As a culture, we’re always striving, reaching, grasping for the thing that we think is going to make us happy. If we think we need more money to be happy, we work obscene hours, multiple jobs. We squirrel and save until the day comes when, yes, finally we get to spend our money on a vacation, a new car, a Nintendo Wii. Does the money in the bank make us happy? Does the Wii? Sure, maybe, for a little. But no, not really, not genuinely.
If we think a certain vocation will make us happy, we go to school, we buy a new suit, we go on an interview, we eat our guts out until we hear that we got the job…then we realize we actually have to do the job. Does the job make us happy? Sure, if you believe you’ve found your calling, it’s totally possible for you to love your job. But odds are, if you were staking your happiness on getting that job, once you get it, you’ll be looking for the next fix.
Declaring we love our lives exactly as they are right now feels really weird because we’re so used to grasping and striving. But what would it mean to stop and say it? I love my life exactly as it is. This is where I am meant to be right now. And I choose to enjoy it. It might take practice. Maybe you need to make a gratitude list. Maybe you need to find the joy in the previously-annoying tasks. Maybe you need to choose, every morning, to focus on love. Set that as your intention each day.
The video game, the job, the huge bank account will become like really fantastic value-adds to an already premium existence. If you wait until you get these things to become happy, to relax, to enjoy, you’re missing the point. It’s all in the journey; it’s all in the in-between moment. It’s all in the right now. Right now is everything.
