What are you most afraid of?
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I am afraid of waisting my life
I am afraid of regret
I am afraid of making the wrong choices
I am afraid of never finding love
Acknowledging Fear
Nostalgia
“The past can’t hurt you anymore, not unless you let it.” ― Alan Moore
Trusting Time
“Give time time”
…Such a simple phrase, yet one that contains so much wisdom. Honestly, we get so caught up in planning for the future that we forget how to live in the present. We’re always thinking about what comes next rather than what is happening right now. We’re never able to take life day by day because of the way our society works- it’s nearly impossible!
Give time time. So what does that mean? Well, it means that we need to trust that things will happen when they’re suppose to happen. We need to believe that the universe has our best interests in mind. Everything happens for a reason, whether we figure out that reason in our lifetime or not. We need to give our life time to play out, leave time for things to happen, and give time time to work itself out. We are not the masters of time, we can’t control it, and we have no say in our ultimate fate.
We’ve become so impatient, not wanting to give time time. We want everything now. Society is becoming faster and faster. We no longer have to wait- we get results instantaneously. But, that means that we are getting used to having everything we want exactly when we want it. We don’t like to wait, we don’t want to work for things, and most of all, we crave a reassurance that the unpredictability of life just can’t give us.
You can’t speed time up or slow it down, so enjoy your wait, because that’s the best part. Once you have what you want, there’s nothing more to do. When there’s no more wait, you realize you’ve waisted what could have been something amazing and memorable just worrying about what was coming next.
…So, patience and trust is key in-order to change our mindsets. Time might be taking it’s sweet time, but it’ll happen if it’s meant to be.
What If Money Was No Object?
We go through life with a goal: to make it through. Often times, we get so caught up in this natural instinct that we forget to actually live.
How often do you ask yourself… ‘Is this what I really want?’
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When you chose your career, did you choose it because it was your dream? Or because it was stable?
When you ended your old flame, was it because it wasn’t working? Or because you were scared that it was working?
When you discovered your true passion, did you pursue the idea? Or put it down because it was ‘unreasonable’?
When you make a decision, do you ask your own self first? Or do you go to someone who you feel would have a rational answer?
If you had an opportunity of the lifetime, would you pull your kids out of school for a memory they will never forget? Or would you stick with the safe option, and dismiss it?
If you only had a month to live, would you continue on as if it wasn’t real? Or would you really start to live?
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“Its absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like; to teach your children to follow in the same track. We are bringing up children and educating them to live the same lives we are living so that they might find satisfaction in bringing up their children to do the same.”
What would you do if money was no object?
What would you do if you could do anything in the world?
Where would you go if you could go anywhere?
What do you really desire?
It’s My Life
It’s my life
It’s now or never
I ain’t gonna live forever
“I just wanna live while I’m alive”
Bon Jovi- It’s My Life
There is so much truth in this! Something as simple as a song lyric can change your perspective. 🙂
Making Our Mark
“I’m going to die one day probably without ever having left my mark on this silly little planet. I’m going to die an anonymous, meaningless speck of dust.”
I feel a lot of us have this fear that we aren’t going to leave our marks. We constantly have this question in our minds about what our purpose is in life. I myself am scared to leave this world without leaving my mark. When you think about it, what is the point in living if you don’t make some kind of difference- if you don’t somehow justify your existence. It is really scary to think about.
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I wanna do something better with the time I’ve been given
I wanna try to touch a few hearts in this life
And leave nothing less than something that says, “I was here”
– “I Was Here,” sung by “Lady Antebellum.”
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“Maybe we have this mindset because we have always been told things like “you only live once” and deep down we all want that ‘once’ to be just significant enough. Although we do know that our ‘once’ isn’t gonna make any difference to this world with such a vast number of people all living their ‘once’. “Oblivion is inevitable” (John Green). But still who wouldn’t want to leave a trace of their existence knowing that this is all you are gonna get. We all know that one day, we are gonna die. For a while our loved ones will be devastated, they will cry. But eventually, they will move past it because they will get busy with their ‘once’. Years after, your great grand children will not even know your name- even though you are the reason for their mere existence, yet they possibly wouldn’t care about yours.” –a wise soul
But, this is how life works. This is what our existence is for. It isn’t to be remembered for who we were, but for what we did. People don’t have to know our names for something to really count. It is about the nameless gestures that we do, the things we do when nobody is watching, the things we do that we don’t even realize. Making a mark in this world, in our lives, doesn’t have to be big. Something as simple as touching one person by doing on single thing is making a mark. Who knows, that one thing could even change the trajectory of that person’s whole life- and shouldn’t that be enough?
