Happiness is when one figures out life is too short, and does something about it

Life is too short. We ramble on, as many of us don’t realize each day that passes might be a missed opportunity if we don’t cherish the ticking time clock that is existence. We are alive, but do we actually truly live. The answer is sadly no, for a whole bunch of us. There’s no excuse really. We just tip-toe through our lives hoping, dreaming, fearing, and not doing what it is we should actually be doing. That’s being happy and truly experiencing life and what it has to offer. Sure, there’s turmoil, torment and uncertainty, why then, do we let so many moments slip away, like we are overflowing with extra days to live. This is not a video game. We don’t get three lives and we can’t power up.

Work is work. It pays the bills, for the most part. Or does it? For some, not so much. The lucky can venture out and not live paycheque to paycheque and pretend nothing is wrong. For many, life is fragile and it’s a crapshoot with what the next day holds. So why then, do we carry on with the charade that is living only to work or working to live when in actuality it should be the other way around. Living first, working second and the rest is gravy or it should be or frosting on the cake. As one grows older, life kicks them in the butt or hopefully it does and many thoughts occur, that were not there the previous year. Each year brings a new set of parameters in which to base life. Work begins to be just a secondary need. Unfortunately, money makes the world go round, who are we kidding. But, that doesn’t mean life should be glum, gloomy and a whole can of yuck.

Work is work. That’s it, no more, no less. It’s a function of our society, so we can exist, thanks to the men and women who came before us. Thanks, a disenchanted romantic says sarcastically. Today’s society is wrong. As was the years before it. To be or not to be happy? That’s a silly question. One’s personal quests for happiness is each to their own. Maybe some people like to work to the bone for nothing, other than a paycheque. Others may choose to go the other route and make living life a priority with gusto. There’s no “I” in team in this scenario, but it should be. The “I” should be the most important, you are the team and the “I.” Without you, the team will sink and not swim. It will surely drown, because a person’s personal happiness and well-being is the bees knees in this 1950s sitcom. There’s not laughing track, but their hopefully should be. That means someone is laughing and that’s good medicine Dr. Feelgood prescribed, and for good reason.

Time keeps ticking away, while we rot in cubicles, offices, in our mediocre hum-drum lives. Why? What brought us to this madness, this atrocity, this fixable endgame? There’s a time and place for everything. One should place personal pleasure above everything else, if possible, because in the end – it doesn’t really matter. The world and your own backyard are for your exploration. The adventure awaits you and your loved ones. Be proactive in your plight of making your life livable for you, not anyone else. You make the rules. You decide its fate. You and only you know you, so get to know yourself before its too late. Life is not to be wasted. Stop the insanity and live a little, if you can. If you can’t, then make it a goal to obtain at some point. Remember, your life’s purpose isn’t living somebody else’s dream.

In the words of Jack Nicholson’s character from Stephen King’s “The Shining” – “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Don’t be a Jack, Torrance that is.

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