But, Are You “Living Your Best Life” Off Instagram?
I once read this book called 14,000 Things to Be Happy About.
What surprised me about it most was that it described the little, trivial things we often take for granted as opposed to the “big things” that are supposed to give us more fulfillment (like being verified on Twitter, having abs, or whatever else would give you more likes on the cool scale).
What “little things” you might ask?
~ the sunlight filtering my room in the morning
~ walking my dog around the block
~ having a beer and laugh with a few close friends
~ a good old game of Monopoly
~ a day spent at the beach with a BBQ on the grill
~ browsing the shopping mall & getting a refreshing bubble tea beverage
I’m sure you could come up with a few like that.
Do you remember the last time you weren’t chasing after some fantasy of “making it?” Only then would you be able to sit back, and truly breathe in what the day has to offer. Only then will you get back to those things you’ve always wanted to do, but never had the time for.
One day.
Which gets pushed to tomorrow. Then the next. The following year, for sure.
Instead of waiting to until New Year’s day to mark down what we’ve always dreamed of doing, why not resolve to make each day as alive as New Year’s day?
I can only imagine the amount of positive energy that would arise from knowing THIS day was a fresh start to begin again and follow through on what you said you would do.
We make all these well-intentioned wishes each year only to let the winds of everyday life demands take them away.
By doing so, we unintentionally give away our internal needs in exchange for the pressures put upon us by outside forces.
Instead of balancing those needs out to hold onto our desires, we sacrifice what is most important to us in order to make ends meet on a day-to-day basis. That’s what people mean when they say you are
…existing, but not living.
Believe it or not, busyness is not a way of life.
When’s the last time someone, including yourself was NOT busy?
It’s a prison we create for ourselves masquerading around as a real life of value. By being busy, we can ignore all the other promises we made to ourselves until the right time comes around. That way, we can justify telling ourselves to shut-up when we push aside our awareness of how we’re actually unhappy with the way of life we’ve settled into.
We should actually be devoting more of our attention and energy towards generating our own happiness.
Not out of thin air. Then how?
Through maximizing our current available resources.
Opportunity Cost
Of course, some things worth having require the right timing and long-term commitment of energy to see returns on our investments. We can’t be little 5-year olds that do what we want to when we want to. Life doesn’t work that way.
What we can do is take full advantage of the resources at our current disposal. Look around you. What details are you missing about each day? We think we can just stop and smell the roses tomorrow, but no sunset is ever the same.
You don’t need to go on a cruise to the Bahamas to be happy now. Although a little vitamin-D couldn’t hurt if you had the chance to.
As long as you’re able to see the sunset and fully appreciate that shit (& resist the urge to put it on your Snapchat while you’re at it )
you’re living.
Yet, all I hear these days is how everyone is “living their best lives.”
Eye-roll.
I feel as if we are waiting until we post something amazing on Instagram to fully validate and appreciate our own lives. The fact that other people acknowledge our little or big moments should not be the primary focus or lens through which we see and experience the world.
Half the people’s social media feeds you scroll through and like on your lunch break aren’t actually going flyboarding or snorkeling in Thailand every other week.
Those snapshots are like underlined parts of our stories, not the full chapters.
The concept of “living your best life” is accessible to anyone, and everyone at this moment.
Everyone’s story is different, and if having that huge mansion is going to satisfy you then so be it. To each their own. We all want different things out of this life and are deserving of our best lives. But don’t waste what the Universe is offering you now for the dopamine-rush of getting something you’ve always wanted to in the future.
Aren’t we all living our Instagrams?
Look, there are a few hundred hearts on the side to prove it.
Responsibilities like a job, the kids, or going to school doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice what’s available to us in the present for something amazing that might or might not happen in the foreseeable future.
By doing that, you’re holding your breath instead of fully taking in what life has to offer now. Making a conscious effort to heighten your awareness of the good things around you now will bring you closer to where you want to be in the future by creating a solid foundation of gratitude from which to build from and make the moment you achieve those goals even more satisfying, because you’ve learned to live happily without them. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
Live Your Instagram.
I’m going to go take an evening walk with my dog, and it’s not going on social media. Except right here on Medium, of course.
