“Don’t waste a single day of your life!” I’m sure you can agree, but sometimes when I hear that I want to say, “Shut up. I’m just trying to do adult things right now.”
Act like you only have six months to live!
Don’t allow any day to end without doing something amazing!
“Nah, I’m not worried about the more-than-likely painful consequences. YOLO!!!!”
I admit that I consistently encourage you to live the highest quality life you can. To take risks, face fear, and make the most of every day. To the best of my ability, I practice what I preach too.
“Strive to become the strongest, most awesome version of yourself,” I always say.
And that’s great! We should do what we can to make the most of every day. We never know when we’ll be faced with an Oh Shit! moment and have opportunities taken away from us. It’s best to actively manage your life (i.e., make choices) rather than allowing others to dictate your life. Take control, make choices, and create a wonderful life.
That’s a worthy endeavor, and it allows us in many ways to “live life to the fullest.”
But let’s face it: some days flat out suck.
And most days are just average; not bad, but not great.
That’s because every day can’t be awesome. We can’t live every single day to the fullest. Every moment can’t be about living a better life. And that’s OK.
Some days you may not make it further than your couch. You may remain firmly planted in your favorite chair and the most epic thing you do for the day is carve out a perfect mold of your butt in the cushion.
And there are days we hear people roaring, “You only live once!” and we want to respond with a firm, “Just shut up. I had to scrub dog poop off the rug first thing this morning, then my kid projectile vomited like it was a scene from the Exorcist, and my to-do list is fully loaded. I’m too busy facing reality and doing adult things to go around chanting ‘YOLO!’”
Every day isn’t epic. Every day isn’t about discovering the beautiful, perfect moments life has to offer. You can’t thrive every day; some days, you’re grateful just to have survived.
It’s these average days that allow us to appreciate the awesome days. Without the “average” as a comparison, awesome would be the norm and, by definition, nothing would be awesome if everything was awesome.
The contrast between “today I’m just surviving” and “holy hell this day is magnificent” is what allows us to fully appreciate those live-life-to-the-fullest days.
So embrace the not-so-awesome days and enjoy them for what they are. For by those crappy and average days we will better appreciate the awesome ones. Don’t expect every day to be epic or awesome. Yes, definitely make the most of the opportunities in front of you and actively manage your life, but don’t think something is wrong when you have a string of average (or less than average) days.
Like what you just read? You may also enjoy Shut Up and Do Something and The Ultimate Guide on How Not to Care What Others Think.
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