We’d all like life to be gift-wrapped and delivered but…
How do you define a good life? The overwhelming majority feel that life is good only when things go their way or the way they think they want it to. A life when each day, week, month and year unfold exactly the way they think it will. Customized, gift-wrapped and delivered. All that needs to be done is open and enjoy it. No effort required.
This is the expectation, although you know from your own experience that this is not how it goes. You might have a general idea about how the day will unfold, but beyond that, life takes its course. A ‘good day’ for many means that they winged it without challenging their current situation, even if they yearn for change. They prefer the same tomorrow, the day after and for all the days they live to see. This is how terrified humans are of acting to make change happen, even if it will benefit them. Yet they spend significant portions of their time complaining about their terrible lives.
“I don’t know where I’m going but I promise it won’t be boring.” – David Bowie
While humans like to maintain the status quo, life throws situations that challenge it. For instance, an unexpected sickness or loss can force us to change how we live. We might live better if we could learn more from history. Our ancestors have made every possible mistake in the book. We could learn from those who have been in similar situations way before we were even born. What did they do? How did they act? Instead, we spend oodles of time complaining about how unfair life is. Maybe we do it because we like playing that game. A game we can never win.
“We learn from history that we do not learn from history.” – Georg Hegel
Life is one glorious mess of joy, grief, love, birth, death and everything in between. Add to this the self-created awfulness that most indulge in by hanging on, desperate for change but clinging to the status quo without attempting to act. A perfect recipe for misery because you give up control of the only thing you can ever hope to control – the ability to change your life by acting now.
Instead of betting on others or external circumstances to change, look at what you can do to make your life happen. Then do it. Neat endings happen in fairy tales, not in life. You should know this from the history of our species. If not, maybe you should read more of it.
