Wishing it were so doesn’t mean you can stop working and go frolic in meadows for the rest of your life. Bills still have to get paid and winning the lottery may sound good, but you than have to ‘manage’ all that money which means tax advisors, money managers, and those pesky sudo friends and long lost relatives that all want a to be your best friend. So it’s not so much where you are or where you are trying to get to, it’s about how you get there.
Yes, everyone says that, but I’m not here to repeat a Facebook meme. If you want to smell the roses, get out in your garden, plant some roses, then go smell them. Or goto your local grocery store or florist. Just be ready to explain if you are in your neighbor’s yard smelling their roses. They sometimes notice these things. What I’m trying to point out is something just as practical but a bit more to the point. You still have to get all the requirements of life taken care of such as paying bills, feeding/washing/clothing/teaching your children, acknowledging the presence of your significant other, etc, etc. It’s how you do that which makes the difference.
Somewhere along the line we get taught that everything else is the priority and we’re the last on the list, that personal time is what is left over at the end of the day, and whatever we can squeeze in for us will just have to do. Sleep seems to have become optional as well or at least a negative necessity that needs to be reduced as much as possible. All of which is completely backwards! All the ‘need to’s’ of life are there in order to support you. You are the number one priority and so refocus how you do things in order to reflect that. Need to do a bunch of errands, plan something fun to do that evening and get the errands done on the way. Then they aren’t the focus, you are, and you get to do something fun in the bargain. Need to exercise? Find things that you like to do that include exercise and plan them in your daily routine. Make an hour long play list of dance beat music that you love, then dance your heart out at home. Sing along because you want to. Take dance classes or go dancing. Take yoga and make it part of your daily life. Go for walks because they clear your head as well as work out your body. Do something you love because you love it, let the ‘it does my body good’ be the side effect. See work as brief interludes between you living your life each day, don’t live your life around your work. It will improve your attitude, your work performance, and your entire outlook on life.
You may find that it opens you up to new things, new possibilities, and new opportunities to be the best and brightest you that is possible in this moment. And that’s what life is all about.