All week long, I’ve been getting these little hints from the universe. These little moments that make me take pause. Think for a minute.
Maybe it was when my sister messaged me. Stressed. Unsure. Concerned about her future. Racing to the finish line. A feeling I’m all too familiar with.
Maybe it was when I got a Snapchat from a friend, saying a young student at his school died that day. Only a brief time after this child’s only other sibling also passed away.
Or maybe it was my first day doing clinicals in a hospital, hearing a woman in pain call out for help. Quietly say through gritted teeth that she couldn’t do it anymore.
I don’t want this post to be a plea to live each day like it’s your last. But I do want you to take a moment to just stop. Ask yourself,
Am I really living my life, or am I just marking days off the calendar?
We’re stuck in this constant countdown. How many more months til graduation. How long until you get that promotion. Til you find Mr. Right. Til you have your life in order.
Because we think that on the other side of these deadlines lies happiness.
Let’s not forget that happiness is cultivated as part of the process.
Here’s an analogy.
Imagine you’re biting into a ripe fruit. Juice is dripping down your chin, and it’s deliciously sweet. But now imagine how much more you’d appreciate the flavors if you’d planted it yourself. Placed the seed in the ground, covered it with soil, watched and cared for it until it grew and was able to bear fruit.
I can see you smirking over there, thinking about it. It’d be rewarding, wouldn’t it?
So why aren’t we applying the same logic to our lives? Why aren’t we taking the time to appreciate the dirt under our nails, the sun shining on the backs of our necks, the cool water on our fingertips?
Because, let’s be honest, tomorrow might not be there. If there was no fruit — no goal reached — was there no life?
Of course there was life, you say.
But we’re all so focused on the fruit. The end result. The finish line. And we really need to stop with that thinking. Because it just closes us off from what’s truly important to us. We put our blinders on and forget about everything else that happens between where we are and where we want to be.
Be driven. Be focused. But don’t lose sight of the rest of it — those are the moments that are going to cultivate happiness. You know, the happiness that isn’t reserved for the other side of the finish line. Because, I hate to say it, that’s not really the way it works.
Stop waiting for happiness. Eliminate the things (and people) from your life that are no longer serving you. Re-prioritize according to what really, truly, down-to-your-core matters to you. Choose to do the things that fill you up, and quit the things that don’t.
