We like to complicate things and come up with excuses for everything. We are beings birth from chaos and are always seeking conflict.
But if anything is certain for me, it is that we are supposed to do the things that we love. We are meant to express our passions and enjoy our time here. There’s just no other point.
So do what you love. Simple.
Life is meant to be experienced to the fullest.
But we distract ourselves with nonsense and things that don’t matter.
We complain about everything when we have everything.
I believe the answer to this is to stop trying to be so comfortable all the time.
Sure it is important to be peaceful and content but as I said we are chaotic and complicated beings. So there has to be a balance.
We spent so long trying to make life easy that we’ve come full circle around and now make it hard for ourselves when indeed, we have it SO easy.
How do we fix it?
Face adversary. Put yourself in vulnerable positions. Do this frequently.
Have uncomfortable conversations. Challenge your beliefs. Engage in something physically and mentally taxing. Stress your body (in a healthy way) and exceed your limits.
By doing this, you grow. By doing this you push yourself and your capacity. Making the next time around harder to get to but more fulfilling once you’re there.
And never ever stop.
When you allow yourself to struggle and overcome a small situation that’s in your control, the small things that would normally bother you that are out of your control soon become minuscule. And this I think is the true key to “happiness”.
Don’t get complacent. Hold yourself to a high standard and give yourself every reason to be better in every way and every aspect of your life, not just the ones you enjoy.
We get too much given to us for little or even no work. There’s something new and exciting every moment, the possibilities are endless. Then when we escape the virtual world and get back to the real world, we forget that this is just it.
We forget that there was always a time when we didn’t like our situation and dreamed for the one we are in now.
We can be so ungrateful.
Stop complaining.
Stop making minute circumstances, life changing situations. It doesn’t have to be that way you know…
A way I like to push myself and face adversary is with healthy competition. A physical and mental sport with constant battles. Doing this often forces me to address a chaotic situation quite blasé. When you’re constantly putting yourself in uncomfortable situations, you tend to try and make others more peaceful.
A car cut me off? Eh I’ll live. She said what about me? Eh I’m only affected if I let it affect me. You forgot to do what I asked? I’ve done the same before. I made the wrong choice? Its done now – if you can put yourself in your future self’s shoes and forgive the past you for it, then it really shouldn’t matter. Life goes on.
I’m not saying reacting is bad or you aren’t entitled to your emotions. But letting all these “small complications” get to you and adding them up, its going to make a mark on your life without you even knowing it. If all these same things happened and you handled the situation with a different attitude, why wouldn’t that make a different mark?
One day my niece told me once about something that upset her at school. It really bothered her and it clearly affected her whole day. No matter what else happened that day, this incident was clouding it and she believed she had a bad day. I told her if she painted a pretty picture, lets say of the sky and for every good thing about that day, we’d paint a yellow star. For that one bad thing, we’ll paint a black star. At the end of the day, you still have a pretty picture of the sky and the black star is barely noticeable against the yellow. So did she really have a bad day or was it just a small dark mark on a pretty picture?
So if you want a better view on life and want to change your attitude, stop complaining, be grateful, look at situations from a bird eye perspective and put yourself through difficult situations – it sounds counterintuitive but remember you can never have one without the other.
Balance.
True? True.
And try jiujitsu.
Peace