My Daughter Will Never Be This Small Again

I returned from my recent work trip when I learned that my infant daughter started to sit by herself.

After just one week, she was noticeably heavier and developed new quirky habits (she got really good at faking a cry).

The next morning, I was about to tackle my huge to-do list when my wife came in with our daughter and it hit me:

My daughter will never be this small again.

So I put away my laptop and spent a relaxing day with my wife and daughter in our backyard instead.

Every Life Experience Has a Timing Window

Seeing my daughter grow is a constant reminder that every life experience has a particular timing window.

For example:

• One day my daughter will be too big to be held in my arms.
• Backpacking through Europe and sleeping in hostels might be fun in your 20's, but maybe not in your 50's.
• 90% of our time we'll ever have with our parents is already spent by age 19. (American Time Use Survey)

Once you miss that timing, you can't experience it at that life stage anymore. This limited timing window is why we can't keep delaying important life experiences.

We All Have Busy Lives

We all have busy lives with a mountain of responsibilities.

There's never a perfect time for self-care, passion projects, or bucket list items.

We keep putting these off as if we have unlimited time, but think about this:

If you had one year left to live, would you change the way you live?

If yes, you've identified a gap – a gap between your current and ideal life. This inconsistency causes a mild discomfort (sometimes even subconsciously) – psychologists describe this as a cognitive dissonance. That awareness is key because you can't fix a problem if you don't even know it's there.

So What?

Does that mean we should all book that dream vacation, make that career move, or move to that wonderful city?

Maybe!

In recent years, I've made big changes: I quit my stable job of 8 years and became a freelance optometrist. It's something I never thought I would do, but I'm glad I did because it brought me closer to my dream work-life.

I learned that big life changes, although uncomfortable, are never as scary as you think.

So if you've been putting off certain life experiences, big or small, remember the limited timing window.

My daughter reminds me of that every day, and to hug her just a little tighter.