Living Your Life – What does that Mean…?

I would like to say Living Life than use the word ‘Happy’ because it (Happiness) means different things for different people and the world is still figuring what it means and it is never going to have a very conclusive answer acceptable to everyone. Though there is some consensus recently when people have said relationships, community and sharing are fundamental to happiness. But for me Living life is more fundamental. Because even if you are not very happy you need to live life.Enjoying what you do (your work) to make a living, matters a lot and is one of the areas I focus on. But Living life is more fundamental to me. The fundamental level from where springs everything else. Passion, Relationship, Love, caring, sharing, learning, knowledge, experiences and so on. Over the years I did a few things to Live my life.

I scaled down my work life and I scaled down my personal life. I scaled down my expectations and started looking things from a minimalistic angle. I realized that making huge amounts of money quickly and retiring was not something that was going to happen for me. I wanted a life that was rich but minimal.

In 2017 I did a no shopping year where I did not buy a single thing for myself where I did not ask the question ‘Do I really need it’ 5 times and 99.9% of the time I did not need it and did not buy it. the .1% I bought it. But if I had asked a 6th time I could have gotten to 100% may be.

The realization was I did not need anything, and most of what I needed I already have. But there are a few other things I wanted and that did not cost money, but it cost time. And time was Money in the world we live in.

So making more time in life for what I love to do, made my life richer

Health was one area that I started focusing my mind on. Creativity was the next. Learning was the other and so was reading. I read over 50 books in 2017. I started indulging in cooking and found that there is a meditation in cooking. That feel of rawness touching your fingers before a dish is born is pure bliss. I also started a vegetable Garden, but I am not much into that and figured I was not able to keep going with it. But I have not lost hope and will continue to do it.

I learned there was enjoyment in starting something in it, even if you failed accomplishing it

The bottom line is that when I decided to scale down in some areas my life started scaling up in other areas. When I decided to leave my pursuit for more money, my life became more rich. People started asking me ‘where do I have all this time’ to write and read and spend time lazing.

Some of my enjoyment people equate to lazing. For them, if you are not on a thread mill, you are not living. And for me, I for once in my life refused to get on a thread mill going no where. I decided to quit the rat race.

What I make today is not a lot of money, but enough for me. It helps me pay my bills, and it is much more than what many people make and I have nothing but gratitude. I also share a part of it. And for me now finding time is the most important aspect of Living a life.

I am writing this page at 6:30 in the morning with a fresh brewed coffee after half an hour of moderate working out. I still have one hour to spend slowly making my breakfast and eating it and preparing lunch for my son and dropping him at school and heading to work, listening to some podcast. I will be on time for work. And I love going to work for the people I work.

It is important we take time to Live our Life. I would love to hear your thoughts on living life and even happiness in general. Drop me a Line.

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