Perhaps one of humanity’s greatest tragedies is the reality that most people don’t know that the time belongs to them. What do you want to be when you grow up? What makes you happy? What are you passionate about? The answers to these questions are the ones that should dictate our lives and every moment we have on this planet. For some horrifying reason most people live their entire lives as puppets to society’s standard timeline and expectations. We move through a conveyor belt past school, GPAs, resumes, jobs and retirement forever living a story we thought was the story meant for us. The norm DOES NOT MATTER. Time is yours, it belongs to you, this moment and every moment of your life is a gift. Make the most of it. Be free, original and adventurous. Do what YOU want to do and what makes YOU happy. This is your life, and this is your NOW. Enjoy it with every inch of your body. Now Is Life! And in this life, the time belongs to you.
I remember I dreamed about it. I spent every moment of my calculus class waiting for it. Graduation. I spent 18 years of my life going to school, reading textbooks, doing homework and ultimately just working all for this one moment where the Principal hands you a diploma rewarding your completion of school’s basic requirements. God I waited for it so long and so excitedly. It came and it went, and all I could think when I got that diploma was “so what”. Is that it?
We’ve been programmed that way, into thinking that the future holds rewards and that happiness exists in completing and attaining those rewards. Yes, there is a sense of satisfaction in completing something, BUT IT IS NEVER WORTH SACRIFICING HAPPINESS IN THE NOW. As long as you spend your life expecting to find happiness in the future you will remain permanently disappointed. The moments that you wait for will come and go in the blink of an eye and you will be stuck perpetually unsatisfied with what you have and expect more at a later time. Don’t wait for things, work hard, live fully, but remember to enjoy and be completely a part of the gift that is NOW.
We’ve grown up and been trained into a mindset where the outcomes of our actions, the results, are more important than anything. In school for example, we go to class not to learn but to prepare for exams, to get grades and GPAs which we go on to use on our resumes which we use to get jobs. So education, through this mindless orientation towards the future, becomes diluted into a meaningless exercise rather than an enriching journey. Don’t wait for the ends of things to find joy. Find infinite joy in each and every moment.
LIVE RIGHT NOW
Living in the now means being able to look around in any given moment or situation and feel in love with everything. It means being able to have an absolute appreciation of your surroundings: of every taste, every smell, every sound and every sight. Do not get caught up in the lie that happiness only exits in the future, it exists in every instant of your life, and you can feel it by simply being self-aware. With each breath you take savor the experience of being human. Open up your mind and your senses, and with a each passing second you will feel yourself ever deeper and more connected with the now. Life will continue moving and the clocks will continue ticking, but always ALWAYS remember to smile and live right NOW.