As humans, our time is very limited. We frequently get wrapped up in our social lives and personal bubbles and tend to take the time that we have for granted. Of course, we all want to set goals and achieve them, but it's important to do the things that make us happy now before it's too late. Life is too precious not to be happy, and is it really worth putting off your happiness to a later date?
Although it's not always easy dropping your whole life to pursue the things you love, this process can be made simpler when you learn to take it step by step. One of the biggest flaws of humanity, in my opinion, is that we are always trying to plan our future as if we actually know what's going to happen down the road. Not knowing what's going to happen is one of the greatest beauties of life. You never know who's going to be put into your life or where you'll be 10 years from now, but that's what makes the journey interesting and worth living. To be honest, I tend to plan my life out a bit too much. Whether it comes to planning my next adventure or figuring out what the heck I'm going to do with my life after college, I'm always planning. I'm not saying it's bad to plan and to prepare for the future, but your plans shouldn't consume your life and make you worry about things that may or may not happen.
One of the many things that travel has taught me is that you will never relive the same moment twice. Some things in life you don't get a second chance at, so it's important to push yourself to live in the moment. I often think back to certain moments in my life and wonder how my life would've unraveled if I'd done some things differently, but I've realized that dwelling on the past doesn't add to my happiness and will only limit my ability to achieve happiness in the future.
Some people think that they need money and material things to achieve happiness. They don't. I think this one of the main reasons why people end up deferring their happiness to the future. A person may spend their whole life saving and investing in their future, but the fact is that spending too much time thinking about the future often distracts you from living in the present. I'm not advising against saving your money and planning for the future, but what happens when you spend your whole life saving for that one, life-fulfilling moment when you may not even live up to that point. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer here, but I just want to emphasize the importance of learning to experience life one day at a time.
I guess everyone measures happiness differently. I mean, who am I to say that material things can't make someone happy. Just because they don't make me happy, doesn't mean that it's wrong to want material things. But I think that people who always wonder why they're never satisfied or never happy are the people who don't have their priorities straight. Happiness is all about what you bring to the table. And it's the people who live their lives through others and who live to satisfy everyone around them who need to wake up and realize that YOU are in charge of your own life and your own happiness. It's YOU and only YOU who gets to decide how to achieve the things you want in life.
Happiness is meant to be experienced NOW, not 20 years down the road. No matter what makes you happy in life, you should always strive to find ways to de-stress and to become more in tune with the world. Happiness is not something that should be put off to a later date; It's something to strive for now because if not, one day you'll look back on your life and wonder why you waited so long to do what makes you happy. It's not always easy to find a silver lining in every situation, but it's worth a shot, right? So the next time you think about deferring your happiness, don't, because life's too short to pass up even one opportunity to be happy.
