10 Things You Need To Stop Waiting To Do

This article originally appeared on iMOM.com and reflects their mission and beliefs.

Scrolling through Facebook, I stopped on my friend Amy’s post. She had just celebrated the one-year anniversary of her double mastectomy. I smiled and said a prayer for her. I scrolled on, and a minute later I landed on a post from Becky, a friend from seventh grade, also recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Added to the prayer list! I switched to Instagram and saw a post from Clea, one of the stars of The Home Edit, who’s starting a new chemo regimen and reminding fans to stop waiting because early detection is key. Fine, internet! I’ve got it. Mammogram time.

We all know it’s wise not to put off annual checkups. They help ensure a longer, healthier life. But they aren’t the only things women put off that hold potential for living life more fully. I’ve found myself over and over again saving things for “tomorrow,”but I’m beginning to realize there’s no time like the present to do these 10 things.

I had an extra 10 minutes one morning and decided to finally use the fancy collagen mask that had been collecting dust on my bathroom shelf. I ripped open the package to find it completely dried up. Curses! If someone gives you one of these masks or you pick one up at the store, put it on the next morning! Your skin isn’t getting any younger, and it’s a small way to pamper yourself and feel beautiful.

It’s one of iMOM’s favorite suggestions for how to make your child feel special, but it can be hard to pull off, so we put it off. We want to make one-on-one time a big production when really, our kids just want us to themselves for an hour. Stop waiting to spend alone time with your kids or you might find you’ve run out of time.

“Mom, there’s a bake sale tomorrow!”Smart moms always have brownie mix in the pantry. I’ve started keeping a cake mix and frosting in there, too, and I refuse to let it sit for more than a couple of months. There’s always a reason to celebrate. Create a family holiday. Party on a half-birthday. Celebrate a baptism anniversary. Light candles because it’s a Thursday!

Alright, a facial mask or a cake might not be life changing, unless you bake a really good cake, but this one is. It takes strength to forgive and humility to ask for forgiveness. Stop waiting to tap into these qualities within yourself. Do you need to ask someone else for forgiveness? Or to forgive yourself? Call up that friend of yours or send her an email to clear the air, and you’ll change your future.

I used to worry about changing my hair and then I realized–it’s just hair, it grows back, and in the meantime, there are baseball caps and bobby pins. Want to get bangs? Go for it. Want to try a new color? Switch it up.

Fact: You care more about your messy house than your friends do. We have to stop waiting to have a perfectly clean house and the perfect charcuterie board to welcome our beautifully imperfect friends into our homes. A friend randomly showed up on my doorstep at lunchtime one day with two McDonald’s Diet Cokes and we had a delightful time. Let’s aim for relationships with more spontaneous Mickey D sodas and fewer Pinterest-inspired cheese boards.

I was sitting in the car line at school reading Shauna Niequist’s Present Over Perfect and started crying when I read a question she wrote: “Do you worship at the altar of productivity?”Guilty. Our bodies and minds deserve downtime, yet I think I have to constantly be checking items off a list. Rest days help us make progress and find peace.

There’s nothing sadder than finally popping open a bottle of bubbly to find it’s gone bad, so stop waiting. Just like the cake, if you have an inkling of a thought that “this is an occasion worth celebrating,”pop it and raise a glass in a toast. I have a friend who opens a tiny bottle of prosecco with her husband on the last day of every month just to celebrate whatever they accomplished. Cheers to that!

In the book More Than a Body, authors and doctors Lexie and Lindsay Kite say, “Body positivity isn’t believing your body looks good, it’s knowing your body is good, regardless of how it looks.”Don’t wait any longer to praise your arms for picking up your babies, your legs for chasing after them in the back yard, and your lungs for making your voice loud enough to be heard over other moms at the ball field.

We’ve all made a mental note about a kind gesture we want to try to do. Take a $20 grocery gift card to a friend who’s out of work. Mow the neighbor’s lawn as a surprise. What act has inspired you and why are you waiting to do it?

Which of these 10 things do you want to stop waiting to do first?

This article originally appeared on iMOM.com and reflects their mission and beliefs.