Following on from my previous post entitled ‘living our best life’ you’ll be pleased to hear I’ve had further revelations. I called living our best life a journey of a lifetime which made we wonder the following. When have I achieved my best life? And how will I know? Will I continue to work endlessly towards it and not realise that perhaps I’m already there? Will I be so busy striving to live my best life that I risk missing living all together?
As I said in my last post, I think part of living one’s best life is enjoying the process. We can’t get so caught up on the specific long-term goal that we become frustrated and angry. Potentially even giving up because we don’t recognize the progress we are making and the achievements we attain on the journey.
To me living my best life begins to feel a bit like a computer game. I think all I need to do is make it to the end only to discover there’s another and often more complex level. Such is life, or so it seems to me. I reach some achievement or tick something off my bucket list only to discover there is something new and shinier for me to move on to. Barely do I have the time to enjoy where I am now before I’m pushing myself ever onwards and upwards.
Life appears to be full of ‘musts’. Something we must have or must do. And we’re told by the world around us that we need them. It’s a requirement of living our best life. Without them our best life becomes substandard and loses the sheen of ‘best life-ness’ it had just moments ago. This reminds me of Tim Minchin’s wisdom which goes as follows:
“Life will sometimes seem long and tough and it’s tiring. And you will sometimes be happy and sometimes sad and then you’ll be old and then you’ll be dead. There is only one sensible thing to do with this empty existence and that is fill it”
We can spend our lives reaching for our best life and never really get there. Or get there only to decide it actually isn’t what we wanted or everything that we imagined it would or could be. Life isn’t as long as we think it is. We can drive ourselves mad in the pursuit of things we think we want or are told we should have. On reflection, I’ve realised that I don’t stop enough on the journey that is life to realise what I have. Wherever I am now is a culmination of the time and energy I’ve put in to getting here. Even if I’m not where I want to be or think I should be. I am here. And I got myself here. I’m pretty sure that’s worth something.
So in answer to the questions I posed at the beginning of the blog. I have no idea. I don’t think we ever truly achieve the best life. I think it shifts and changes. It’s a fleeting success that can never be attained. The moment we get to where we are going we’re off somewhere else. So, how to give life meaning? Appreciate where we are. I think my best life is found in those moments. It’s only when I stop to take note that I’ll realise how far I’ve come. And what could be better than that?