So how’s life working out for you?
My friend, Sherree shared this link with me yesterday on Facebook and I thanked her for sharing but I want to thank her again. It is the best thing I’ve seen on the internet in a while, and I think it’s about wisdom. It made me think. It validated some things in my life and it made me question other things. If that link doesn’t work try this one, same comic strip but on a different website.
Now I will ask you to stop reading and go click on one of those links and read it. If you regret the few minutes it will take you to read that than you have no heart and you can just go on with your day.
So here’s the thing; we know that we waste a lot of our time. We know that many of our priorities are screwed up. I know these things because it’s true in my life and I see some of you talk about it too. Why do we talk the big game about what matters in life but we don’t follow through and have our actions align with it too?
I know that there are certain rules in life that we can’t escape. We all need to make money to pay the bills but can you live on less? Can you forgo the “ladder of success” What is the “ladder of success” anyways?
I wanted to have the biggest house painting company in my county. Honestly, I feel I was on my way. Three years ago I said “no more”. I wasn’t sleeping and I was stressed constantly. There was never enough. Make some money and get a BMW. Make a little more money and buy nicer bottles of wine. Make even more money and buy more clothes and eat at the more expensive restaurants.
The thing is; it never stops. It was eating away at me. Trying to live up to this mythical “ladder of success” was sucking away the happiness; what little happiness was left. I was always seeing what others were doing and what they had and no matter how many hours in a day I worked I felt like I was failing.
I hit my bottom one day and looking back now it was the greatest day of my life. For the first time I really started putting the pieces together for me. I stopped taking every single job that came my way and downsized my painting company. We moved from a 1,700 square foot house to 900 square feet (we’ve since bought a bigger house because we had Sammy). My goal was to start cutting things out of our lives.
We focused on paying off debt. We cut cable and don’t go out to eat as much as we used to (some of that reason too is due to Sammy). We got rid of the BMW. I started writing again, a lot. I’m still working through what all this means but I know that trying to live up to someone else’s system can make you crazy. I know that every decision you make that does not align with your true being will probably affect you negatively. I still mess up all the time but I try to recognize the mess ups and reevaluate what’s happening.
When Sammy was born we had more choices to make. Do we put him in daycare or does one of us stay home? The final decision was that I would stay home and work on the second business I started and Annie would go off to work. The cartoon I linked to above and wanted you to read depicts that situation; dad being home with the kiddo and starting to take back your own life.
My takeaway: Why would we trade our soul for someone else’s dream? Why would we trade our happiness to keep up with the Jones’??? Is that a sign of wisdom? I don’t know how to word this to get you to understand. This is all we have, this one brief moment on this planet. We have choices to make and I know it can be scary as hell to take the leap but isn’t life all about the leap?
I’m not asking you to leap to your death, I’m saying leap to your life.
You know Matt, it’s rare that I will share a link directly with someone as I did yesterday. As soon as I started reading this, I knew you needed to see it. For many reasons.
Excellent post with a lot of good “Browne” wisdom as well. Loved the last line “I’m not asking you to leap to your death, I’m saying leap to your life.” How many people actually do that?
Love you guys,
Sherree
Well I am glad you did share it. And I appreciate the kind words. I really do think we are facing the choice every single day of choosing whether to live life or simply wait for our death. I mean, sounds extreme but it’s important that we look at things that way in my opinion. Life is too short and if we don’t pay attention to it we will be filled with regret. Cheers and thank you…and we love ya right back!!
I agree with you, I use to envy people that had it all, but are they really happy, money isn’t everything just live within your means. Being unemployed for three years and too young to get retirement has been frustrating but I’ve had to learn to adjust, and maybe i will retire next year. Cheers!
Cheers, Beverly. There’s a plan for all of us and our choices and attitude will dictate a lot of it. Getting in touch with what makes you happy certainly can’t hurt. 🙂
Hey Matt – thanks for sharing. Thoughtful and honest words to make us think about what’s considered important and what’s really important. It seems the older we (I) get, the more I think about stuff like this. Especially the part about celebrating the excess in life (too much of everything). Watching our kids literally grow up in front of our eyes will (or should) make us slow down and enjoy it. I’ve been asking myself lately ‘are we here to make sure our kids are smarter, more talented and better off (richer) in the future, or to here to make sure they are responsible and happy people?’ Something that will really affect most of your parenting decisions.
Thanks for sharing the link with the comic strip and your take on it. Always enjoy your thoughts…
Until next time, keep fighting the good fight and giving Sammy a bright and happy future. JP
Joel, thank you man. I guess it’s the age old question in a sense of “why are we here?”. Some people can go through their lives and just do the robot thing and that’s it…they do what needs to be done with no feeling or thought behind it. I tend to question things a lot because I want to know, at least for myself, that I am doing good. When you become a parent it changes things, obviously. Having Sammy has made me think more about my mortality and what my legacy will be. I hate the thought of thinking about money more than I think about him. Society makes it hard to not do so though…with bills to pay, keeping up with the Jones’, and the cost of things going up…makes it hard for those of us not in the top bracket. I’m finding there are ways around that if we seek them out, some of those things are simply a change in perspective. Cheers to you, we should get together again soon and chat. Cheers!
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