LIVE NOW. You Have Enough Time to be Dead.
Everyone is so busy hustling--hustling for that paycheck, promotion, acceptance, and job opportunity. Everyone is so busy chasing--chasing after people who do not love them, fake friends, false lovers, and inadequate family members.
Everyone is so busy waking up at the crack of dawn to go to their 9 to 5, then sitting in traffic for hours to get home, eat, sleep and do it all again the following day. Everyone is so busy sleeping their life away, stressing their life away, and crying their life away.
What happened to living? What happened to human beings instead of human doings? What happened to living instead of earning your living?
Do it now. Do it all now because you have so little time to be alive and infinity to be dead.
Live.
"Rat Race"
noun. : the unpleasant life of people who have jobs that require them to work very hard in order to compete with others for money, power, status, etc.
Steve Cutts has produced and uploaded great shorts onto YouTube that showcase how Americans have been living their lives; sometimes, they are unaware or aware but cannot get out of it.
Life should not be so artificial, and when people start to realize that, they will have greater success at achieving happiness. Human were meant to be outside, in the natural world--not sitting in a cubicle and working themselves to early graves.
Simple vs. Boring
Are the two the same thing?
The happiest people live the simplest lives.
I have found that I am happiest when my life has been over-simplified; when I wake up in the morning glad to open my eyes and experience a new day, when I can hear, walk, talk, see, taste, and feel another day on this earth; when the ospreys are flying, the bunnies munching, the squirrels running, and the deer walking; when the sun is out, and the clouds are gone; when I start or finish a book; when I see a bird outside my window; when a squirrel runs past me as I am walking; when I get to catch a sunset.
If you can find the beauty in the most mundane things, then life all around you becomes more beautiful. So, sit in the sun, listen to the birds, run in the rain, go for a walk, breathe in the fresh air, and catch a sunset. These are all natural occurrences happening all around you in the world; it'd be a shame to die before truly appreciating what happens organically on its own terms all around you. It does not cost a penny to sit and smile as the sunsets.
Escapism
Build a life you aren't constantly trying to escape.
I deleted all social media for a few months to see how it affected me. Part of me was put-off that I even had to do it and see if there was a behavior change--to see if it wielded influence over me; I felt this because there was a time when no one had social media or electronics dictating their lives. Social media, phones, computers, and tablets have all become ways for humans to escape their lives. Are you bored right now? You can simply grab your phone and get a quick dopamine high. Want to experience somewhere other than your hometown, but you have no money? Just get on Netflix and watch a movie based in Italy.
I think we can all benefit by learning to love the life we have right now and stop trying to escape it. We are here, on this earth, during this time, right now--we need to live in this moment and stop longing for something else. While I acknowledge that no one's circumstances are ideal, and escapism might be the only positive factor in your life, it is important to not let perfect moments pass you by by trying to be someone or somewhere else.
Social media has turned into a faucet to "post, or it didn't happen." Did you really enjoy that concert if you didn't post it? Did you even go to it if no one else knew you attended? Our entire life has been documented and shared with the world through social media. It is both a blessing and a curse. It helps small businesses promote themselves, but it also strips away someone's happiness from a small thing in their life when they then see someone enjoying something 10x more grand. It makes the small thing that you cherish look weak against someone else's bigger thing.
The Power of Attention
If you do not like something, take away its only power.
Everything and anything only has power when we give it attention. That hurtful comment, bad picture, or failure can only control and influence you if you let it. Life is meant to be lived the way you want to live it. It's not meant to be lived as a product of everyone else's opinions and actions. If you let everything affect you, then it is not your life you are living--you are living as a result of everyone else's. This one life you are given is a gift and a privilege; do not waste it as a product of someone else. No words, actions, posts, or presence can shake you unless you give it your attention. Nothing is real unless you make it real. So, live before you are dead, and stop letting others control your emotions. It is your life, so be in control of it.
Cut Yourself Some Slack
You are a human experiencing each day for the very first time. You're doing your best.
Allow yourself to fall, make mistakes, and get back up. You are experiencing every day for the first time. You have never been here in this exact position before. No one handed you a detailed day-by-day instructions booklet that explains how to tackle every day of the year. So, don't be so hard on yourself when you act like a human and mess up. You're trying your best. You're living each day for the first time, facing new problems for the first time, and being put in situations for the first time. Don't act like you have been in this same exact spot before--it's new, and you're going to figure out how to handle it as it comes. All you can ever really do is try your best.
