Think about it.
Life is good.
I know this is not a groundbreaking statement. This is not news to your ears and you will not tweet this statement out because it’s the latest trend. But, I think it’s true and you owe it to yourself to take a minute to think about it.
I just interviewed Jessica Rogers, an incredibly talented Chicago director and improviser, (which I’ll post in a few weeks) and when I asked her if she had any final comments, she looked at me with a small smile on her face and said, “Life is good. Life is really good.” And she’s right. And I’ve been thinking about that for the last two weeks so I thought I’d share my thoughts with you.
I think all too often we take life for granted. We take our health for granted. We take our loved ones, our families, our capabilities to function as human beings for granted. But why? Because we’ve experienced some hardships in life? We’re too busy? We’re jaded and bruised by some of the obstacles that have wrestled with us over the years? Who is benefiting from this negativity we carry around with us on a daily basis? Surely not us. Surely not our coworkers. Surely not our loved ones who we bitch and complain to “because we can.” No one is benefiting by it, so why do we waste our time and energy lugging around negativity?
Because we can.
But we can also stop. We can also take a moment to realize that, despite the fact that our neighbor might make $20k more than us, our ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend might have better hair than us and that sometimes we have to juggle multiple jobs and very little sleep to make ends meet, life is really pretty good. If we can take even half of the energy we spend analyzing the “shit” in our lives and focus on all of the overwhelming positive things, we would all realize we have so much more to be grateful for.
This past weekend, I went on vacation with my friend, Jaynie, to Montreal. We talked about life, our troubles, our families, rain, zombies, therapy and how we were concerned that we needed Starbucks three times a day to stay awake. But there was a moment last Friday night where I couldn’t have been happier. I was sitting in the most adorable French bistro, sipping a glass of wine, with an old friend, laughing, listening to the rain pitter patter outside and indulging in the most delectable meal I’ve ever had in my life and I found myself sitting across from Jaynie with this goofy smile on my face. I looked at her and just grinned and said, “Life is good. It really is.” We toasted and she agreed. It was just one of those perfect moments in life where, if you take a moment to step back from the craziness that we all get wrapped up in, there was nothing that could have made it any better. I think we need to work harder at finding and identifying those moments more often, because, I know they’re out there.
My sister, Paige, is my favorite person in the world, (sorry mom and dad) and she is the queen of identifying beauty. One of the things I love and admire so much about her is her perspective of the world. The other day I found myself in this rant about how we, as society, need a better life/work balance and we need to take time to truly enjoy how beautiful life is and I found myself thinking about Paige. I think she sees more beauty than the average person, because not only is she is open to the idea that it exists in unconventional places, but mostly, because she wants to see all the beauty in the world. So many of us make excuses so that our bitching and complaining seems justified, but we’re really only getting in our own way. We are our own obstacles so much of the time. Why put up these condescending barriers filled with excuses and deprive ourselves of all the beauty that surrounds us? Come on folks, it just seems silly.
If there are a few nuggets of life I would suggest trying on for size, it would be the following:
- Do your best. This is something my dad always told me. As long as I was doing my best, that’s all I could do. Plus, life is too short, so why half-ass anything?
- Try to find the beauty/upside in everything. It’s there. Sometimes you have to look a little harder for it, maybe peel back a few layers, but I promise you, it’s there. There’s no sense in dwelling on the negative.
- Find your priorities and make sure they know they are priorities. Identifying what you want, what’s important to you and having a clear vision of where your priorities lay will help you to allocate your time and energy more efficiently. However, while a career and material possessions may show up in your priorities list, I’m hoping that your priorities ultimately end up being people.
- Give yourself time to reflect and take a step back. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the everyday errands and emails and text messages. However, find the time to take a step back and take a deep breath, I find most often, it’s those moments that help me to see all of the things I have to be grateful for.
- Give yourself a break once in awhile. Often times we are our own worst critics and sometimes we don’t give ourselves enough credit for the work we’ve done. You will burn out and there’s a chance you’ll end up resenting whatever it was that took up your time.
- Be kind and forgiving. Another thing my dad always said was “kill people with kindness” because no one can be mad or angry with you when you are kind to them. You also never know if someone is just having a bad day and you could be faced with the position of being the asshole who makes it worse or the gem who turns it around for them. Think about it. It’s also a waste of energy to hold grudges. I encourage you to try and free yourself of them.
- Be honest with yourself. Above all else, just be honest with yourself. If you’re lying to yourself, you eliminate any foundation of truth and it becomes difficult to validate the things you say and do. No one wants to live like that. What a waste.
I hope you take away from this brain dump that life really is good and you should give yourself more opportunities to recognize that and celebrate it. Life is short, but is what you make of it and, excuse my 2012 all-too-trendy acronym, YOLO fools. It’s true though, you only live once.
