Growing older is gradually realizing how much of life was happening while you thought you were waiting for life to begin.

There is a persistent feeling of being in a preliminary phase: once the studying is done, once the job settles, once the money is sorted, once the children are older. Then a long stretch has passed and you understand that the waiting room was the life, containing most of what you will remember. Nothing was ever going to start; it was already running.

Look at what you are currently treating as a prelude and ask what you are postponing until it ends. Then move one of those things into this month. The condition you are waiting for may or may not arrive, and the years pass regardless.