Cheers For Life!

September 22, 2014

Let’s be completely honest for a moment, because we tend to not be honest enough in my opinion. I will admit I did have a glass of wine before saying this, because I read an article saying it’s good for me, so this is honesty in it’s purest form, get ready.

Non of all this really matters.

Now, don’t worry, I don’t mean this in a negative or depressing way, the exact opposite.

100 years from now, nobody will care if you cleaned your floors today, nobody will notice if you made the dishes, your clean kitchen won’t even exist after a certain point. When you lay on your dying bed (assuming that you will pass in such a manner, when it might actually be just an unexpected moment), what are the things you wish to look back at and remember? What will you be proud of? What will you regret? Will you lay there and think, damn I am happy I always kept my house clean and my laundry ironed, and I never took any risks, so now I can move on from my life of duties and have tos on to not being anymore. Is that what you want to remember and look back at, or are you more likely to remember the chances you took, the relationships with people you loved, the moments you lived to your fullest, and the days you decided to not give a shit? I cannot say I know for sure, because I am hopefully not dying yet, but then again nobody ever knows. The only thing I do know, is that I feel it would be a shame to take the risk of regretting all the things I could have done, because I was too busy doing the things I thought that I have to do, or that other people expect of me.

If you put your existence in to perspective, you end up being pretty much nothing. We are tiny little beings on a tiny little planet, in a tiny little solar system, in a never ending universe. Our existence on this planet is nothing more than a blink of an eye compared to the age of the planet, and still there was probably a time before earth, and there will most likely be one after it. My life, as a single human, among all the human race, is nothing in the perspective of time. I am simply another generation of my genes. My name will maybe be remembered for two or so generations after me, and then it will never be spoken again. This is the reality. How many of you really know who your grand grand parents were? I surely don’t know mine anyway, and that is exactly what I will be to someone one day in the future; a name in the family tree. Sure, there are people who’s name are remembered through history for the things they did, but those people are barely a handful when put in perspective, and they are remembered simply for something they did or said, nobody really knows anymore who they really were.

It’s easy for some to think of this and then think that if this is the case, then what is the point of anything, what is the point of living at all? We are determined to find a higher purpose with life, because the idea that we go from nothing to nothing, and we only have this short time on earth, is just unbearable. I say, we need to see it as the exact opposite.

We cannot prove it one way or the other, but we might only have this one life. This short moment given to us to shine on planet earth. Nobody was expecting us before we got here, and very few will remember us after we leave. If all we have is here and now, then here and now should be the only thing that matters. We won the race that time, we were born, I think it’s our duty to make the most of it while we can, because we never know when that gift will be taken from us again. Life is such a fragile thing; one moment you have it, and the next you might not.

Looking at it like that, doesn’t it seem pretty risky to put all your dreams and hopes aside for some day in the future, that might never come, just to do the things you for some reason feel obliged to do? If you die tomorrow, will it really matter how clean your floors were today, or is it maybe worth it to just for today let the floor be messy and go do that thing, what ever it may be, that you really feel like doing? Is it worth it being unsatisfied your whole life, thinking it will pay off one day in the future, when you don’t know if that day will ever come? Is it worth it living your life according to someone else’s hopes and expectations, knowing that you might never get a second chance to fulfill your own dreams?

Sure, there are things in this life which are more or less necessary to do or to have, even though they are not always fun. Most of us need a job, and money, and we need to clean sometimes. But there are so many other things that are just as important, that we sometimes forget about, or put aside.

This is my advice, to you and to myself, things that we should not forget in the stress of our daily life.

See new places. If it’s a different country, or just a city or a piece of nature close to you, take time to go somewhere you have never been before every once in a while. Don’t lose the excitement over learning and discovering new things.

Spend time with your family and friends. You never know for how long someone is in your life, so take well care of the time you have with them. These are the people that you will carry with you after they are gone, and some of them are the people that will carry you after you are gone.

Don’t be afraid to get hurt. We all get hurt every now and then, this is part of life. The only way to avoid getting hurt, is to avoid living, and where’s the fun in that. Allow yourself to take risks and chances, allow yourself to love and be loved, allow yourself to get hurt sometimes, because it will pass, like everything else.

Be spontaneous. Every once in a while, do something crazy, do something new, something unexpected, go with the flow, do something that makes you feel alive and free. I am sure this is something different for every individual, for you it might be to decide to call in sick to work one day and spend the whole day in bed reading your favorite book, or book a last minute ticket to a place you never been, go swim naked in the sea, give your number to someone you just laid eyes on, call a friend you didn’t see for a long time, jump on an offer that was just given to you… What ever it is for you in the moment, every now and then, just do it, because honestly, who gives a shit in the end of the day.

Learn. There is always more to learn. We are born curious. Children learn and discover new things every day. I think the day we stop doing that, this is when our minds become old. Keep your inner child, keep learning and discovering, you never know what you might find.

Choose your friends. Let’s face it, some people are just not good for us, and there is absolutely no point in having these people run our lives more than necessary. Surround yourself with people that are good for you, that makes you smile, makes you feel good about yourself, inspire you, support you, and lift you up when you are down.

Follow your dreams. If you have a dream, go for it, now. Because why not, what do you have to loose, other than time? If you want something, this is the time to go and get it. Don’t rely on the unlikely possibility that your dreams will be handed over to you on a silver spoon some day in the future once you are done with all the things you “have to do” before you can go for your dream. Now is the time, you need to make it happen.

Be nice. We are many people, and other animals, sharing this planet. It was never given to you personally to do with as you wish, it was given to all of us, and we need to share it and get along on it. So treat people and animals nicely, and with respect. Take care of the nature, it is the only nature we have, and we are all responsible for it. Leave this place in a condition that you wish for your future generations to grow up in.

It is never too late. As long as you are still alive, you still have time. Don’t go around regretting the things you didn’t do that time when you were younger, do them now instead. Give yourself second chances, or third chances, or which ever chance in the order it is. Regardless of your age, you can still fulfill your dreams, you can still find love, you can still experience all what you didn’t experience yet. Don’t let something like a number get in your way.

I wish one thing for myself, and that is that when ever my time on this earth is up I want to be able to look back at my life and feel that I did the most of the time I had. There are so many subjects and topics that we are wasting so much time on, so much energy wasted on fighting and hating; things that won’t matter anyway in the end of the day. I wish to focus on the things that will matter for me and my future children, the things that will bring me experience and memories, and make my life worth it for me.

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