We’ve all said it. “Someday I’ll start going to the gym.” “Someday I’ll go back to school and get that degree.” “Someday I’ll start eating better.” “Someday I’ll start getting out more to do interesting things.” Sometimes we replace ‘someday’ with ‘sometime soon.’ Sometimes when we say ‘someday’ we mean ‘sometime soon.’ It’s all the same. Someday means NEVER.
My close friend and co-worker has been working with me for years. All the while, I’ve questioned aloud why he still went to school. I would cite its uselessness for him and the fact that the degree he would be acquiring would have no bearing on his career due to his life direction. Finally, after 5 years of college and without a degree, he quit school in pursuit of his career. He said to me shortly afterward, “Someday I’ll go back and finish the degree.” I said, “So you’ll never go back and finish your degree.” He chuckled and agreed.
I’m no less guilty of using the someday excuse. I have said that someday I’ll start saving money and that someday I’ll start going to the gym. Sure, these things might happen, but they will likely happen out of necessity and not because I made any kind of personal commitment. “Someday I’ll start going to the gym,” really means, “Once I’ve put on a definitive 15lbs I’ll start going to the gym to get rid of it. “Someday I’ll start saving money,” really means, “When my car blows up and I realize I’ve been foolish not to have a few grand saved, then I’ll start saving.” A reality that I have recently learned the hard way.
For the vast majority of people, this idea of setting an un-time-constrained goal for the future is bullshit. I’m equally guilty of it myself, and as much as I’d like to say that someday I’ll change that trend for myself, that would just mean I never will.