How to Enjoy the “NOW” When You’re Excited for What’s Next

Ah, happy Tuesday! We’re in our new home and I could not be happier. The anticipation of waiting is now over and we’re here… It’s one of those “pinch me” feelings.

I cannot believe, even as I write this that I’m sitting in the office, which was just sticks a few months ago. The office that I saw being built from the ground up. I saw the drywall go up, the paint, the baseboards, the carpet… and now it’s done, and I’m here.

It’s a surreal feeling. I’m grateful.

As we were waiting for our home to be built I was very conscious of the fact that I wanted to be PRESENT through my excitement. I didn’t want to MISS the life we had in our apartment just because I was excited for our life in our new home.

It was the same when we were beyond ready to move from SLO and be in Reno (though, that was even more challenging). I did everything in my power to daily enjoy our lives in SLO, knowing that the day we would move to Reno would be here before I knew it… and it was.

There are so many nexts in life that we’ll get to look forward to. While it’s awesome to be excited about those things (there are plenty of studies that show how good excited-anticipation is for us) we also don’t want to miss the now.

Here’s what I did to enjoy life in our apartment while we were getting excited for our home:

• I reminded myself of the value of being in an apartment: if something breaks, someone else will fix it for you! I appreciated the low-responsibility of not being a homeowner yet
• I made our apartment a place that we loved to be
• I took care of our apartment like I truly cared about it
• I turned on my fireplace in the mornings, let the light in, and enjoyed cooking in our space
• I reminded myself of what a great season it has been since we moved here and that one day I’m going to look back on living here as an incredible memory – a special time
• I allowed myself small indulgences of new home items instead of waiting until we had the house — new candles, towels, and a new vacuum

Now, to expand on that last point…

Remember when you were a kid and you went “back to school shopping”? Remember how you weren’t allowed to wear any of your new clothing until the first day of school? Or was that just me? Ha!

Though I understand the reasoning our parents have behind this concept I also remember it leading me to focus solely on that first day of school. I was so excited about my new clothes that I started to think my current clothes were less-exciting.

Same when Christmas would roll around. I swear, this must have been my moms favorite season because it allowed her to say “…Christmas is just around the corner!” whenever I’d ask for something new. Haha! She got a solid two months each year where she had an excuse to not spend her hard earned money on the kids. I get it mom, no hate!

But same thing! This made me, as a little kid, get so future focused to Christmas that all the days before Christmas just did not matter.

Now… don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining and I sure as heck am not sharing this with you to say that this traumatized me or anything to that degree. Ha! I’m simply sharing that it DID teach me that I don’t want to save all of the good stuff for the future.

Rather, I want to sprinkle small indulgences/joys throughout so that I can enjoy each day.

For example, our new vacuum. I only bought the Dyson early because it was majorly on sale. I planned to wait to use it until we got our new home. Then it came and I couldn’t help myself. I told myself I’d use it once to “test it and make sure it worked” (HA!) and then I’d put it away and save it for the new place. LIES.

I used that thing once (I swear, this is not a Dyson ad, LOL) and I never wanted to use another vacuum again.

So I’ve been using it ever since. And that small little thing gave me this revelation…

There really isn’t a reason big enough for me to follow in those footsteps that I grew up with. To save everything for later. Rather, I want to spread the joys out as much as possible.

It’s sort of like a food mindset…

If you can have little bits of ice cream all the time then there’s no reason to gorge all at once.

But if you only get to eat ice cream in one sitting, once every three months, then OF COURSE you’d gorge yourself all at once. I would too!

So… What does this post inspire in you? Is there anything you may want to “spread out” a little bit to enjoy it more and more moderately? For example, buying new clothes, decorating your home, or saving money… Share with me in the comments!