Someday Isle

When I was a little kid, my dad framed a poem he liked and hung it next to the bathroom sink. Every time I brushed my teeth and washed my face, I read that poem until I had it memorized. It’s called “Someday Isle,” written by Denis Waitley. These are the first lines:
“There’s an island fantasy
A ‘Someday Isle’ we’ll never see
When recession stops, inflation ceases
Our mortgage is paid, our pay increases
That Someday Isle where problems end
Where every piece of mail is from a friend.”

I didn’t know what the poem meant until one day, while brushing my teeth, I had a word epiphany—my favorite kind. I realized that “Isle” and “I’ll” was a play on words, and that this island wasn’t an actual place. It was a mental place of “Someday, I’ll . . . “  As in:

Someday I’ll mend that relationship.

Someday I’ll get around to writing the book that’s on my heart.

Someday I’ll seek help for the disorders that are damaging my physical and mental health.

Someday I’ll finally take some time to travel.

Someday I’ll get organized.

Someday I’ll find a way to be happy.

But as the poem says,
“You can save, you can slave, trudging mile after mile
But you’ll never set foot on your Someday Isle.”

Someday never arrives. The grand plans you make to someday fix your life will never come to fruition because you keep putting them off—you procrastinate, thinking there will always be time for you to make the changes and achieve the goals that will finally make you happy. You wait for that someday and tolerate the unhappiness in your life today. And after a while, the waiting and the tolerating wear you down, and you start to think that happiness and the fulfillment of dreams are for the lucky ones—not you.

When I’d been sober for about a year, I had a long talk with my sponsor about all of the dreams that God was awakening in my soul—dreams that had been dormant within me for so long. My sponsor said, “Then start making them come true. What are you waiting for?” I blurted out, “For it to be easy.” And he said, in his very direct way, “Then you’re going to die without ever having lived. Because it never gets easy. And you’ve been in the program long enough to know that we live for today, not someday.” My sponsor was right; I did know that. What I didn’t know was exactly how to live that way.

But the next day, I was watching “Dr. Phil,” and Dr. Phil featured a life coach who spoke about how to create the life you want. The life coach said that in order not to overwhelm his clients, he asks them to choose the most important issue they want to deal with or the dream they most want to achieve, then each morning, write down three easy steps to take during their day that will move them closer to achieving it. He said that if, for thirty days, you write down the steps and take them, in a month you will have taken ninety steps towards your “someday.”

This three simple step concept resonated with me because I had a habit of deciding to change my whole life and go for every single dream at once—which always overwhelmed me to the point that I quit trying at all. I had journals full of good intentions but no follow-through. So I listened to that life coach’s advice and actually took it: I wrote out three steps every morning, and I did them. Ninety steps later, I had the confidence to keep going. I’m still going. I still choose three steps—steps that will move me forward today, not someday. And though my journals still have their fair share of well-intentioned plans, now they also have a record of progress.

So I’ll ask you the same question my sponsor asked me: What are you waiting for? There will never be a day when you wake up and life is easy. And there will never be a someday when all the things you put off for years suddenly get done. But there is today. And by tonight, you could be three steps closer to your once wished-for “Someday Isle.”

Denis Waitley finished his poem with a simple challenge and more practical advice—so I’ll leave you with his thoughts:
“From this day forward make it your vow
Take ‘Someday I’ll’ and make it your now!”

“’Someday’ is a disease that will take
your dreams to the grave with you.”Tim Ferriss

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Comments 2

  1. TexGen–I love your story. What a testimony you have! I haven’t heard the song you mentioned before, so I listened to it. Great song–thank you. And thank you for your kind and encouraging words. ❤

  2. Sparrow, thought provoking blog. I am a dreamer, have been all of my life. But, my “epiphany” arrived, shortly after receiving my honorable discharge, from U.S.Army. My mom and dad, suggested we attend, together, a Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends, and influence people”. My “transformation “ from “dreamer”, to “dreamer and doer”. It was a revelation. I feel it led me to a long career as a private investigator,with a Houston “top ten” law firm. My “doer”, mode, continued as Debbie and I were raising Alyssa and Christoper. Coach Youth soccer, boys and gurls, for . 5 plus years. This “morphed” into community service, volunteering,which continues today. Not to “blow my own horn”, I do not hesitate to “jump in”,,Be a “doer”.To close, I will quote, “Someday”, by The Strokes , “In many ways, they’ll misstge good old days,Someday,someday.Yeah, it hurts to say, but I want to stay , Sometimes, sometimes, when we was young, oh an, dud we have fun,Always, always, Promises, they break before thet’re Made,Sometumes, sometimes…Soarrow, yiu4 words lift, stimulate “this old brain”. Keep On Blogging, your writings are “stimulating perfection”.Keep on Blogging…TexGen❤️

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