The Trap of Chasing "Someday"

We all have a version of someday in our heads.

Someday I’ll travel more.

Someday I’ll start painting again.

Someday I’ll finally feel ready to make that leap.

The comforting lie is that someday will arrive like a neatly wrapped package on our doorstep. The truth? It rarely shows up, and when it does, it’s often disguised as an ordinary Tuesday we almost ignored.

Chasing someday is seductive because it feels like progress. It’s a promise to ourselves, a placeholder for the life we imagine living once the timing is “right.” But the right time is a moving target. We tell ourselves we’re waiting for more money, more confidence, or more clarity, yet what we’re really waiting for is permission.

Someday is a mirage. The closer we walk toward it, the farther it drifts, dissolving into a haze of not yet. We imagine it will come later — when we’ve saved enough, learned enough, healed enough. We wait for a sign, a season, a sliver of perfection that whispers, Now. Now you may begin.

But life doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t roll out a silk carpet toward our dreams. It drops them, quietly, into the mess of today, tangled between errands, emails, and the ordinary weight of living.

I have been a loyal follower of someday. I have waited for the calendar to clear, for courage to feel like certainty. I have watched years pass while telling myself the story of how ready I would be… later. And when later came, it looked exactly like before.

The truth is, someday is not a date. It is a decision. And decisions are made in the present tense. We do not need the perfect season, only the willingness to step forward while the dishes are still in the sink, while the emails are still unanswered, while our hands are still trembling.

Begin where you are.

Begin before you feel ready.

Begin before you have permission.

Because someday is not a place we arrive.

It’s the life we live when we stop waiting for it.