This has been regularly on my mind lately: I refuse to sit on the sidelines of my life.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please hit the play button. Otherwise, keep reading below.
I refuse to live my days wishing for something different: I will actively create the life I want.
I refuse to get more excited about a television show than I am about my own life.
I’m seeing this all around me.
Surrender. Sadness. Giving more emotion & energy to fictional characters & strangers than to one’s own life.
I refuse.
Now don’t get me wrong – there are some televsion shows I enjoy and I certainly enjoy watching NFL football (too soon to talk about the Super Bowl, btw) but you can be damn sure that I’m not more engaged or more enthusiastic about those things than I am about my own life.
If you recognize that you are giving more time, more energy (positive or negative) or more enthusiasm to absolutely anything other than your own life (and it’s super common, you aren’t alone), I hope you’ll consider it a massive warning flag alerting you to the necessity for change.
Life is short. It’s precious.
Just this weekend a 26-year old linebacker with the Indianapolis Colts was hit & killed by a drunk driver. Surely hundreds of not thousands of people also died suddenly this weekend. People will unexpectedly die today. And tomorrow.
It could be me. Or you. Or someone we love & think we have decades of more time with.
Do we have to face tragedy to start appreciating the fragility of life?
Do we have to wait for a crisis to decide to live instead of merely existing? Going through the motions?
This is your one life. This is your one chance.
You can either wish for change or you can BE the change.
You can sit on the sidelines and watch others live or you can get in the game.
When you look at people who have what you consider to be an amazing life, one you’d kill for, please know that it most likely didn’t happen to them. They worked. They tried. They created it.
And I’m trying to do that too, because for most of my life, I was on the sidelines. I was wishing for something but not creating it. I was part of the problem, not part of the solution. I was unhappy.
I’ll tell you what this looks like for me most recently:
- I watch far, far less television than I ever have – because I only have so much time & I want to invest it in making my life better, not watching it slip away.
- I am working every single day to build new, amazing relationships.
- I’m taking better care of myself in every way: sleep, stress, movement, food.
- I’m taking aerial yoga classes – because it’s fun!
- I’m taking guitar lessons – because it’s fun!
- I started practicing Transcendental Meditation
- I’ve simplified my life to get rid of unnecessary financial obligations so I can feel more free (I’ve tackled this in big ways like building a tiny house but also small ways like getting rid of most of my coffee mugs. I live alone. I don’t need 45 coffee mugs…)
I don’t know what it looks like for you but I hope you’re going to join me in refusing to live a mediocre life.
Refuse to settle.
Back up your desires with passionate action.
Try harder. Live more. Choose adventure.
This is your one life. It’s your one chance.