clears some mental pathways, but I get reflective when my legs are moving. Each step opening up a thought, a life epiphany. A life sneeze.

“What’s that?” he asked me back.

“The time will pass anyway. The time will pass anyway.”

I can’t remember where I first heard this. I didn’t make it up. Not to say those five words are something no one else has ever thought besides the source I got it from, but I don’t like taking credit for things I didn’t create.

“The time will pass anyway. Whether I write every day or not, the year will come to an end after 365 days. What will I have done with that time? I want to look back on December 31 and be proud of the work I put in.” For far too long, I’ve used the excuse of having garbage discipline as an out. Who, me? I don’t have the discipline to do that. Oh Arlyn, stop that. What is discipline anyway? Well, it’s simply doing something as regularly as you set out to, regardless of whether you “feel” like it. And man, I don’t “feel” like it, for so many things, far too often. Breaking through to the other side can be exhausting, but what’s waiting over there, it can be so great. That’s the hope at least. I read somewhere (eh, probably heard somewhere is more like it) that the difference between people who have found success doing something and those who didn’t was consistency and simply not giving up. Showing up every day, in whatever way that is for them, for longer than everyone else.

The truth is, I’ve really enjoyed this project so far. Nearly three weeks in (that’s it??), and I wake up every morning with vigor to come here and interact with readers. I jot down a note every time I think of something to write about, excited to see your reactions. I have 16 drafts started on every which topic, anticipation bubbling up inside me thinking about what those might become. Writing every day has not been as painful as I’ve probably made it out to be. No one is making me do this. This is something I’m doing for myself, with myself, in spite of myself.

But that’s not to say it’s not hard. It is. Dedicating some time to yourself to do something every day, when the allure of the bed and the remote control is so strong…oof. But I get such a sense of purpose every time I hit “publish” on a post. A purpose I’ll never find in the credits scene of a show I binged five episodes of before dragging myself to cook dinner. It’s hard, but hard doesn’t have to mean it’s not worthwhile. If anything, it’s probably more worthwhile because it is hard.

Besides, like I’ve been telling myself, the time will pass anyway.

That photo up top, I took that nearly a year ago. On my 35 birthday during a trip to Catalina Island. What if I had decided that very day to take on a daily writing project? What would that have unearthed for me in that time? (For the record, more for myself than anyone else, not two months later, I did start the Arlyn Says newsletter, which evolved into this website, so yay 2020 Arlyn for taking that chance on yourself.)

If I think back to the things I never did in life because it would take too much time, well…I can come up with a lot of things. You’ve been there, surely? It’s like the process of losing weight. I’ve been up and down more times in my adult life than an elevator at the Empire State Building. While you’re doing it, it feels like the progress moves at a glacial pace. Half a pound here, quarter pound there. What’s it all for? But it all compounds after a few weeks, a few months, and before you know it, you’re down 20 pounds. 40 pounds. The time passed while I was chipping away at my weight goals in the same way it would have had I been scooping ranch dressing off a plate with my bare hands (who? me?!? NEVER).

This post is not about dieting. Forgive me for my constant need to draw analogies. TTWPA is just a simple mantra that I find has helped me this year so far. I have a tendency not to live in the present. I’m always looking ahead at what’s to come, what’s next, but my writing project helps me be grounded in today, right now, all the while projecting down the line, wondering where it will all take me. The time will pass anyway.

Whatever you’re feeling called to do, big or small, and you’re staring down the barrel of time, may I suggest stopping for a second, and reminding yourself that—you guessed it—the time will pass anyway. Time is a funny thing that way. It keeps ticking, always forward and it’ll leave you behind if you let it. This time, I’m hitching a ride and moving with it. Let’s see where I land, hm?

See you tomorrow, friends.