Simple Life Lessons
As I went to purchase a new mascara, I looked for the exact same brand. I didn’t want to take the risk, even though I could end up with an even better one, because there was a chance that the different brand could be worse. So, I stuck with the safe option, because I wasn’t willing to take the risk.
Things as simple as this can open our eyes to a valuable life truth…
In life we tend to go with the safe options. We don’t like taking risks because we are afraid of the unknown. We are also afraid of change in a way. There’s this thought that is always hovering in the back of our mind saying, ‘well, it could be worse’. We forget that there is an equal chance that it could be better!
“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about taking chances, and how it’s really just about overcoming your fears. Because the truth is, every time you take a big risk in your life, no matter how it ends up, you’re always glad you took it.”
“If you want it, go for it. Take a risk. Don’t always play it safe or you’ll die wondering.”
“Take chances, take a lot of them. Because honestly, no matter where you end up and with whom, it always ends up just the way it should be. Your mistakes make you who you are. You learn and grow with each and every choice you make. Everything is worth it. Say how you feel, always. Be you, and be okay with it.”
“Live your dreams and take risks. Life is happening now.”
Sayings About Time
The trouble is you think you have time.
You truly don’t know how much you care about something until it’s lost.
If not now- then when?
The only thing we should fear is not taking chances.
Today is all you’ve got!
What you are seeking is seeking you.
In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take.
You might as well see so you don’t spend your life wandering or waiting.
Where Were You?
article by: Gary Haugen, Gregg Hunter
“I grew up with a great love for reading history, and I used to wonder, How would I have fared in the great moral struggles of the past? Would I have been on the right side? Would I have acted with courage? Would I have made my grandchildren proud?
In many respects, such speculation feels idle. Who knows what we would have done? Besides, it feels as if history has passed us by- certainly nothing our grandchildren will ask us about. Right?
Like much of the global ugliness transported by television into my living room, it just didn’t seem real; it seemed true, but not real- the way descriptions of life in ancient Rome seem true but not real. Or reports about how many stars there are in the Milky Way- all true enough, but not real. Not real like my job when I’m falling further behind in my work. Not real like my neighbor when she has been in a car accident.
Sooner or later, I stopped wondering how I might have fared in the great moral struggles of history. It became abundantly clear that such struggles are not matters for idle speculation; such struggles are now. We have the ability to fix these struggles, to get involved, and to act with courage; we have the chance now, to make our grandchildren proud.
And when our grandchildren ask us where we were when the weak and the voiceless and the vulnerable of our era needed a leader of compassion and purpose and hope- I hope we can say that we showed up, and that we showed up on time.”
The Wake-Up-Call
Realizing that ‘perfection’ is unachievable!
When I feel pressured by expectations of perfection, I tend to have to stop, and sort of take a moment to bring myself back to reality…
Obviously, there is the reality of how our society works, and the things we need to do to ‘make it in this world’, but, there is this what you could describe as a wake-up-call. This wake-up-call is the true reality: the realization that you will never be perfect- it’s that simple. Many people miss this call however, getting so caught up in planning their future and in their efforts to achieve this unrealistic ‘perfection’. Furthermore, even the so-called ‘perfection’ they’re searching for won’t always equate to their greatest happiness.
It is okay to strive for success, but success is not perfection. And often when we’re caught up in this illusion, we forget to acknowledge our own happiness and whether or not what we are doing is for us. We forget why we even want the things we are doing,
It’s like one day we could wake up and realize the life we’re living isn’t our own- we’ve been living out someone else’s idea of a ‘perfect life’.
This could mean living vicariously- through someone else’s life experiences. An example would be when we become parents. We want your children to experience all the things we never got to. By them getting those experiences, in a way we are living through them- but, this isn’t always a bad thing, actually most of the time it’s a beautiful thing.
It could also be because the idea has been drilled into our minds since we were children. The life we are living being solely based on the future our parents had envisioned for us.
We could even go our whole lives on auto-pilot, not even really stoping to ask ourselves what life we wanted in the first place; just doing the things society has deemed necessary to do in order to live up to our expected roles in life.
Nothing will ever be completely perfect; not us, not anyone we meet, not our life, and not anyone else’s life. Some people many have ‘better’ lives, or more opportunities, more privileges, or more things we think that we want. But, that doesn’t mean the quality of their life is any higher than our own.
Hope's Corner 