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It's Later Than You Think
Balancing working towards big goals with enjoying life today
Marina Wyss
March 13, 2025
Welcome to Gratitude Driven, a weekly newsletter where I share practical ideas and insights across personal growth, professional development, and the world of AI and data science.
In This Newsletter
Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)
We tend to think we'll have all the time in the world.
As ambitious people with big goals, we study and work hard, always pushing ourselves in service to a future version of ourselves. But what if we're missing something important along the way?
I recently stumbled upon Guy Lombardo's classic song "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)" and was struck by how relevant its message remains today:
You work and work for years and years, you're always on the go
You never take a minute off, too busy makin' dough
Someday, you say, you'll have your fun, when you're a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you'll have in your old rockin' chair
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
This is something I’ve been thinking about in the last few months. I recently read Bill Perkins’ book, Die With Zero, which really got me thinking about how I balance working for tomorrow and enjoying today.
The book poses a provocative question: How would your behavior change if you only had one day, two days, or ten days to live? While that’s an extreme example, it forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth - we're constantly deferring joy today for a future that isn't guaranteed.
This book made me reflect on my own life choices. In concrete terms, it made me book a family vacation that I otherwise might not have splurged on. I’m looking forward to visiting Thailand with my husband, dad, and sister next month!
It also made me reflect on my past choices. My husband and I used to to worry about the fact that we didn't really start saving for retirement until our 30s. But looking back, what if we accidentally did exactly the right thing by spending in our twenties when we got maximum enjoyment from our money? We lived in another country, traveled the world, made tons of friends and memories, and had experiences that we simply couldn’t have enjoyed the way we did then if we’d waited until now.
The reality is that we will never be able to enjoy certain experiences more than we can enjoy them now. With age, some activities that bring us pleasure today simply won't hold the same appeal later.
We die many deaths throughout our lives at the end of different phases - the end of college, the end of young parenthood, and so on. Even if you maintain perfect health, some experiences (like backpacking through Europe, staying in hostels, and partying all night) are decidedly more enjoyable when you're in your early 20s and single than when you're married in your 30s and 40s.
This isn't an argument for financial recklessness, but rather a reminder to balance our future planning with present enjoyment.
After all, it really is later than you think.
What Inspired Me This Week
I listened to Dolly Parton’s short book, Dream More, on audiobook this week, and it was such a treat! She’s got such a wonderful perspective on goals, hard work, and living fully. Definitely recommend giving it a listen (you have to hear it in her voice)!
On the technical side of things, I finished Chip Huyen’s new book AI Engineering: Building Applications with Foundation Models. I’m a big fan of her previous book, Designing Machine Learning Systems, and this one was just as good.
I took 70 pages of notes that I’ve condensed down into a script for a video summarizing all the key points from the book. It’ll be about an hour long and packed with useful info, so keep a look out for that in the coming weeks!
My Recent Content
How to Switch from Data Analyst to Data Scientist (And Get Hired)!
How the Right Mentor Can 10x Your Tech Career
Quick Note: This week I posted my first video with a sponsored segment. I'm thrilled about this milestone as it means YouTube is becoming financially sustainable for me! Since I work full-time and have a demanding personal life, outsourcing video editing is essential—I simply couldn't do YouTube otherwise. My editor earns a living wage, so it costs me a couple hundred dollars per video. This sponsored segment allowed me to break even on editing costs for the first time! 😆
You'll soon see a few dedicated sponsored videos for specific products. I promise to only share products I genuinely believe are valuable to you, presented in a way that respects your time. These sponsored videos will help fund editing for more ambitious projects, like my upcoming hour-long AI Engineering video (which is quite expensive to edit!). Thank you for your understanding.
Thank you for your support <3
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ResNet Cat!
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