Tag: health

Seeking enjoyment, not total optimization

Sit down. Close your eyes. Turn off the tv, music, or podcast.

Take a moment to discover what you actually get enjoyment out of doing and find a way to do more of whatever that happens to be.

Look into what you’re mindlessly paying for but don’t get enjoyment from anymore and remove as much of that from your life as possible.

Understand that while everything can be optimized, trying to optimize every aspect of your life can cause you stress or anxiety. Maximizing efficiency is just like everything else in life. It needs to be done in some sort of moderation.

Remember the 80/20 rule applies to life. Remember to seek progress, not perfection. Remember to be kind and forgiving to yourself and others. Remember, in the end, we are only on this earth for a short period of time – try to enjoy it and focus on the positive instead of the negative. Life is good.

Life is short, life is long

Life is short. Life is long. Both statements are true. Use them to your advantage instead of using them as an excuse. What do I mean?

Life is short when you think of our lifespan versus the span of our universe. We shouldn’t waste our time here focusing on things that don’t matter. Yes, we all need money to survive, but are you suffering in other areas because your sole focus is money? After all, we can’t take it with us when we die.

Are you sacrificing time with family, working on your health (mental, physical, spiritual), or letting relationships disintegrate because you choose not to go out to eat with friends or you’re stuck at the office again? Life is meant to be experienced. Go out and have an adventure. Even if it’s not a two week vacation to an exotic location, you can still take “micro adventures” nearby. Can you just go for a day hike, camp in your backyard, or do a ropes course? Can you go to a museum or go four wheeling somewhere? It doesn’t have to be expensive to be meaningful and create lasting memories. Life is short, so go make the most of it.

But guess what?

Life is long.

What??? Didn’t I just go over why life is short? YOLO, right? Well, yes and no. You still need to be responsible and play the long game. It feels good to eat pizza and ice cream, to sleep in, binge watch the latest show, and go on a spending spree. But if that’s your everyday life, the next thing you know, you’ll wake up and it will be ten years later with you weighing 50 lbs more than you ever have, not having challenged yourself or used your brain in a meaningful way, and be up to your eyeballs in debt.

Hopefully you’ll live for a long time. But to live your best future life, more often than not, you’ll need to delay doing what feels good today. You will have to eat right, go workout, read a book occasionally, spend less money than you make and invest the rest. Life is long. Don’t get caught up in hurting your future self by only thinking about what your present self wants.

Just like everything in life, you have to find balance. Find the balance between living for today and setting yourself up for the future. If you go all in on one or the other, you’re much more likely to regret your decisions.