It’s easy to get caught up in feeling like what we have accomplished isn’t enough or to reach an age where we look back and wonder what we missed out on. It seems it’s even easier to feel that way because the billboard messages are large and more prevalent– thanks to social media and technology– or because someone has written a book telling us so (the inspiration shall we say for this blog, but I won’t reveal the book as I believe it’s whiny and stupid and I’d rather give you a positive inspirational message).
Over the past few years, I’ve often found myself reflecting on choices I’ve made and as I drive through life and the roads I didn’t choose pass me by, I see how easy it is to spend my time wondering what if I had made other choices. Sometimes I believe I haven’t accomplished enough because I haven’t accomplished some of the goals I set for myself going forty years back.
Thankfully, I’ve managed to remind myself to fill the glass back up of all that I have accomplished. While in many ways it’s not the life I expected to have, I know that in the long run, I’ve had a better life. And when I feel bad about these thoughts, I ask myself what I can do with them, where I can put them, how I can include them in my writing (most my fiction).
Then there are the things that have happened to us that we, quite honestly, didn’t ask for. Those things? Those are the ones where our response is what it’s about. We can’t change them, we can’t spend our days agonizing over everything we could have done differently. What we can do is find a way through it and use it in our lives to propel us forward.
My life choices haven’t been the same as many people and, just as I see the choices others have made, I know they aren’t ones I would have made. However, that doesn’t mean they are bad, they are for that person, not me, because I’m supposed to have a different life.
If you’re still feeling like there’s something you haven’t done, then find a way to make it happen, or make some aspect of it happen. Life is short and you don’t want more time to pass you by. But if you need to rest to collect your thoughts and figure out what’s next, then take the time to do that.
Whatever it is that you need to do to make your life one that makes you happy, do it. Don’t let others tell you anything else. Reflect back on where you came from if you need to, but don’t stay there too long. There is much hope in the future and you can start now to make that light burn brighter.