Once upon a time…
In a kingdom far, far away, there lived a princess. Well, she wasn’t actually a princess, but her father told her she was, so that must count for something. She wore a tiara that her aunt bought her at the supermarket and ran around in a puffy pink dress from Sears. She dreamed about the day she would grow up to meet Prince Charming, live in a castle, and have the perfect life.
Twenty years later, she grew up to live in a cramped New York City apartment building with seven dirty dwarf, while she worked as a public relations assistant. The only people that called her princess were the men that cat-called her on the way to the subway, and her dreams of Prince Charming were replaced with dreams of having a date with a man that wasn’t a complete oaf. But she knew, one day soon, “real life” would begin. She kept waiting for that day…
…And she lived happily never after.
Have you ever found yourself waiting for “real life” to begin? You know your dream job/apartment/social life/partner is within reach, you just need to wait for a few variables to fall into place and life will be perfectly peachy. But often, even once these circumstances happen, you still find yourself stuck in limbo between what you have and what you want. How do you get what you want?
Answer: you don’t. I’ve got some advice for you courtesy the 2001 film “Blow.” Johnny Depp’s character George Jung tells the audience, “life passes most people by while they’re making grand plans for it.”
The truth is that life will never be what you want. If you spend your time waiting for better ways to spend your time, your losing the most precious and unattainable resource on this Earth and that is time itself.
Take time to stop and smell the coffee.
That’s right, stop and smell the coffee. Let its aroma warm your insides while you savor that taste that is to come. Pause to think about all the people who worked hard to turn a plant in a tropical environment into a hot cup of joe in your hand.
When the coffee line is too long, be grateful for the people in front of you because patience is a virtue. Each time your patience muscle is tested, each time it is stressed and pulled to its limit, it grows stronger. Be glad you have people in your life who test your boundaries and challenge your limits. Learn when they have pushed those boundaries too far and walk away, but be grateful for them because they have made you stronger.
Wake up and smell the roses.
Open your eyes and look at the beauty all around you. Take a moment to breathe it in and appreciate your surroundings for what they are: surrounding you. These images are the movie of your life and the canopy that hangs on your wall of perception.
Recognize that these surroundings can be passively ignored, vehemently despised, or grandly appreciated. Don’t walk through life with blinders shielding you from your surroundings. Look at the art work displayed outside your office building and make an effort to discover the concept behind the piece. Take time to notice a beautiful flower growing on your street and be grateful that nature has such exquisite taste. Appreciate the world for what it is and allow yourself to live in the moment, if only for a moment. Then, the moment will live in you, and you will value your life as it is, rather than struggling to force it into what it should be.
Goals are an incredible force that drive us and we all need them in our lives. But make sure you are never so caught up with what you want to accomplish, that you forget to be grateful for what you already have.
[Featured Image Credit: nydia hartono via Flickr]