It really is never too late, it really is never too early to

“It really is never too late, it really is never too early to figure out your goals and dreams and what you love.” Thus spoke Garrett McNamara, the man who tamed the monstrous waves of Nazaré, Portugal — the surfer who rode mountains of water higher than cathedrals, and who transformed his life through the courage of his passion. His words are not merely a reflection upon ambition, but a testament to time and will — to the eternal truth that purpose is not bound by age, nor confined by circumstance. He speaks to the soul’s unending capacity to awaken, to grow, to seek its own horizon, whether in youth’s first dawn or in the twilight of age.

In McNamara’s saying lies the wisdom of experience. For he himself did not find his ultimate calling in childhood, nor in the simple thrill of the surf, but later — when he learned to listen not only to the sea’s roar, but to the deeper voice within, calling him to greatness. Born in Massachusetts and raised amidst struggle, McNamara found solace in the ocean’s embrace. Yet it was not until his forties that he made history, conquering waves once thought impossible to ride. His life, then, became a living parable: that the right time is not a date upon the calendar, but the moment one decides to act.

This teaching echoes through the corridors of human history. Consider Colonel Sanders, who founded his world-renowned chicken empire not in youth, but in his sixties, after years of hardship and rejection. Or Mozart, who composed masterpieces before most learn their craft. One began late, the other began early — yet both serve as proof that the call to create and to strive belongs to every soul at every stage. McNamara’s wisdom bridges these two paths, teaching that it matters not when one begins, but that one begins at all. For life, like the sea, offers endless waves; it is only the willing heart that learns to catch them.

There is something profoundly heroic in the idea that time cannot chain the dreamer. Many believe they are too old to start, or too young to dare. But the universe, in its quiet truth, does not recognize such limits. A flower blooms when its season arrives — not when another commands it. So too does the spirit unfold when nourished by courage and clarity of purpose. McNamara’s insight reminds us that the measure of a life is not its length, but its depth — and that the flame of purpose, once kindled, can burn just as brightly in the evening of life as in its dawn.

His words are also a call to awareness — to the practice of looking inward and asking: What do I love? What do I truly desire to create? Too often, men and women drift through life as if it were a current they cannot control, forgetting that destiny is shaped not by time, but by choice. To figure out your dreams, as McNamara urges, is not merely to imagine a future, but to listen with reverence to the whisper of your own heart. It is an act of self-discovery, sacred and brave — for to know what one loves is to hold the compass of one’s life.

There is an ancient echo here, akin to the wisdom of the philosopher Seneca, who said that “it is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it.” The message is the same: whether one’s beginning is late or early, the moment of awakening is divine. The tragedy is not to start late — it is never to start at all. The joy of the human spirit lies in the capacity to change direction, to reclaim one’s purpose, to rise again with new conviction even after failure or delay. Thus, McNamara’s creed is not merely about dreaming — it is about living with intention, every day, regardless of age or season.

Therefore, O listener, take this teaching as a torch for your journey: begin now. If you are young, dream boldly and build your foundation upon what you love. If you are older, do not look backward in regret, but forward in renewal. Time has no dominion over those who act with heart. Seek your purpose as the sailor seeks the wind, as the surfer seeks the wave — not with fear of the deep, but with faith that life will rise to meet you when you leap. For as Garrett McNamara has shown upon the crest of the ocean itself, the sea of possibility has no end, and it is never too late, nor too early, to dive into its vast and wondrous depths.