Let Life, Life

Life is the only thing you’ll do once, so live it up!

It’s incredibly cliche to start with that, but it’s so true. I saw someone say that the beauty of life, is the fact that we can only do it once. There are no do overs. It’s not to scare you because yes, we will all experience the ending. It’s to remind you that you should appreciate this crazy experience. You’ve never been here before, and you won’t do it again, so do it the best way you can!

I’m in a phase (again) where I have no clue what I’m doing. The general consensus feeling is that we need to have at least something figured out, like a career. To my surprise, I realized that’s not true. You don’t even need to know what you’re having for breakfast tomorrow. Just live for today. It can feel as though we need to plan our existence down to a T, because we don’t know when it could end. It sounds logical to an extent, but it also sounds so dull. Why would you want to know how your life is going to turn out in every detail for the next 60 years? That literally ruins the fun and the surprise of life. I’m a hypocrite though, because I’ve been having meltdowns about me not knowing what I’ll be doing in the next 6 months. However, I do have my moments of sense, which is why I’m sharing this with you.

This post is in the category of Lifestyle, but it’s not what I’d typically label this as. I realized though, that I can absolutely count it as such. The overthinking, and over planning is a lifestyle in a sense. We can choose to suffocate the beauty of the unknown on a daily basis. And we do exactly that. We make five-year plans yet stay in our comfort zone. Say no to new ideas, but complain we want to live to the fullest. We contradict the concept of life all the time. It’s something I’ve been working on, I know we all are, but it’s so difficult. We are toddlers learning how to explore for the first time independently. But our fear of only living once is the parent who wants to put us in that awful kiddie harness. The two don’t go!

This is where I advocate for spontaneity. We all have a friend who says they love to be spontaneous. I know they mean it with their whole heart too, because I had to slowly embody that energy. I’m a chronic over thinker. I used to stop myself from trying new things if I didn’t know how the experience would play out from beginning to end. I had to let go of even just having expectations for things. By having expectations, I already had a preconceived idea of how it should be. That again leaves no room for me to be delightfully surprised by the unknown. I can now tell you for definite that it’s the best life choice I’ve made in a minute. It has opened me up to so many amazing things, and it’s even shown me future doors that I previously wouldn’t have let myself see. I no longer try to live life by a plan I made 12 months ago, and just allow life to happen for me exactly how it should.

There’s a lot of power and strength in just letting life do it’s thing. For starters, it’s way less pressure. Our tiny minds that have been conditioned and shaped since birth cannot comprehend what a truly enriching life could genuinely look like for us. We take what we know, and try to recreate that for the remainder of our lives to some extent. Another thing, letting go allows joy to find you. You can only seek the happiness that you already know has resonated with you in some capacity. It’s wild I know, but there is happiness in everything in this world, we just need to be open to aligning with it. By overthinking and overdoing, we don’t leave space for joys that are at one point foreign to us. Let yourself experience joy, and love in every and anyway. I can promise you there is plenty of it, and especially in places you probably overlooked or never even let yourself think of.

My hope is that from reading this, you loosen the reigns a little bit. It’s wonderful to have a plan, or a goal for your life. I’m not saying throw it out the window. I’m simply suggesting that you remember nothing is definite. Not even the million steps you’ve come up with to curate your joy. That’s the sheer beauty of life. Nothing is certain, and so in the uncertainty, will always be pure bliss. Do remember to let life surprise you from time to time. Venture into the unknown, experience the unthinkable. There’s magic in the things you haven’t yet considered.

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. Quite literally! Let it unfold in the best way possible.